SAN DIEGO — As Colton Cowser safely caught Luis Arráez’s fly out in center field, Tyler Wells clapped his hands together and kicked his leg in the air.
He had done it.
For 16 months, he waited for this moment, his first start back after ulnar collateral ligament repair surgery on his right elbow with an internal brace augmentation. And after all the anxiety, all the late-night thoughts, it went about as well as he could have hoped. Wells pitching five innings, allowing just two runs in the Orioles’ 6-2 win over the Padres.
His journey back was long. After making just three starts in 2024, Wells first tried to rehab his elbow without surgery before deciding in June 2024 to undergo the procedure. He was away from the team for most of the last 14 months, rehabbing in Sarasota last year and staying back in Baltimore this year when the team was on the road.
So just to finally make it back, especially with his 5-month old daughter Ava in attendance, was already special. What he did once the game began only added to it.
His outing started off strong. Wells struck out Padres leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. looking on three pitches and survived an 11-pitch at-bat against Manny Machado to produce a clean 1-2-3 inning. He stayed strong into the second, where he allowed a hit to former Oriole Ramón Laureano but nothing more.
In the third, Dylan Beavers couldn’t make a play in left field on a ball hit by Freddy Fermin. The ball instead bounced out of Beavers’ glove as he ran into the wall, and Fermin was able to get to second. He scored on a home run from Arráez later that inning. From there, Wells allowed just two more hits, another single to Laureano in the fourth and another double to Fermin in the fifth.
With two outs and Fermin in scoring position, pitching coach Drew French went out to visit Wells. His pitch count was at 79, and Arráez was going to be his last batter, his last chance to control how his comeback ends.
After the quick meeting and breather, Wells composed himself. It took six pitches, but he accomplished what he needed to, inducing the fly out to Cowser. As he walked off the mound, a high-five from catcher Samuel Basallo awaited him before a much longer line of players and coaches in the dugout got their turn.
Wells’ velocity sat at 92.7 mph and topped out at 94.3, on par with where he was in 2023, when he was one of the Orioles’ most consistent starters in the first half of the season and returned at the end of the season as a high-leverage reliever. While his future as a starter isn’t clear — and highly dependent on how the Orioles handle the offseason — he will get a chance to stay in the rotation for the rest of the season.
Where he fits in next season can wait. For now, all that matters is that, for the first time since April 12, 2024, Wells had pitched in a major league game. And, thanks in large part to Emmanuel Rivera, Wells got his first win since July 8, 2023. Rivera had four RBIs, tying his career high. Jeremiah Jackson also contributed, hitting a home run for the second day in a row.
Albert Suárez, who has been out since March 30 with a right subscapularis strain, also made his return on Tuesday, pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth.