Being sellers doesn’t always equate to being losers. A team can hit four home runs in the first two innings and pretend that stripping the roster of key players isn’t a detriment.
And it can blow a lead and fall to the worst team in baseball, a reminder of why the front office is punting on 2025.
The Rockies overcame a four-run deficit, were tied in the seventh and got a solo homer from Ezequiel Tovar off Andrew Kittredge in the eighth to defeat the Orioles 6-5 before an announced floppy hat crowd of 25,090 at Camden Yards.
Alex Jackson doubled against reliever Jake Bird with one out in the seventh and scored the tying run on Jackson Holliday’s single. Kittredge entered in the eighth, struck out his first batter and surrendered his fourth homer in 28 appearances. Two more Rockies struck out.
The Orioles traded another high-leverage reliever this afternoon, took the field and received home runs in the first inning from Jordan Westburg and Tyler O’Neill and in the second from Coby Mayo and Jackson. But the Rockies fought back to take the lead in the fifth against Dean Kremer, who wasn’t nearly as sharp as previous outings.
The first and last outs against Kremer in the opening inning came on line drives to third baseman Ramón Urías (102.9 mph) and Mayo. In between were back-to-back soft singles by Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck with two outs, the latter an infield hit.
Kremer escaped the jam in the first, but the ball was flying. Mickey Moniak homered on an 0-2 count in the third and Thairo Estrada delivering a two-run shot in the fourth. The Rockies went ahead 5-4 lead in the fifth on Hunter Goodman’s double after a two-out walk to Moniak, and Beck’s RBI single.
Kremer had posted a 2.00 ERA in his last six starts, and a 2.00 ERA in seven home starts this season. He allowed five runs and six hits tonight in six innings and was removed after 92 pitches.
The teams kept playing as rain fell, lightning flashed in the distance and fans were instructed to vacate the lower seating bowl and seek shelter. They were allowed to return to their seats in the bottom of the seventh while the grounds crew crouched in a line behind the tarp.
To post a win under difficult conditions, all you need is pride and the right opponent. The Orioles have the former, and seemed to be gifted the latter. Colorado has the worst record in baseball at 27-76 and the highest ERA, and the Orioles worked left-hander Kyle Freeland for 32 pitches in the first to set a loud tone.
Westburg’s 11th homer was a towering fly ball to left field with a 45 degree launch angle. O’Neill’s fourth homer, and second this month, was 107.6 off the bat for a 2-0 lead.
Mayo led off the second with a 413-foot shot to center field, his second major league home run and first against a pitcher. Jackson launched a fastball 419 feet to left field with one out, his second this season, to increase the lead to 4-0.
Freeland allowed only 10 home runs in 18 starts before tonight, but he was pummeled early. Holliday came close in the second, settling for an automatic double on a ball that struck the right-center field fence and wedged between the padding and warning track. Holliday stood at third base, pointing and pleading for the triple.
Freeland is 2-10, but he posted five quality starts in his last seven outings before the Orioles took batting practice against him. He’s among 39 active pitchers with at least 200 major league starts and he has the worst record at 62-83.
Right-handers were hitting .319 with an .830 OPS against Freeland this season, and he lived up to his reputation. Or is it down?
The Rockies got six innings out of Freeland, who allowed four runs and seven hits.
The Orioles fell to 45-58 while playing a man down in the bullpen after the Gregory Soto trade to the Mets. The only remaining left-hander, Grant Wolfram, tossed a scoreless seventh and struck out two.
O’Neill led off the eighth with a double and was stranded at third base. Seth Halvorsen retired the side in order in the ninth, and the post-Soto era began with a thud.
* Catcher Chadwick Tromp was returned from his injury rehab assignment this evening and reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Tromp elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.
The 40-man roster has 39 players.
Adley Rutschman caught tonight for Triple-A Norfolk, and he singled in the third inning and scored on Samuel Basallo’s double. Basallo, playing his first game since July 13 due to a sore oblique, doubled twice, singled and hit his 20th home run.
Vimael Machín hit a three-run homer in the first inning, his 13th of the season. Kyle Brnovich allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings.
Double-A Chesapeake’s Trey Gibson tossed seven scoreless innings with two hits, no walks and eight strikeouts to lower his ERA to 1.96.