Behind a pair of solo homers, Tyler Wells' 1-hitter over 7 innings, Orioles blank Pirates

After not allowing a home run in his first five starts, Roansy Contreras gave up one in each of his past two starts. The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander never had surrendered more than one homer in a game.

The Baltimore Orioles changed that by the second inning.

Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson each hit solo home runs to provide a cushion for starter Tyler Wells, who allowed one hit over seven innings to lead the Orioles to a 2-0 win over the Pirates on Saturday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

It marked the fourth consecutive loss for the Pirates (21-19), who have scored only 18 runs in losing 11 of their past 12 games to drop into second place behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Orioles (26-13) won their fourth consecutive to stay in second place in the AL East.

Adley Rutschman smacked an 0-1 slider 403 feet to right-center for his sixth home run and a 1-0 Orioles lead in the first inning, and Gunnar Henderson sent a first-pitch curveball 361 feet to the right field corner for his fourth homer in the second to make it 2-0.

Aside from the homers, Contreras (3-4) was effective in delivering a quality start. He allowed five hits and one walk with one strikeout over seven innings. Contreras attacked the Orioles with his four-seam fastball, throwing 59 of his 84 pitches for strikes.

“He looked really good, bounced back really well,” Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “Even with the two home runs he gave up, he kept his poise and gave us a chance to tie the game or win.”

Added Pirates manager Derek Shelton: “He came out with the mindset of going right after them. And his stuff was really good. Other than (the home runs), he did a really good job of keeping a really good offensive club off-balance.”

But Contreras was outdueled by Wells, who was dominant.

Wells (3-1) relied on a five-pitch mix where he threw a fastball-changeup combination to left-handed hitters and a curveball-cutter combo to righties, and the 6-foot-8 right-hander got 17 swings and misses and recorded a career-high eight strikeouts.

After Carlos Santana singled in the second inning, Wells retired 17 consecutive batters before Santana drew a four-pitch walk with two outs in the seventh. Jack Suwinski drew a full-count walk to put the tying run on base, prompting a mound visit.

Wells then got a scare and a save. Miguel Andujar drove a 2-1 fastball to the right-field wall, where Anthony Santander made a leaping grab to rob him of an extra-base hit and strand the two runners.

“It’s just kind of bad luck,” Hayes said. “Andujar’s ball off the bat looked like it could have went out. Santander made a really good play, probably a play if he had to do it 10 times he could have made it one or two times.”

In the eighth, the Orioles turned to righty reliever Yennier Cano, who had 22 strikeouts without a walk and allowed only three hits in 18 2/3 innings. Cano hadn’t given up an extra-base hit this season until Tucupita Marcano hit a one-out double to the right-center gap. Marcano advanced to third on Jason Delay’s groundout, but Hayes lined out to Santander in right to end the scoring threat.

Closer Felix Bautista came on in the ninth to face the heart of the Pirates order. Bryan Reynolds hit a leadoff single to right to bring the tying run to the plate but Bautista got Connor Joe looking at a called third strike on a 2-2 splitter, Santana swinging at a splitter that broke low and Suwinski called out on strikes to earn his 10th save.

“We have to continue to grind. We have to continue to create our own breaks,” Shelton said. “I’m confident in this club being able to do it. Our focus has to stay consistent. It has to stay on the individual pitch and work off that because if we get too far ahead of that, you go even farther down. We have to make sure that we continue to focus on what our process is and claw our way out of this.”