KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last time pitchers Corbin Burnes and Cole Ragans faced off, rain delayed the start of the game by five hours and the Orioles won in walk-off fashion.
Saturday night’s rematch didn’t take as long to start, and neither did Baltimore’s bats.
The Orioles ambushed Ragans in the second inning, recording eight hits and scoring seven runs for one of the most impressive frames an MLB club can have. Baltimore needed all seven runs — and even more — to hold on for a 9-7 win.
“That was one of our best innings offensive of the year, for me,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Facing a really good starter who’s had a lot of success, a lot of success against us, and I thought we just took what was given to us.”
Six Orioles hitters drove in a run and five — Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Anthony Santander, Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle — recorded multiple hits. Burnes had a shutout going with two outs in the sixth, and while his start was spoiled by a three-run homer from Salvador Perez, he pitched well enough for his third win of the season.
Baltimore’s bullpen struggled again after allowing six runs in Friday’s loss, surrendering four more Saturday to allow the Royals back into the game, but closer Craig Kimbrel slammed the door by retiring the side in order in the ninth for his 422nd career save. That ties him with Billy Wagner for seventh on MLB’s all-time list.
The Orioles are 5-0 in games started by Burnes and 9-0 in contests led by Burnes or No. 2 starter Grayson Rodriguez. They’re 4-7 in games not started by their top two pitchers. Burnes, who allowed four hits and one walk with four strikeouts Saturday, has a 2.76 ERA through his first five starts after joining Baltimore this offseason in a trade from the Milwaukee Brewers. Rodriguez, who is also 3-0, has a 2.63 ERA to begin his second season. The rest of the Orioles’ rotation has a 5.15 ERA.
The victory extends the Orioles’ American League-best streak without being swept in the regular season to 98 series. The stretch dates to May 2022 and is the longest in the majors since World War II. The Orioles are 13-7 and a half-game back of the New York Yankees for first in the AL East.
The lone runs the Orioles scored Friday came on a grand slam from Rutschman in the seventh inning. They needed no such heroics to put up a crooked number in Saturday’s second inning.
Westburg led off with a single, stole second and scored on a double by Ramón Urías. Urías has mostly been on the bench since top prospect Jackson Holliday was promoted last week, but he’s recorded a hit in all four games he’s played since after his slump to open the season. Catcher James McCann singled home Urías to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead before a two-out rally bounced Ragans from the game. After a single from Henderson, Rutschman singled home McCann and Mountcastle knocked in Henderson with a single. Santander hit the first of three doubles — a single-game career high — to bring home Rutschman, and Westburg knocked in two more runs with his second single of the inning.
Ragans emerged last summer as one of baseball’s best southpaws after Kansas City (13-8) acquired him from the Texas Rangers, but his start Saturday was the worst of his young career. Ragans, 26, entered the game with a 1.93 ERA — including six innings of one-run, one-hit ball against Baltimore earlier this month — and left it with a 4.32 ERA.
“We made the adjustment from the first game,” said Santander, who also made a stellar diving catch in the ninth. “He’s a guy who likes to attack early in the count. We talked about it before the game, and we did a pretty good job of attacking him in the second inning.”
Burnes was cruising through five innings, retiring 15 of the first 17 batters he faced without a walk. But he gave up a double to Maikel Garcia and walked Vinnie Pasquantino to bring up Perez, one of baseball’s best power-hitting catchers. He showed why by blasting his sixth long ball of the season, depositing a 97 mph sinker over the left field wall to chase Burnes.
“For the most part tonight, we were able to limit the contact and get some quick outs,” Burnes said. “It was just one pitch there at the end.”
After relievers Keegan Akin and Dillon Tate combined to surrender eight runs (six of their own and two inherited) Friday, Hyde needed a strong night from his bullpen. He didn’t get it.
It took three relievers to get through the seventh inning. Left-hander Danny Coulombe, who recorded the final out of the sixth in relief of Burnes, newly acquired right-hander Yohan Ramírez and setup man Yennier Cano combined to allow four runs on three hits and three walks in the frame. Ramírez hit the first batter he faced, threw two wild pitches to bring home a run, walked the next hitter and gave up an RBI single to Garcia. The lone out credited to Ramírez was recorded on an outfield assist by Colton Cowser. Cano entered with a runner on first and two outs but allowed the first three batters he faced to reach. Perez, who went 3-for-5, hit a two-run single to make it a one-run game.
“That’s not how we drew it up there the last few innings on the mound, unfortunately,” Hyde said. “We’ve got to be a little better than that going forward if we’re going to compete.”
The Orioles scored two pivotal insurance runs late to overcome the bullpen’s blues. The first came in the half inning before the relief corps’ implosion, as Hays, who singled amid a string of solid plate appearances to potentially emerge out of his early season slump, scored on a passed ball. Hays was replaced by Cowser because the former had calf tightness, Hyde said after the game. In the eighth, Santander then hit his third double — a 68.1 mph cue-shot down the left field line — to double the Orioles’ lead and give the bullpen breathing room.
Kimbrel continued his dominant run to begin his 15th season with his fifth save. He’s allowed just one run in his first nine innings as an Oriole. Only six pitchers in MLB history have more saves than Kimbrel: Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith; right-handers Francisco Rodríguez and Kenley Jansen; and left-hander John Franco.
It’s not every night a pitcher ties Wagner, who is on the precipice of making the Hall of Fame, on the all-time saves list, and the ball is one any pitcher would want to save. But Cowser, who caught the last out near the warning track in left field, didn’t realize that in the moment when he “yeeted” the ball behind his head into the fountain at Kauffman Stadium.
#Orioles’ Colton Cowser: “Right when I threw it, I said, ‘Craig has a lot of saves, that one might have been important.’ I literally told Ced right whenever, ‘I might have messed up.’ And it turns out I did.”
Cowser later learned that balls sink in the fountain after 2 minutes. pic.twitter.com/2UYjEOffzV
— Jake Rill (@JakeDRill) April 21, 2024
The ball was found at the bottom of the fountain, and while Cowser joked that Kimbrel might not be able to get it “authenticated” anymore, all should be well after the Orioles rookie made the, well, rookie mistake.
“I literally told Ced right when I did it, ‘I might’ve messed up,’” Cowser said. “And turns out I did. We got the ball back, though. They said it was the only one in the bottom.”
Cowser’s postgame interview was a hilarious back-and-forth, with Holliday and Henderson chiming in to mock him with questions of their own. The outfielder knows it will take a long time before he stops being teased about the blunder.
Colton Cowser with a hilarious postgame interview about him throwing Craig Kimbrel's 422nd career save ball into the Kauffman Stadium fountain and how they got the ball back.
Teammates Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson chimed in to mock Cowser during the interview. pic.twitter.com/FGZvTysmqL
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) April 21, 2024
“It’s going to be the whole year,” he said with a laugh. “Every time I catch a ball that’s the last out for him, it’s staying in the glove.”
Around the horn
• Right-hander Tyler Wells (elbow inflammation) said he began feeling discomfort in his elbow during his start in Pittsburgh earlier this month and it worsened when he faced the Brewers last week. Hyde said he doesn’t expect Wells’ time on the 15-day injured list to be “too long,” but Wells has yet to resume playing catch. The 28-year-old right-hander said he feels “really good” and that it was reassuring that imaging showed just inflammation, not any structural damage. “We consulted multiple doctors with the team, and we’ve got a great medical staff,” Wells said. “What they’ve been saying, I’ve been trusting, and so far, so good.”
• Holliday, who is 1-for-27 to begin his big league career, didn’t play Saturday with a lefty on the mound. Hyde said before the game that he talked with Holliday after his fourth straight game without a hit and gave a lengthy, insightful answer about the 20-year-old’s early struggles. “Talk about somebody that’s never failed before. [This] is a tough place to,” Hyde said. “I don’t think anybody, except for the people who are down here in [uniform], understand how hard this is. To be 20 years old and only being one year in the minor leagues and to be here says a lot about him, how talented he is. It’s a very short window right now, and he’s going to go through struggles. That’s part of being a professional baseball player — how you deal with it, adversity, tough at-bats. I think he’s handling it really, really well. Just wanted to make sure his mindset was good last night. It is. He’s just got to keep grinding. There’s nothing else to do except keep pushing and try to relax and have fun. It’s impossible when you’re struggling to have fun. Try to play free and easy the best you possibly can, and hopefully you get a couple soft singles to fall.”
Orioles at Royals
Sunday, 2:10 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
