After three days of Baltimore retribution, the Texas Rangers that battered the Orioles in last year’s American League Divisional Series reappeared Sunday evening at Camden Yards.
With a national audience watching on ESPN, the defending World Series champions emerged from their first-half doldrums to tear into struggling Orioles starter Cole Irvin and relievers Nick Vespi and Matt Krook. The Rangers took the series finale, 11-2, in front of an announced crowd of 23,439 to end Baltimore’s four-game winning streak.
On this night, they swung the mighty bats, piling up seven extra-base hits including a pair of home runs from journeyman outfielder Derek Hill, whose three long balls over the weekend nearly matched his previous career total of four. The Orioles’ league-best offense could not keep pace against Rangers starter Andrew Heaney, who struck out 10 and allowed but five hits over seven innings.
“I thought he struggled with his command,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Irvin, who has dropped three straight decisions. “When he got it in the zone, they took good swings on him.”
The Orioles failed to homer for just the second time in their past 29 games, and shortstop Gunnar Henderson’s on-base streak ended at 36 games as he struck out four times.
Hyde said Heaney was “the sharpest I’ve seen him in a while.”
“Didn’t seem like he threw one ball over the heart of the plate,” Henderson said. “Seemed like he was dotting the corners to me and seemed like he did that to the whole lineup.”
The loss dropped the Orioles (53-31) back into a tie atop the AL East with the New York Yankees, who defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-1, earlier in the day. They’ll head west now for three games against the Seattle Mariners and three against the Oakland Athletics.
They took solace from their 17-12 record in June, a brutal month in which they faced a succession of top opponents and had just one day off.
“It’s been a tough stretch obviously, didn’t end it the way we wanted to, but I felt like we did really well for the circumstances that we had, one off day,” Henderson said.
After a rough ride against the Houston Astros and Cleveland Guardians, the Orioles’ rotation got back on track as the club took three straight to open its weekend series against Texas. Irvin, 0-2 with a 7.53 ERA in his previous three starts, hoped to finish the sweep and reclaim the form that made him so essential to the Orioles’ hot start.
It was not to be.
His defense lent an early hand as Austin Hays sprinted to the left-field corner to pull in a well-struck drive by Rangers leadoff hitter Marcus Semien, and third baseman Jordan Westburg leaped to snare a line drive from No. 2 hitter Josh Smith.
Irvin was less fortunate in the top of the second. After Texas first baseman Nathaniel Lowe beat Jorge Mateo’s double-play throw by a step to extend the inning, Hill hammered an 85 mph cutter over the high wall in left to put the Rangers up 2-0.
The Orioles answered in the bottom of the inning. Hays, who’d missed the previous four games with knee soreness, led off with a double and scored on first baseman Ryan O’Hearn’s looper to center.
But Texas wasn’t done with Irvin. Rookie left fielder Wyatt Langford, who’d go on to hit for the cycle, tripled past Hays’ outstretched glove to lead off the fourth, and Lowe quickly drove him in to make it 3-1. Irvin walked Hill and allowed a sharp single to No. 8 hitter Andrew Knizer that made it 4-1. Semien upped it to 5-1 with another single.
Irvin’s pitches neither consistently found the strike zone nor fooled the Rangers. He left after 3 2/3 innings, having surrendered five hits, walked two batters and hit two others.
His spot in the rotation could be in jeopardy with Dean Kremer’s return from a triceps strain seemingly imminent and Albert Suárez having pitched a gem against the Rangers on Friday.
Despite the ugly line, Irvin did not see Sunday’s performance as a continuation of his recent struggles. He said he achieved his goal of working more outside the strike zone but fell victim to several weakly struck hits and the near-miss double play.
“By no means am I trying to back away from what’s been going on,” he said. “I’m trying to find the adjustment, trying to make the adjustments to where I was good earlier in the season. It’s there. It’s close.”
He added that his troubles aren’t mechanical. “It really has to do with where I’m at in the zone,” he said. “And I think the adjustment today was a positive step, even though the result isn’t there, into making the right adjustment to where we need to be.”
Vespi didn’t fare any better in the fifth inning, allowing five straight hits, including three doubles and a Hill home run into the Texas bullpen, as the Rangers extended their lead to 8-2.
Around the horn
• First baseman Ryan Mountcastle was “under the weather” and not in Hyde’s lineup Sunday even though the Rangers started a left-hander. Mountcastle pinch hit for O’Hearn and went 1-for-2 in Saturday night’s win over Texas.
• Hyde said Saturday he’ll wait to set his rotation for this week’s series in Seattle until he knows when Corbin Burnes, who’s on the paternity list, will be ready to pitch next. The Orioles are also weighing whether to give Kremer (triceps strain) a fourth rehab start before adding him back to the mix.
• Veteran pitcher Julio Teheran, signed in early June as a long-shot rotation option, opted out of his minor league deal with the Orioles after posting a 9.18 ERA in four starts for Triple-A Norfolk.
• Outfielder Kyle Stowers hit his 53rd career home run for Norfolk on Sunday, passing Gary Rajsich for the most in Tides history. Stowers, who slashed .286/.278/.486 in 36 plate appearances for the Orioles earlier this season, has 14 home runs in 44 games for Norfolk this season.
