Baltimore Orioles Skipper Reveals Why He Started Pitcher Who Had Long Absence

It was a remarkable story for one of the Baltimore Orioles pitchers on Wednesday, but what he did on the mound was even more impressive.

Apr 17, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Albert Suarez (4) delivers | Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles needed to make a move for their active roster following Tyler Wells being placed on the injured list with elbow inflammation.

He is now their third starting pitcher on the IL as they wait the return of Kyle Bradish and John Means.

With the Orioles having an off day on Thursday, they just needed someone to get them there during their series finale against the Minnesota Twins. Having won the first two games, they had already secured another series win, but because of how tight things are in their division, they don't want to drop any games.

Instead of calling up left-hander Bruce Zimmermann like virtually everyone expected, manager Brandon Hyde decided to go in a different direction when promoting Albert Suarez and giving him the start on Wednesday.

What made things even more interesting is that Suarez last pitched in a Major League game seven years ago as a member of the San Francisco Giants.

Since that time, he played the following season in the minors before continuing his career in Japan with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. He then jumped into the Korean Baseball Organization with the Samsung Lions.

The right-hander eventually got another shot in the United States when Baltimore signed him to a minor league contract this offseason.

On Wednesday, Hyde decided it was time for him to get the ball and revealed what led him to that decision.

"We needed a starter today and he is in line and we feel like this gives us our best chance to win against pretty much a right-handed club with some lefties sprinkled in there," the skipper said according to Roch Kubatko of MASN.

That's pretty straight forward.

The Twins are slashing just .182/.275/.314 with 10 home runs and 33 extra-base hits against righties, while they're slashing .229/.299/.382 with five homers and 10 extra-base hits when facing left-handers in a much smaller sample size.

Suarez went out and proved his manager made the right decision.

He threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up only three hits.

It was quite the outing from the 34-year-old who had been out of Major League Baseball since 2017.