BALTIMORE — Seven years after throwing his last pitch in the major leagues, 34-year-old journeyman Albert Suárez took the ball as a spot starter for the Orioles on Wednesday and threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings to help Baltimore beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2.

As it turned out, it wasn’t the most dramatic moment of the afternoon contest as center fielder Cedric Mullins provided further theatrics with his first career walk-off home run — a two-run blast to right — in the bottom of the ninth inning to complete the Orioles’ three-game sweep.

Pitching in the place of Tyler Wells after he landed on the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation Tuesday, Suárez was nearly unhittable. He averaged 95.9 mph on his fastball and racked up 14 swings-and-misses with four strikeouts. The burly right-hander joined the Orioles on a minor league deal in the fall and spent the last six months reworking his mechanics to throw harder.

After never throwing a pitch faster than 96.6 mph during his brief tenure with the San Francisco Giants from 2016 to 2017, 10 of his 75 pitches Wednesday were above that speed.

Before Mullins broke through in the ninth, the Orioles scored their first two runs on solo home runs. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson took Twins starter Pablo López deep to center field in the Orioles’ first at-bat of the game for his third homer in as many games. The reigning American League Rookie of the Year is already up to six home runs in 18 games this season after needing 51 contests to reach that number a year ago.

Designated hitter Anthony Santander swatted the other over the right-center field fence for a game-tying blast in the seventh.

On the heels of an 11-run outburst Tuesday, Henderson’s blast looked like it might spark another big night of offense for Baltimore. However, López settled in to retire 18 of the next 19 hitters he faced to get through six innings. It wasn’t until the Twins handed the game to their bullpen that the Orioles finally started to get their bats going.

As impressive as López was, he was outdueled by an opposing starter who was pitching in his first MLB game in 2,395 days. Suárez had stints in Japan’s Nippon Baseball League, the Korean Baseball Organization and the Venezuelan Winter League and spent the latter half of the 2023 season at the Orioles’ spring training complex in Sarasota, Florida, before re-signing with the club over in the offseason.

After already having developed a reputation for reviving the careers of veteran players discarded by the other organizations, the Orioles seemingly found another reclamation project in Suárez capable of pitching at a level higher than he had previously displayed at the professional level.

He became the first Orioles pitcher to go at least 5 2/3 innings without allowing a run in his Orioles debut since Jeremy Hellickson tossed seven scoreless in 2017. The crowd of 15,860 at Camden Yards recognized his achievement with a standing ovation after manager Brandon Hyde, who couldn’t help but smile as he approached the mound, pulled him in the sixth.

Suárez gave way to left-hander Danny Coulombe, who stranded a runner at first to get through the frame but couldn’t finish the seventh before Hyde went back to the bullpen. Right-hander Jacob Webb, who had the most days of rest of any Orioles reliever, entered the game with a runner on first and one out in the seventh and allowed the tying and go-ahead runs on RBI singles by center fielder Austin Martin and third baseman Kyle Farmer.

Following Santander’s game-tying home run in the seventh, Yennier Cano and closer Craig Kimbrel pitched scoreless frames to send the game to the bottom of the ninth with the score still knotted at 2. After Ryan Mountcastle singled off Twins right-hander Griffin Jax, Mullins blasted a 1-2 pitch over the fence. He was met at home plate with the new “hydration station.”

The victory is the Orioles’ fourth straight. They get a day off Thursday before opening a road trip with a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Friday.

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