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ATLANTA – Last night’s Fourth of July contest between the O’s and Braves didn’t provide many fireworks. This afternoon, though, the clubs certainly made up for it, combining for five home runs in an extra-innings thriller.
The Orioles came out on top, 9-6.
After facing three elite starting pitchers in Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Spencer Strider, it was just the performance the bats needed to get back on track.
"I feel like our guys have swung the bat good here for the last month, and I thought today was a pretty good indication of it," Tony Mansolino said after the game. "We faced a really good Major League bullpen, a lot of left-handed pitching, that thing that’s been tough on us here over the last year-and-a-half. And after 10 innings to walk out with nine runs, you have to be pleased."
Dean Kremer was on the mound for Baltimore, looking to continue his great stretch of starts since May 1. A big key was that he needed to avoid the big inning.
It’s been the one bugaboo in what has otherwise been a dominant stretch of 11 games. Four innings have accounted for 15 of his 24 earned runs in that stretch. This afternoon, though, the damage was more dispersed.
"I think command was solid today, maybe not my best day, but they had a lot of good takes that were some pitches that were very borderline, and some calls went one way and some went the other way," Kremer said. "But no, they did a good job waiting me out and got some good pitches to hit and they did the damage."
He also hadn’t allowed a home run since June 12, and that changed in the bottom of the first.
After a Matt Olson double, Kremer’s first-pitch cutter to Austin Riley found too much of the zone, and the slugging third baseman sent it out. It gave the Braves an early 2-0 lead, but Kremer was able to evade more danger.
"With those two guys specifically, actually, Olson, up is better than down, but with Riley, for sure, definitely down is better than up," Kremer noted. "But I think for me personally, my emphasis has to be kind of throwing balls at the bottom of the zone, both fours, twos and all the offspeed stuff. And left a couple up and they got the job done.”
Atlanta opener Aaron Bummer was staying out of trouble through two innings, but that all changed in the third.
The first damage came in the form of a Tyler O’Neill moonshot to left. His 445-foot solo home run showed off the pull-side power, and more importantly, got the Orioles on the board. And after Cedric Mullins reached on a walk, Jordan Westburg somehow outdid O’Neill. Westy’s two-run home run went a whopping 461 feet to center, and it gave Baltimore a 3-2 advantage.
That lead didn’t last long, though.
In the bottom of the third, Olson continued his great afternoon with a solo shot of his own to the right-field bleachers. The first baseman doesn’t tend to miss mistakes, as evidenced by his .938 OPS in the month of June.
The deficit didn’t last long either.
In the top of the fourth, Colton Cowser joined the home run party with a two-run shot. It came on an 0-2 count, normally an incredibly disadvantageous place for a hitter to be. But it was Cowser’s third home run in that count this year, and the outfielder became the third player in baseball to have at least three homers in 0-2 counts. It bumped his batting average to .294 in those spots, too.
That 5-3 lead was far from safe in the back-and-forth affair.
To the bottom of the frame, with runners on first and second, Olson drove in one with his third hit of the day. Riley followed with an RBI-double, and the game was all tied at five. It was nearly one more, too, but a Cowser-Henderson-Gary Sánchez relay cut down Olson at the plate.
Unfortunately for Baltimore, Sánchez was hurt on the play and removed from the contest with right knee pain. Jacob Stallings entered the game behind the dish, already the fifth catcher that the Orioles have used this season.
"As a catcher, you never want to go in that situation, seeing a teammate go down," Stallings said. "Hopefully it’s not too bad. Luckily, you know, it was at the end of the inning so I had our top half to kind of get loose and get ready and at least slow myself down a little bit mentally."
Mansolino said after the game that Sánchez is receiving an MRI on his right knee and there will be more information tomorrow.
Kremer’s day was done in the fifth inning. Recording just one out in the frame, it was tied for his shortest start of the season, and his worst outing since April. But the offense picked him up, and the right-hander wouldn’t be in line for the loss.
He wasn’t the only one struggling against this Atlanta lineup.
In the sixth, Scott Blewett loaded the bases with nobody out. Riley, already with two extra-base hits under his belt, had the chance to blow this game open. Blewett minimized the damage, though. Riley struck out on three pitches, Jurickson Profar brought home just one on a groundout, and Drake Baldwin had a weak groundout of his own.
A 6-5 Braves lead could’ve been a lot worse, and it kept Baltimore in striking distance.
It didn’t take long for the Orioles to tie things up in the top of the seventh. Mullins hit a screamer to the alley for a double, and Jackson Holliday wasted no time bringing him home with an RBI-single on the second pitch he saw.
Back and forth we went.
The eighth and ninth innings came and went quietly, and it was on to free baseball.
That's where Ramón Laureano made his presence felt for the first time in the contest. His first hit of the game was a huge one, an RBI-double to plate Jordan Westburg, and it gave the O's a 7-6 lead in the top of the tenth.
"Such a gritty player," Mansolino said.
The interim skipper has also noted that Laureano has an underrated case for the All-Star Game. With solid defense in the corner outfield and an .851 OPS, it's not hard to see why. Laureano certainly appreciated the vote of confidence.
"It’s awesome that Tony is supporting me in that," he said. "I love that guy to death. At the end of the day, control what I can, just play the game. At the same time, I don’t really think too much about it. I’m just glad to be playing this game, playing with a good group of guys and continuing to do the thing that I love that is just playing baseball hard."
He's also a big fan of the ghost runner.
"It’s super important," he said. "You get home quicker, you eat quicker, because I’m hungry this whole time. It’s totally the best rule right now. In the playoffs, it is what it is, but I think for the season, it’s really important."
After a good win, he can enjoy a nice postgame meal.
Anyway, back to the baseball.
With Laureano on second, Ryan O'Hearn was intentionally walked, and up stepped Stallings, who entered the game as an injury replacement.
He came through in the clutch.
In a 3-2 count, the veteran backstop roped a double down the line, plating Laureano and O'Hearn. The three-run advantage was the largest of the day for either club, and the O's held a 9-6 lead heading into the bottom of the frame.
"It’s probably the hardest thing to do in the game I think, is coming in to catch off the bench, that and pinch-hitting," Stallings said. "It’s a challenge but the coaches got me ready, game plan for the hitters coming up, so I was able to slow it down thankfully."
Yennier Cano entered the game for just the second time since his option to Triple-A Norfolk and made quick work of the bottom of the Braves lineup. 9-6 was your final.
"He’s a guy who was an All-Star a couple years ago," Mansolino said. "Again, sometimes when guys go back to Triple-A or go back to Norfolk, there’s a lot of positives that can come out of that if they want it to be positive. In Yenni’s case, man, he went down there to work, did a good job, had a great attitude and he’s been back, couple really good outings so far."
It's a series win for the Orioles, and Baltimore has a chance to sweep the series tomorrow morning. They could also get back to single-digit games under .500.
The next stretch before the trade deadline is an important one. A few weeks of baseball could be the difference in the front office's approach, and nobody in that clubhouse wants to go anywhere. This thing is far from over, and a sweep would certainly help that case.
