The Orioles scratched right-hander Grayson Rodriguez from his start Tuesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays with “right lat/teres discomfort,” announcing the decision minutes before first pitch after he had already gone out to the field to warm up. Albert Suárez started in his place and pitched five scoreless innings despite the late notice in an eventual 5-2 loss.

“He’s going to go back to Baltimore,” manager Brandon Hyde said after the game about Rodriguez. “He’s going to continue to get evaluated. So, that’s kind of all we know right now. He had some lat discomfort warming up prior to the game. It’s about 10 minutes before the game that, Suárez, when we rushed him out of the bullpen to start the game. So, I hope everything works out OK.”

As shown on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network’s broadcast of the game, Rodriguez paused his warm-up in the outfield to talk with pitching coach Drew French approximately 20 minutes before he was scheduled to take the mound. He appeared to tell French, “I don’t feel right,” before departing for the clubhouse.

Rodriguez, 24, has emerged as a top-of-the-rotation arm for Baltimore this season, recording a 3.86 ERA with 130 strikeouts in 20 starts. His 13 wins are tied with All-Stars Seth Lugo and Chris Sale for the major league lead.

The 2018 first-round draft pick has landed on the injured list once already this season, missing two and a half weeks with right shoulder inflammation in May, and has dealt with a lat injury before. Rodriguez strained the muscle in June 2022, an injury that cost him three months and delayed his MLB call-up.“This was all new,” Hyde said when asked if the injury cropped up before Tuesday. “He had a little bit of shoulder soreness early in the year. Gave him some time off. He’s been feeling fine. Threw a really good bullpen in Cleveland and it came up tonight.”

Any extended absence for Rodriguez would be a significant blow for a team that traded for two starting pitchers at the July 30 deadline in Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers out of a need for rotation depth. Suárez, who owns a 3.89 ERA in 22 appearances (14 starts), moved to the bullpen as a result of those moves.

Suárez did his part to prevent the Orioles’ bullpen from feeling the effects of Rodriguez’s sudden departure, completing five innings on 73 pitches after throwing just 45 pitches over the previous eight days. His performance was just the latest example of how Suárez has answered the call for Baltimore all season, no matter the circumstances. He lowered his ERA to 3.66 with the performance, a number he’s compiled between 15 starts and eight relief outings.

“For me I just keep my mind always ready for this type of situation,” Suárez said. “When you’re the the long reliever in the bullpen, you don’t want this to happen, but sometimes it happens so in my mind I’m always ready.”

He left the game in line for the win as well. After Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt held the Orioles (67-47) without a hit for the first five frames, Jackson Holliday put Baltimore on the board with a 410-foot solo home run to right-center field. According to Statcast, he joined Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jackson Chuorio as the only players 20 years old or younger with multiple 400-foot homers this season.

However, the game unraveled in the bottom of the sixth after the Orioles’ bullpen took over. Right-hander Burch Smith retired the first two batters he faced before allowing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to hit a two-out single. Hyde brought in Gregory Soto to face Spencer Horwitz in a left-on-left matchup, but Soto struggled with his command of his breaking pitches as he allowed the next five Blue Jays batters to reach.

“Today [catcher Adley Rutschman] kept calling the sliders and him showing confidence in that pitch and he wanted it low and down in the zone and unfortunately I missed, so that’s on me,” Soto said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones.

A three-run homer by Alejandro Kirk and a two-run double by Addison Barger put the game out of reach for Baltimore, which spoiled its best chance to make a comeback in the eighth. The Orioles finally chased Bassitt, who finished with a season-high nine strikeouts, from the game by getting their first three batters aboard to load the bases for Holliday.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider brought in lefty Génesis Cabrera and Hyde responded by pinch hitting Austin Slater, who had the platoon advantage over Cabrera but carried a .193 batting average against left-handed pitchers this season. The move paid off with Slater driving in a run on an RBI walk, but the Orioles would stall there.

Ramón Urías struck out swinging and Coby Mayo — still searching for the first hit of his young MLB career — pinch hit for the red-hot Colton Cowser and struck out as well. Cowser, who finished 0-for-3 to end his 17-game hitting streak, has a .719 OPS against left-handers this season. Anthony Santander then grounded out to end the frame.

“I went with Austin, who’s been really good against lefties this year,” Hyde said of his pinch-hitting decisions in the eighth. “He worked a huge walk and then just took a shot with Mayo there with the bases loaded and it didn’t work out.”

The Orioles are 9-9 since the All-Star break and will look to move back over .500 for the second half Wednesday when Trevor Rogers makes his second start in a Baltimore uniform opposite Toronto right-hander Bowden Francis.