The Orioles fell to the Rockies 4-2 Tuesday night at Coors Field, undone by a two-run seventh inning that turned on a costly error in left-hander Luis De León's major league debut.
Colorado built an early lead in the second when Adael Amador homered and Zac Veen came around to score on a Jake McCarthy single. Baltimore answered in the third — Carlos Narváez led off with a single and scored two batters later when Gunnar Henderson grounded into a double play, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Jackson Holliday tied it in the seventh with a solo home run, his seventh of the season.
The tie didn't last. Manager Craig Albernaz turned to De León to open the bottom of the seventh, and his first batter, Mickey Moniak, lifted a shallow popup toward right field that should have been a routine out. Instead, the ball caught the heel of Holliday's glove and dropped, and the misplay was ruled a two-base error that put Moniak in scoring position. Rumfield made Baltimore pay immediately, driving a two-run homer to give Colorado the lead for good. Baltimore had gone 10 straight games without committing an error — its best defensive stretch in over three years — before Holliday's miscue broke it.
Holliday didn't shy away from the moment afterward. "I've got to make that play, and it unfortunately led to a homer, which usually stuff like that does," he said. "It's pretty frustrating, obviously, putting together a good at-bat the inning before and turn around and give them the lead right back. Can't happen."
He also made a point of backing his rookie teammate. "He looked great. I wish I could have made that play for him, because he'd have had probably a clean inning after that," Holliday said. "He attacked the zone. Excited to have him up here and to make plays for him."
De León, pitching through an interpreter, didn't let the outcome rattle him. "For me, it was good. I was able to throw strikes, control my emotions," he said. "Obviously, gave up the homer there, something I can't take back in that moment, so after that happens, just controlling what I can control."
Albernaz was similarly complimentary of the outing itself. "De León looked outstanding tonight. Obviously, the dropped popup didn't help his outing, but he still went out there and made pitches," Albernaz said. "The first one he threw was where he wanted it and the second one just spun out of his hand weird. But he was outstanding tonight. Coming in, he's making his debut, 15 pitches, 11 strikes. We take that all the time."
Starter Kyle Bradish, who allowed two runs over five innings, offered his own read on the situation De León was thrown into. "Definitely a tough situation to be put in there for your first one," Bradish said. "I thought he was in the zone really good, just kind of hung a breaking ball, and that's what guys at this level do, they hit hanging breaking balls."
Jordan Romano closed it out for his 14th save, striking out a slumping Colton Cowser — hitless in his last 14 at-bats — before getting pinch-hitter Blaze Alexander and retiring Holliday on a fly ball to end it. The loss dropped Baltimore to 69-70 and 1.5 games behind Cleveland for the final American League wild-card spot, with the Guardians' own win over Toronto keeping pace. It also snapped a four-game Orioles winning streak and ended Colorado's 10-game losing skid.
Baltimore is now 6-2 on its nine-game road trip, which wraps up Wednesday when Trevor Rogers (9-9, 4.38 ERA) faces Tomoyuki Sugano (12-8, 5.23 ERA) at Coors Field.