Part of Dean Kremer’s rise to effective major league starter last season, with the periods of dominance, was attributed to his stinginess with the home run ball. Eleven allowed in 22 games, fewer than one per nine innings.  

Opponents hit seven against Kremer in spring training this year, mostly solo shots, and have slugged five in his first three outings since the Orioles left Florida.

Brent Rooker, the cleanup hitter in Oakland’s punchless lineup, delivered a three-run shot tonight in the first inning. Kremer turned to watch the completion of the ball’s 420-foot trip to center field, waited for a new one and went back to work. Hopeful that he’d settle in and the offense would pick him up.

A bigger influencer in Kremer’s turnaround has been his ability to limit damage and prevent a game from spiraling out of control. Carlos Pérez led off the fifth with a homer after Kremer retired 11 of 13 batters, and the right-hander was removed with one out and his pitch count already at 90.

The Orioles had Kremer’s back in the same way that they did with rookie Grayson Rodriguez the previous night, scoring twice in the seventh inning to tie the game. But Oakland loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and scored three times in an 8-4 victory before an announced crowd of 10,181 at Camden Yards.

The national media attention is swelling around the Orioles, who were largely ignored through the rebuild years.

They had lots of room to conduct their work. No one crowded them.

Ryan Mountcastle had everyone chirping after his nine-RBI night that tied the club record. More rays of favorable light shined on the team. It’s seen or heard on television and radio.

MLB Network ran a segment this morning promoting “Brandon Hyde’s Landscaping Company,” with Mark DeRosa explaining why players belonged on the crew. Mountcastle is mowing lawns, Adley Rutschman handles the stone work, Austin Hays is raking, Kyle Gibson trims the hedges, Félix Bautista is blowing leaves instead of leads, and Jorge Mateo gets dirty as the mulch guy.

Everyone gets a water break, of course.

Anthony Santander is out of tonight’s Orioles lineup due to some back soreness. Manager Brandon Hyde said the outfielder should be available off the bench.

“It’s really not a huge deal,” Hyde said.

Santander is batting .186/.265/.279 with no home runs in 11 games, and his 17 strikeouts rank among the league leaders.

Cedric Mullins is healthy and also out of the lineup. Ryan McKenna is playing center field and Adam Frazier is in right.

Catcher James McCann is making his 66^th start as the cleanup hitter. Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter.

The parade of opposing left-handed starters this week has created a new set of lineup challenges for Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.

Gunnar Henderson sat out Monday night’s series opener against the Athletics, but left-handed hitting Adam Frazier started at second base. Only one catcher played. Ryan McKenna made another start in right field.

Last night’s 11^th game of the season produced the 11^th different order. Frazier moved to the bench. Henderson started at third base. James McCann was the first of four designated hitters used - it felt like a record of some sort - and his first Orioles hit was a tie-breaking double in the fourth inning.

Who knows what tomorrow brings – besides another lefty starter for Oakland?

The streak will run to four southpaws in a row, counting the Yankees’ Nestor Cortes on Sunday. Thursday afternoon’s spot remains TBA, but Oakland is expected to send right-hander Adam Oller to the mound. Oller’s two appearances this season have been in relief.

Grayson Rodriguez’s major league tour moved the organization’s top pitching prospect from his home state to his home ballpark.

What are the attachments to Chicago, where he’s pitching over the weekend?

Tonight provided another slice of the dream. Standing on the mound at Camden Yards, five years after the Orioles drafted him in the first round. The white uniform. His parents nervous spectators within a more supportive crowd that wore orange T-shirts with “Welcome to the Show” across the back.

Rodriguez jogged out of the dugout with his teammates, began to warm up and heard the applause. He missed with fastballs clocked at 97.6 and 98 mph, ran the count full and issued his first home walk.

There are always firsts.

Kyle Bradish will make an injury rehab start Friday night at Double-A Bowie, perhaps the final hurdle before his return to the active roster.

The Orioles, ideally, would like Bradish to work four or five innings.

Bradish is on the 15-day injured list with a bruised right foot, the result of a 104-mph line drive from the Rangers’ Jonah Heim on April 3. He’s eligible to return on the 19^th in D.C., which would be normal rest following his appearance with the Baysox.

“His side (session) went really well,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “He’s feeling a lot better. I just walked past him in the weight room. He looks great, feels good. We got lucky there.”

Grayson Rodriguez makes his second major league start tonight, and his first at Camden Yards. The Orioles have resisted having a six-man rotation, but there’s going to be excess if Rodriguez impresses, as he did Wednesday in his final four innings in Texas.

Grayson Rodriguez makes his Camden Yards debut tonight, sans the gas cans in the stands.

Rodriguez remains in the rotation while Kyle Bradish is on the injured list with a bruised right foot, and he could stay depending on his results and how the Orioles could create room for him. Bradish is expected to begin an injury rehab assignment this week.

The Orioles called up Rodriguez to make Wednesday’s start in Texas, and he retired 13 of the last 15 batters after a two-run first inning. He kept the Rangers scoreless over the last four innings.

Adley Rutschman, who’s homered in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, is catching again tonight. James McCann is the designated hitter.

Austin Hays is leading off, with Cedric Mullins moved down to ninth.

The switch began a few days before Heston Kjerstad left major league camp in Sarasota. Ground balls and other drills at first base, a position he hadn’t played except for three games in college before the 2020 draft. Nothing as a professional.

The activity increased over at Twin Lakes Park, and Kjerstad, normally a right fielder, played first base twice with Double-A Bowie last week and spent one game as the designated hitter.

The Baysox were off the past two days, and Kjerstad could return to the outfield tonight when they begin their first homestand against Akron. Or maybe he's slipping his hand inside a mitt again.

“We had this plan all along, for him to get exposure to first base,” said Orioles director of player development Matt Blood. “He just adds another club in his bag, for a metaphor, so that he’s got more options to play on the major league team. Whether they need him in the corner outfield or if they need him at first or to DH, it’s just going to give him another slot of opportunity for the major league team. But that was the plan all along.

“We weren’t going to put him in his first game in a major league spring training game. But as soon as he got out of major league spring training, he started playing in minor league games there at first base. You’ll see him playing at first base and in the outfield in Bowie.”

Orioles starter Kyle Bradish is expected to begin an injury rehab assignment later this week.

Manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon that Bradish should be joining an affiliate within the next couple days. Double-A Bowie is home and seems like a logical spot.

Bradish is on the 15-day injured list after being hit on the right foot by a line drive last Monday in Texas. He’s eligible to return on April 19.

A bullpen session on Saturday left Bradish and the team encouraged. The bruise remains but his discomfort has subsided.

This is pretty much the extent of today’s news. The roster is unchanged since yesterday, and Hyde said Gunnar Henderson is just getting a day off against Oakland left-hander JP Sears.

The Orioles begin a new series at home tonight, with the Athletics sending the first of three consecutive left-handed starters to the mound.

Ryan McKenna is starting in right field against Oakland’s JP Sears. Anthony Santander is the designated hitter, with Austin Hays in left.

Gunnar Henderson is out of the lineup. Ramón Urías is the third baseman.

Adley Rutschman is catching. He's batting .389/.476/.556 (14-for-36) with two home runs, six RBIs and six walks in nine games. Still no doubles.

Kyle Gibson has won his first two starts while allowing six runs and 12 hits with one walk in 12 innings. He’s 5-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 career starts against the Athletics.

Grayson Rodriguez had a hunch that he’d be starting Tuesday night. The four scoreless innings to close out his major league debut in Texas. How he remained on the active roster, with option rules prohibiting a call-up unless replacing an injured player. No off-days that might cause him to be skipped.

The T-shirt giveaway in his honor.

So many clues.

The Orioles confirmed Saturday that Rodriguez would face the Athletics in the second game of the series.

“I guess I’m excited, first off, just being able to pitch in Camden Yards, something I’ve dreamed of ever since I was drafted,” Rodriguez said yesterday morning. “I guess it’s going to be another little dream come true for me.”

One fly ball should have been caught. Two others were destined to make a safe landing from the moment they left the bat.

Tyler Wells was burned three times this afternoon at various degrees in his first start of the season, which resulted in a 5-3 loss to the Yankees at Camden Yards.

Adley Rutschman had four hits, including his second home run, but the Orioles dropped the series and are 4-5 while waiting for the last-place Athletics to arrive for four games.

Wells allowed four runs and six hits with no walks and six strikeouts in six innings. He retired the side in order in the second, fourth and sixth, and threw 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes. Kyle Gibson is the only other starter to record an out in the sixth.

"I love the way Tyler throws," Rutschman said. "He's a competitor, he does stuff the right way and he's a great teammate. I know he's going to go out next time and compete and do his thing."

James McCann is behind the plate this afternoon for the series finale against the Yankees, on the day that he was activated from the injured list.

Adley Rutschman is serving as the designated hitter.

Jorge Mateo returns to the lineup after sitting out last night’s 4-1 loss. He’s been getting treatment on a sore ankle.

Gunnar Henderson is the third baseman and Ramón Urías is at second base.

Tyler Wells makes his first start of the season after working five scoreless and hitless innings Monday in relief. Wells replaced Kyle Bradish, who was hit on the right foot by a line drive, and the only baserunner against him came on an error.

The Orioles have decided to carry three catchers on their 26-man roster.

Veteran James McCann was activated this morning from the 10-day injured list after two injury rehab games at High-A Aberdeen. As the corresponding move, outfielder Kyle Stowers was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Anthony Bemboom remains in the majors, providing a second backup to Adley Rutschman.

McCann could be in today’s lineup with the Yankees starting left-hander Nestor Cortes.

Stowers has barely played this season. He received only six plate appearances in three games.

Cole Irvin wound up on the seat of his pants and with a big smile on his face.

The mood was light early in tonight’s start. But would Irvin be able to handle a heavy workload and rest the bullpen?

Irvin was on the back end, as it were, of a 3-6-1 double play to conclude the top of the first inning. Aaron Judge walked with one out to extend his career-best on-base streak to 41 games, but Anthony Rizzo grounded to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, who fired to shortstop Gunnar Henderson. The throw to first forced Irvin to stretch and lose his balance while keeping his left foot on the bag.

Got the out. Got a laugh out of it.

Getting deeper into his starts will make Irvin much happier. He lasted only 4 2/3 innings and threw 101 pitches in a 4-1 loss to the Yankees before an announced crowd of 30,561 at Camden Yards.

Orioles catcher James McCann is nearing a return to the active roster. Perhaps as early as Sunday.

McCann began his injury rehab assignment last night at High-A Aberdeen and singled twice as the designated hitter. He’s going to catch tonight and the Orioles want him to work around seven innings before determining his status.

“Kind of take it day-to-day, see how he feels after and see what else he needs,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

Asked if it’s possible that McCann will be with the club on Sunday, Hyde said, “We’ll see what happens.”

Adley Rutschman is behind the plate tonight and batting second against Yankees rookie right-hander Jhony Brito. Left-hander Nestor Cortes starts Sunday, and Rutschman isn’t likely to catch a day game following a night game.

The Orioles had 10 stolen bases in the first two games of the season, and manager Brandon Hyde joked about all the records they could break at such an unrealistic pace.

They swiped one in the next four games.

Somewhere in between the flurry and the freeze is probably a more reasonable expectation.

The 11 steals before yesterday’s home opener ranked first in the majors, followed by the Guardians with 10. Jorge Mateo and Cedric Mullins had four each to tie for third. Adam Frazier, Austin Hays and Ryan McKenna each had one.

Mateo singled with one out in the sixth inning yesterday and stole his fifth base despite a pitch-out. He dived into the bag and easily beat the throw, which arrived on one hop, and he scored the tying run on Adley Rutschman’s single.

Kyle Bradish is playing catch today to test a right foot and ankle that he said is showing “a lot of improvement.”

Bradish was nailed by a Jonah Heim line drive in the second inning of Monday night’s game in Texas. He’s on the 15-day injured list with a contusion on his foot after X-rays and further testing didn’t reveal a fracture.

“I have no doubt,” Bradish said when asked if he could return when eligible. “If it was a 10-day IL, I’d still be ready for that one, too. So, barring any setbacks, and I don’t believe we’ll have any, yeah, I’ll be ready.”

Bradish said he hadn’t discussed with the club whether he could jog down the orange carpet for introductions in the home opener.

“I’m going to see how it feels when I go out and play catch,” he said. “I would like to, but we’ll see.”

The threat of severe thunderstorms can’t ruin the Orioles’ home opener this afternoon.

Aaron Judge, maybe, but not thunderstorms.

The temperature in Baltimore reached 85 degrees yesterday but is likely to stay in the 50s today. No rain or hail or high winds, though. Cloudy and playable.

Gates open at noon. Severna Park native Parijita Bastola will perform the national anthem prior to the game. She was a contestant on season 22 of NBC’s “The Voice,” and also performed at Governor Wes Moore’s inauguration earlier this year.

Moore and children Mia and James will throw out the ceremonial first pitches.

A series that began with Kyle Bradish limping to the training room in the second inning, his right foot introduced to a 104 mph line drive from the Rangers’ Jonah Heim, concluded with some promising developments.

Also a loss, but the Orioles won the series.

These are some reminders that strong reactions less than a week into a season often tend to become overreactions.

* Tyler Wells got the deserved glory in Monday's opener by throwing five scoreless and hitless innings in emergency relief, pitching when he was supposed to be readying for his start the following night.

Manager Brandon Hyde could have pushed Wells into the ninth with the right-hander dominating and at 47 pitches, including 33 for strikes. Seemed like the safest move with the bullpen still trying to recover from excessive use in Boston. But Hyde called upon Félix Bautista, who allowed runs in the first two games of the Red Sox series, including Adam Duvall’s walk-off homer.