Orioles’ season ends with 7-1 loss to Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas—The wonderful Orioles 2023 season, the one with 101 wins, an unexpected American League East title and a season full of happy surprises, came to an end on Tuesday night.

The end came swiftly as the Texas Rangers, as they had in Game 2, built a big early lead and swept the Orioles in three straight games in the American League Division Series with a 7-1 win before 40,861 at Globe Life Field.

The Rangers will await the winner of the Houston-Minnesota series. The Astros, who won 9-1 on Tuesday, lead, 2-1.

Oriole starting pitcher Dean Kremer, who thoughtfully answered questions about his family’s safety in Israel on Monday, didn’t make it out of the second inning, just as Grayson Rodriguez failed to in Sunday’s Game 2.

The Rangers scored six runs against Kremer, on a first-inning home run by shortstop Corey Seager, who set a postseason record with five walks in Game 2, and five runs in the second.

Mitch Garver, who hit a grand slam on Sunday, had a bases-loaded double that scored two runs after manager Brandon Hyde called for an intentional walk to Seager. Adolis Garcia followed with a three-run home run, and Texas led, 6-0. Kremer, like Rodriguez, was gone after 1 2/3 innings, their shortest starts of the season.

In the first four innings, the Orioles managed only three singles against Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi — by Anthony Santander in the first, Gunnar Henderson in the third and Ryan O’Hearn in the fourth. O’Hearn had been hitless in his previous 26 at-bats.

Henderson’s fifth-inning single drove in Jordan Westburg to cut the Texas lead to 6-1.

Eovaldi allowed the run on five hits in seven innings, throwing only 20 balls in his 98 pitches. He’s in line for the Game 1 start in the American League Championship Series on Sunday.

Tyler Wells relieved Kremer and pitched a scoreless 1 1/3. Kyle Gibson, who would have started Game 4, allowed a home run to Nathaniel Lowe in the sixth.

The Orioles loaded the bases against Aroldis Chapman in the eighth on a single by Henderson, his third hit, and walks to Santander and Ryan Mountcastle. Jose Leclerc retired Aaron Hicks, who was hitting for O’Hearn, on a groundout for the third out.

In the ninth, Austin Hays popped to third, Cedric Mullins grounded to second and Westburg struck out to end the Orioles’ season.

Mullins was hitless in four at-bats, 0-for-12 in the Division Series, and dating back to the regular season, 2-for-48.