Orioles surrender three runs in eighth to complete sweep in Minnesota (updated)

MINNEAPOLIS – Dean Kremer deserved much better and wasn’t asking for it. Baseball can be a fickle and frustrating game. He knows it. Just keep going after hitters and accept the outcome.

Kremer completed seven innings again today and held the Twins to two runs, exiting with the score tied and the Orioles having left runners on base in each of the first six frames. He retired 10 of the last 12 and 18 of 21, and hoped that the worst part of the day would be a no-decision.

He couldn’t enjoy a team victory. He had to dress and eat inside another quiet clubhouse.

Brooks Lee drove in two runs with a two-out double off Gregory Soto in the bottom of the eighth inning and he scored on Ty France’s single to give the Twins a 5-2 win and complete the sweep at Target Field.

The Orioles had 10 hits for the second day in a row and stranded nine runners, their failings with men in scoring position littering the scoresheet. Trevor Larnach finally made them pay with a game-tying home run off Kremer in the sixth inning. The slightest of margins was erased with one swing, and Kremer spun around to wait for a new ball without watching the old on land.

The next five batters were retired, three via strikeouts to give Kremer a season-high eight. He allowed only three hits and threw 86 pitches. But the Orioles lost their fifth game in a row and at 13-23 are 10 below .500 for the first time since June 15, 2022.

“Definitely did everything he could," said manager Brandon Hyde. "That’s back-to-back games of throwing the ball just absolutely outstanding. Should never have gotten to that point. Just offensively we wasted, squandered, so many opportunities that the game should have been out of hand early. Dean did everything he could.”

Yennier Cano walked two batters in the eighth, sandwiched around a strikeout. Soto struck out Larnach, but Lee drove a 98.4 mph fastball into left-center field to break the tie.

“That’s not like Yennie to walk two," Hyde said. "We pretty much did a lot of things to lose the game, bottom line. You walk the leadoff guy (Harrison Bader) in the eighth, a guy who can run, and they hit and run and get to second base. And then we walk (Byron) Buxton. Soto does a good job of getting Larnach out, and then Brooks is much better from the left side, we turn him around to the right side, he hasn’t done much, and he gets a two-strike ball middle.

"Not a whole lot went right.”

Kremer tossed seven scoreless innings in his last start and lowered his ERA today to 5.24. It was 7.04 going into the month. The rotation has a chance to become much better with Kremer past April and on a roll, and Zach Eflin flying to Anaheim.

Eflin is expected to be reinstated from the injured list and start Sunday afternoon against the Angels. Tomoyuki Sugano and Kyle Gibson are handling the first two games.

Kremer retired eight in a row after France’s two-out, run-scoring single in the first. The leadoff walk to Buxton hurt him. France’s fly ball fell in shallow center field with one out in the fourth, only 71.7 mph off the bat, but Kremer retired Carlos Correa on a grounder and struck out Willi Castro on a sinker.

Bader walked with one out in the fifth and Christian Vázquez grounded into a double play to leave Kremer at 63 pitches and still protecting a 2-1 lead. Larnach walloped a fastball in the sixth and Kremer fanned the next two batters.

The Orioles had many opportunities to give him more room to work, but they were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight through the fifth inning, and 2-for-13 with nine left on base after the sixth.

"I learned a few years ago that no matter what the offense is doing, whether they’re putting up 10 spots or goose eggs, it really doesn’t matter," Kremer said. "It shouldn’t affect how I’m pitching and how aggressive I am toward a lineup or certain batters or whatever. I’ve removed myself kind of from the dugout, or I’ll just sit in some little corner whether it’s in the tunnel or just somewhere so I’m not like, ‘Oh, please get a hit, please get a hit,’ like, ‘Oh, I just gave up a run, we need to come back.’ So trying to eliminate any sort of exterior."

Ryan O’Hearn was hit by a pitch leading off the fifth and moved to third base on Ryan Mountcastle’s double. Ramón Laureano popped up near the screen behind home plate, Heston Kjerstad struck out on three pitches and Coby Mayo grounded out.

The sixth really stung because Gunnar Henderson singled to center field after Emmanuel Rivera’s third hit, a double to left-center field. Byron Buxton threw out Rivera at the plate on a close play that a challenge didn’t reverse.

Jackson Holliday moved up to second in the order for the first time in his career, and only the second time that he hit higher than sixth. He was 12-for-34 in his last 11 games with an at-bat and the Orioles keep searching for an offensive spark.

Holliday delivered an opposite-field single leading off the third inning. O’Hearn reached on an error and Holliday scored the tie-breaking run on Mountcastle’s sacrifice fly.

Laureano doubled off the left field fence, but the Orioles stranded two runners in scoring position for the second time in three innings. Rivera and Maverick Handley began the fourth with singles, but Gunnar Henderson struck out and Holliday grounded into a double play.

Handley had his first major league hit and pumped his fist running up the line. He was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts before the at-bat.

Cedric Mullins, in a 1-for-25 slump, was on the bench mostly because of the early start time that led to some lineup shuffling. He entered in the eighth.

“It’s that but a little bit more noon after a couple night games,” Hyde said earlier today. “He’ll be in there the next two at least. Want to protect Ced. Ced’s had so many lower-half injuries, things that he played through the last few years that, anytime I can kind of give him a day to try to keep him as healthy as I can throughout the season, I’m going to do that.” 

Henderson returned to the leadoff spot and Holliday vaulted to second.

“With Ced being out, why not at this point?” Hyde said. “We’re looking to score some runs.”

Laureano started a rally in the second inning with a leadoff walk. Coby Mayo singled with one out, a 109.3 mph line drive to center field for his first hit in nine at-bats, and Laureano came home on Rivera’s double to left field.

Bailey Ober, listed at 6 foot 9, struck out the next two batters to keep the game tied. Ober was starting in place of Joe Ryan, scratched late last night with flu-like symptoms, and he lasted five innings.

Ober also had a no-decision, but the Twins could celebrate after the final out. The last 10 Orioles were retired. They're in a stretch of going 16-for-123 with RISP and are batting .190 for the season.

“It’s the big leagues and you’ve got to be able to make some contact in certain situations. We squandered a lot of scoring opportunities. We’re just not moving the baseball with runners on base," Hyde said.

“I think it’s inexperience, pressing. I think you can go for a worldwide array.”

"Sometimes we’re hitting it hard and getting out and sometimes not doing our job," Mountcastle said. "It’s tough. It’s something we need to improve on, and hopefully we can coming up this next series.”

The issue is addressed in hitters' meetings but a solution is eluding them.

"Yeah, they’re talking about it a lot," Hyde said. "We try to slow the game down for them and try to put them in situations. Just having a tough time performing in those situations for a while now.”

Kjerstad struck out three times and stranded five on his own.

"Definitely haven't been the best and that's part of baseball," Kjerstad said. "But also, I think there's maybe an approach change for some of us. I think there's a lot of us trying too hard. I would speak for myself mostly. Sometimes with runners in scoring position I tend to try to do too much when you just need to dial it back and just put a ball in play and something will happen.

"All the guys up and down the lineup are working hard. Our hitting staff, they're fully on board with working on approaches with all of us and just doing anything everybody can. And sometimes that work takes a little bit of time to show up and eventually it will. It will be there.”

It needs to happen fast.

The Orioles have lost 12 of 16 as they board the charter to Anaheim. It's early in the sense that a baseball season lasts 162 games, but the hole is getting deeper.

"Losing is not fun," Kjerstad said. "Really disappointing. We got a better club than that and can definitely play better baseball.”

“We gotta start winning some games here soon," Mountcastle said, "and hopefully we can in Anaheim, for sure.”

"I still do believe that it’s still early," Kremer said. "It’s really hard to not be able to go to the playoffs in the first few weeks of the season. But guys are taking the losses hard and the wins are awesome when we get them. Just trying to take it one day at a time and try to keep things as positive as possible."