Dean Kremer’s arrival to the Orioles organization six years ago as part of the prospect package in return for Manny Machado signaled a shift for Baltimore baseball.
That new era included a painful rebuild — intentionally uncompetitive teams that resulted in three seasons with at least 108 losses. Those days are long gone, and Kremer, a mainstay in the Orioles’ rotation since 2022, facing Machado, a San Diego Padre since 2019, on Saturday at Camden Yards was another full-circle moment for a pitcher who experienced the lows of the rebuild and the highs of last season’s success.
The problem for Kremer was his defense played like it did during the rebuild.
The Orioles made several defensive blunders and their bats weren’t much better to spoil a gutsy performance from Kremer in a 9-4 loss to the Padres. Baltimore has lost five of its past six games and 10 of 14 as the club struggles to shake its weekslong scuffle.
“It’s not just the defense. I think every part of the game we’re kind of down right now — pitching, hitting, defense, all of it. And it’s kind of all at once,” Kremer said. “I think that’s what’s attributing to what’s been going on. But this hasn’t happened in three years, four years? So things like these do happen. We are human. Things will start looking up here pretty soon.”
Kremer allowed four runs in six innings, but only one was earned because of errors from third baseman Ramón Urías and shortstop Gunnar Henderson. The first miscue was a miscommunication between the two infielders on a popup that fell to bring home two runs. The second was an errant throw from Henderson on a potential double play that allowed another run to cross the plate.
Six weeks ago, those errors — specifically the blunder on the popup — would’ve been easily dismissed as an anomaly by one of the best teams in MLB, a club that routinely plays fundamentally sound. Recently, though, it’s the latest example of the brand of baseball the Orioles have been playing in recent weeks.
“We haven’t played well defensively for a few weeks,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It’s going to be really important for us going forward. Just been inconsistent in a lot of areas right now. Just got to battle through it.”
Baltimore’s lineup managed only two hits off Padres right-hander Michael King during his 6 1/3 masterful innings. The Orioles’ lone offense was a credit to Cedric Mullins, who hit a two-run double in the seventh and blasted a two-run homer in the ninth against San Diego’s bullpen. In total, the Orioles went 7-for-34 (.206) at the plate and 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
While Kremer (4-7) deserved better than the loss with four runs allowed, his bullpen made any comeback attempt nearly impossible. Long reliever Cole Irvin entered in the seventh and allowed four runs — three on a home run by Machado — and Bryan Baker gave up one run in the ninth.
Orioles’ Jorge Mateo confident he can return this season; Samuel Basallo now No. 4 prospect in MLB | NOTES https://t.co/tz1cMxbCcG
— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) July 27, 2024
To be thoroughly outplayed in all three facets of the game is something that rarely happened to Baltimore last season and this spring. But this summer, it’s happened more times than expected for a team with World Series aspirations.
Hyde said before the game that his club’s recent poor play can’t be pinned to “one area.”
“I feel like we played better defensively in the first few months. We made big pitches in big spots more often, didn’t make as many mistakes on the mound. And then obviously we hit more, drove the baseball and hit better with runners in scoring position the first few months,” Hyde said. “A little bit in every area right now where we’re going through a little bit of a funk. And I think that’s very, very normal. You look around the league and there are a lot of really, really good teams that are going through the same thing.
“We’re confident that we’re going to come out of it, and it’s hard when you’re living it every day to not feel frustrated. But you want to believe that the process is really good with how we’re going about things and that we’re going to come out of this soon.”
On June 1, the Orioles were 37-19 — one of the best starts to a season in franchise history. Since, they’ve played exactly .500 ball with a 24-24 record. Baltimore is 16-21 since June 13, 12-18 since June 21 and 4-10 since July 9.
Still, they’re atop the American League East thanks to the New York Yankees’ even-worse slumping. The Orioles are 61-43 and own a one-game lead over the Yankees (61-45), who defeated the Boston Red Sox in extra innings late Saturday night.
“We’re all trying to do our best to win, and obviously it’s not going our way right now,” Henderson said. “But, I mean, we feel like we’ve got the right mindset. It’s just getting over that hump, and once we do that, I feel like we’ll be in a good spot.”
Kremer escaped a jam in the first and should’ve again in the second. Hyde said the gaffe on the popup — when the ball bounced out of Urías’ glove after Henderson bumped into him as two runs crossed the plate — was “exactly what it looked like.”
“Thought I called it loud enough. But, yeah, I guess he didn’t hear me,” Henderson said. “I gotta do a better job of calling it, I guess.”
Xander Bogaerts then put San Diego (57-50) up 3-0 with an RBI double to left field in the third. That was the only earned run Kremer allowed, but even that one could’ve been snagged by Urías, who didn’t get his glove down in time, on a difficult play for the former Gold Glove Award winner.
In the fourth, second baseman Connor Norby — who made two excellent defensive plays in the loss — started a would-be inning-ending double play, but Henderson’s throw to first was too high for Ryan O’Hearn, allowing an unearned run to score. The 23-year-old Henderson has 14 errors this season and one in each of his past three games.
Kremer didn’t let his poor defense impact his performance, though, delivering what Hyde said was perhaps the right-hander’s best outing of the season. He struck out seven and threw a season-high 105 pitches to deliver the Orioles’ first start of at least six innings by a pitcher not named Corbin Burnes or Grayson Rodriguez since Albert Suárez did so July 5.
Kremer, now Baltimore’s No. 4 starter after the Zach Eflin acquisition, has a 4.20 ERA in 14 starts this year.
“I thought he was absolutely outstanding,” Hyde said. “I thought his stuff was really good. The [splitter] was outstanding. I thought he was unbelievably competitive. … He did a great job of keeping us in the game when it was not looking good, so I give him a lot of credit for battling the way he did.”
Machado’s home run off Irvin in the seventh put the superstar at 1,000 career RBIs at just 32 years old. Severna Park native Jackson Merrill’s sacrifice fly in the ninth provided unneeded insurance for the Padres.
Machado’s long ball was the former Oriole’s 101st at Camden Yards and second as an opponent. He’s received mostly cheers — but some boos — from the announced 30,008 fans during his first series back in Charm City since 2019, the first year of his $350 million contract with the Padres. Ahead of him hitting free agency, the Orioles traded Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers for five prospects, with Kremer being the only one in the majors with the Orioles.
Mullins attempted to breathe some life into his team with his production in the late innings, but the rest of the offense didn’t follow. The center fielder is one of the lone veterans with ties to the previous regime after Austin Hays’ trade to the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
“I think we’re getting in our own way a little bit out there, and we just need to get back to the brand of baseball that we know we can produce every single day,” Mullins said. “I have full confidence in that.”
Padres at Orioles
Sunday, 1:35 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
