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.
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.
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 Byron 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.
Harrison 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.
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,” manager Brandon 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 for a day 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.