The Orioles began their second 10-game road trip with the hope that it would be better than the first one. It didn’t take long for that hope to take a beating.
The Toronto Blue Jays, who play their games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, scored six times before starter Dean Kremer could get a second out. Manager Brandon Hyde had seen enough after just 39 pitches in a game the Orioles would lose, 9-0, their 20th loss in a row on the road and their second straight shutout.
Last month, when the Orioles played 10 games at Washington, Minnesota and Chicago, they lost them all on their way to a 14-game losing streak, equaling the second longest in club history.
After Thursday night, the franchise-record road losing streak is 20 games, tying the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics for second longest in American League history.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, who recently set a major league record with 23 straight road losses, play Friday night at San Diego.
The Orioles, who are nearly 30 games under .500 at 23-52, lost their sixth straight game and their 14th in 15 games. Since they last won a road game on May 5th, they’re 8-37.
They were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since August 4-5, 2020.
The Orioles were out of the game in the first inning when Kremer (0-7) retired only one batter. He walked five and allowed two hits, one a grand slam by Lourdes Gurriel.
“I don’t think it’s ever been that bad, no,” Kremer said. “Five walks—that’s embarrassing on my part for our team. That’s unacceptable. That can’t happen.”
The other runs were driven in on Teoscar Hernandez’s single and Randal Grichuk’s infield out.
“I think it could be a combination of things,” Kremer said. “Right now, it’s more mental than physical. It’s just something I have to chip away at from week-to-week.”
Hyde had to summon Adam Plutko to finish the first.
“Five walks in a third of an inning,” Hyde said. “He just didn’t have command tonight.”
Toronto (38-35) led, 6-0, after one.
“I’m seeing that we’re down a touchdown early back-to-back nights,” said Hyde, whose team lost to the Astros, 13-0 on Wednesday night. “That’s not easy to come back from.”
In his previous start against Toronto last Saturday, Kremer gave up just two runs on three hits in six innings in a game the Orioles would lose, 10-7, in a ninth-inning collapse by the bullpen.
“I just think he’s been super inconsistent,” Hyde said. “He had a good start last time out. Tonight he had a tough time throwing the ball over the plate.”
Kremer doesn’t know what was different from the last start.
“I’m not too sure. I’m going to go back and watch video,” Kremer said. “Hopefully come to a conclusion pretty soon and then work through the steps to continue to get better.”
Kremer, who was 1-1 with a 4.82 ERA in four starts last year, has a 7.25 ERA in 12 starts in 2021.
“It’s not going as I’d hoped or I’m sure as the front office hopes,” Kremer said. “But it’s something that I’ve got to take one step at a time, and can’t really get bogged down by every failure.”
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 24th home run in the second. In the third, Plutko gave up run-scoring doubles to Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette.
Travis Lakins came in to pitch in the fourth and threw four scoreless innings, giving up only one hit. It was the longest appearance of Lakins’ major league career. Lakins could relate to Kremer’s meltdown.
“I think everybody’s had them,” he said. “In the minor leagues, in the big leagues. It takes a toll on you. The best thing about this game is you have a short mentality. You have a short stint to get batter and dominate the next outing, and I know that’s what Dean is going to do.”
Anthony Kay (1-2) pitched five shutout innings, giving up five hits, all singles, striking out eight and walking one. The Orioles helped with the strikeouts, chasing one pitch after another out of the strike zone.
“We had Kay on the ropes early,” Hyde said. “They had guys up in the third, the fourth and the fifth. We had a tough time laying off his elevated fastball tonight. It’s not easy when you’re battling from so far behind so early in the game.”
Anthony Castro, Patrick Murphy, Jacob Barnes and Tayler Saucedo combined to throw four shutout innings, allowing two hits.
Note: Matt Harvey (3-9, 7.80 ERA) will face Alek Monoah (1-0, 4.18) on Friday night.
Minor Matters: Zac Lowther allowed five runs on three hits in four innings in Triple-A Norfolk’s 6-2 loss to Gwinnett. Lowther (0-3) struck out five and walked three. The Tides had just four hits.
Gray Fenter gave up six runs, one unearned, on four hits while retiring only two batters in the sixth inning in Double-A Bowie’s 10-2 loss to New Hampshire.
In his first Double-A start, Kyle Brnovich, who came to the Orioles in the Dylan Bundy trade, pitched four innings, allowing a run on three hits, striking out six and walking one.
Designated hitter J.D. Mundy, an unsigned free agent, hit his eighth home run in 16 games for High-A Aberdeen as the IronBirds lost to Rome, 4-3. Mundy has five home runs in the last six games.
Second baseman Adam Hall his second home run.
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson struck out three times. He’s hitless in seven at-bats in three games since he was promoted from Delmarva.
Left-hander Kevin Magee (0-1) gave up four runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings.
Rightfielder Cristopher Cespedes hit his second grand slam in three days in Low-A Delmarva’s 6-3 win over Fredericksburg. Shortstop Darell Hernaiz, the Orioles’ fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft, had two hits.
Ignacio Feliz (2-0) pitched 4 1/3 hitless innings in relief for the win.
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I’m starting to think Kremer is hurt or something. He’s completely lost all command. And he’s a pitcher known for having relatively good command. The machado trade is starting to look terrible. Diaz can’t stay healthy. Kremer has been bad this year. Those guys were the main two pieces of the deal and the don’t look to good.
Are we witnessing the worst team in Oriole's history? Something's going on. This is borderline scandalous. Expecting NETFLIX to eventually unveil a movie to rival the Black Sox scandal. Of course down 9 runs Lakins Sr(why Sr?) finally figures it out. Don't worry up 3-2 he'll revert. Well Kremer needs Norfolk for the balance of the season. But then who? Lowther 5 runs in 4 innings--
No? Don't know what Holt did or didn't do on his "leave" but it ain't working anymore. What is it? Is it Severino setting a middle of the plate target? Is it pitch selection? Is it because they DON'T bust hitters inside? I can see one pitcher struggling but this is everybody. Gunnar 3 K's--don' t scare me young man,you're our future.
I think you just let Kremer figure it out at the big league level. There’s no real replacement for him down in Norfolk. Lowther and Wells are pitching better but not to the point where you would call them up. Bradish just got to triple a so I can’t see him being called up yet. Remember we are so bad we are running out a knuckleballer.
I agree. No sense sending him down.
Oriole20/Boog the more I think about you guys are right--no reason to send him down. The alternatives are worse. Let him grind it out here.
There is an abbreviation in parts of the Stock Investment space where people who invest in so-called MEME stocks buy and hold, even when they are way down; it's called HODL--hold on for dear life...
This is what we are doing---HODL'ing....
Hoping that Hyde and his Coaches HODL and that nothing goes "bump in the night"..
Don't see this changing any time soon.
Analytics be damned!
Maybe it's a simple as getting him some black plastic horn rimmed eyeglasses with a skull and crossbones on the bridge of the nose?
Or maybe a new type of sticky stuff the umps can't detect?
I dunno. But what I do know is that you can't send him back to Norfolk now. He's shown some hang-toughness his prior 2 starts after rough 1st innings. Don't give up on him now after last night's fiasco. Stuff happens. Stay the course with the young man.
Went to see the Shorebirds last night. Actually saw a few double plays turned, some nice defense in the outfield and infield and a grand slam. And they only used two pitchers and won.
Oh yeah and the beer was 3 bucks
Now you're talkin'!
The beer really tasted good ! ! Great time and a nice game!!
Here’s an idea that might put the “Tanking”idea to rest... get Manfred to allow a seven game playoff between Arizona and Baltimore to settle who’ll get the #1 pick after the All Star break. Then, maybe both teams would make an honest effort to put a decent team on the field. I’d pay $$$ to see it... who can put the worst 9 players on the field... make the most errors... give up the most bases on balls, hits, runs and, of course, home runs. It wouldn’t be as much fun without the HR’s. Think about it... may the worst team win!
Can you rebuild a rebuild?
I mean who are our keepers around here at this point?
I’m camped out on Mullins, Mountcastle and Mancini. That’s it for position players.
Galvis has done very well.
Santander and Hays? I mean they show glimpses, but haven’t had success yet. Injuries have hampered them, but Hays is a gamer, full of intensity. Santander appears lukewarm; going through the motions (yes I know he’s got a bum ankle)
But I mean really, this train wreck is hard to sort out sometimes. Just WHO are our core guys??
Diaz? How much longer? Promises promises.
To be successful you have to be strong up the middle… catcher, pitcher , middle infielders and center field… do the math
The math looks like 23-52
You know it
Shamus, gimme one of those $3 beers!
Sigh.
Love it. The line of the week--"can you rebuild a rebuild?".
Here come the Birds, you never know how we are going to lose a game. The worst is when starting pitching blows the game in the first couple of innings , time to change channel because offense is to weak to come back and make a game out of it . Good starting pitching, ok now we have a chance for offense to lose game with no run support, we get hits for entertainment purposes but we strand our team mates and no runs. Poor base running and defensive field playing .If it does happen to be a close game our bull pen will blow it or our offense can't score a lousy run if needed. Oh how we count the many ways our Birds can find to lose. A fan for 60yrs but this is the worst I can remember. This team needs to pack its bags and go back to the minors where they might be competitive, and stay there till they're good enough for MLB competition
I was there for the creation of the Mets. At least you laughed at their ineptness. This is ridiculous! Stengel came into the clubhouse after one (of many) of their losses and supposedly asked “Can’t any of you play baseball?” It’s getting to be that bad for the O’s, only without the laughs... Just saying...
Actually, "Can anybody here play this game?", but point taken.
I understand MLB is taking the 6 worst teams out of MLB, due to low public ratings , to create a new league which will be named at a later date.
Now that’s funny!
How about we copy the soccer leagues: Drop the three worst teams in each league into AAA for the next season? I think that would be more motivating than a draft lottery, for example, although it's hard to imagine the present regime abandoning its commitment to non-excellence.
Tell the scouts to stop evaluating and ranking “throwers” by velocities and start evaluating “pitchers” who can hit spots and throw strikes!
Wow a little pop up of knowledge: Orioles pay more to players (player)on Injured reserve that they do the 26 man roster.
Putting on my GM hat. Going to use alphabet technique,keep players whose last name ends with M still working on letters in alphabet to cut, pretty much the rest. Also never ever sign big contract to anyone named Davis aka Glen Davis, Chris Davis.
The O’s got 19 so called prospects for 5 legitimate major league players with the sale of Machado, Schoop, Britton, Gausman and Bundy. Not a one of them has established themselves as a major leaguer. (I have the list if anyone is interested) I just got through reading an article about Mancini hoping to stay with the O’s as there is much current “talk” about his trade value. Just what we need now... a bunch of wanna-be’s and never will be’s for the most popular and productive players they have. NOT! The current situation is almost beyond being salvageable. It’s approaching time for the white flag of surrender. Just saying...
My sobering thought of the week came from Tom Eshelman after his debacle of a start: "I stuck with the game plan." Give credit to management; their philosophy is being embraced throughout the system.
I saw that too, how about time to change the game plan, it obviously wasn’t working, WTH...go O’s...
I agree there is no reason to send Kramer down . I would however have him medically checked . If you look at his minor league stats he has never been this wild nor was he this wild last year when he came up . I’ve heard a few pitching coaches say the first thing to go is control when there is an arm injury as the pitcher tries to compensate. His velocity is also down . It may not be major but I’d bet he is having pain or the arm is not recovering or he can’t get loose which would explain the first inning issues .
This team is terrible. Kremer was supposed to be that #2-3 starter in the Machado deal. Diaz was a centerpiece. We got hosed with that trade. Meanwhile, teams like Tampa are hosing other teams with their trades and we keep falling behind. So far, Elias' trades haven't been terrible but, we need more time to evaluate these kids. The minor leagues and international pool does seem MUCH better so, I can only pray this O's team won't suck this terribly much longer. I will say however, that guys like Lopez, Akin, Kremer, etc., will not be a part of the next decent O's team. Zimmerman has some remaining potential.
What a sick joke. These guys are the Washington Generals playing against various Harlem Globe Trotters teams across MLB.
But at least John Means bobble head night is coming.
That’s true. Bobble head night should be a memorable and touching event which will draw a least another 200 people to the stadium.
Just saw that Sisco is now in the Mets organization. That’s good. At least he won’t come back to haunt us if he finds himself. Also... Alex Wells has been called up along with some guy named Konner Wade. Unfortunately, the career of Mickey Jannis is over (for now, at least) as he was DFA’d. And the churning goes on... where it stops nobody knows... Just saying...
I wish Cisco success. If he can hit, stay healthy and play steady defense, he’ll hopefully have a decent career. It will be somewhat bittersweet to see him be successful (another ex Oriole that blossoms) but I’m pulling for him.
I'm amusing myself by imagining what the comments would be like if tonite the O's lose 15-0 and only hit two bloop singles. I'm also working out in anticipation of the O's announcing open tryouts.
Hey WV, it’s Icarus here.
Say, if you need a workout partner, I still have my fungo bat, and can even shag fly balls for you in an emergency.
(Thumbs up emoji inserted here)
Even though our pitching was often bad before, I'm wondering if they're adjusting to the change of not using sunscreen? Sad.