Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg had never walked off an opponent at any level of baseball in his career. The 25-year-old waited for the biggest stage of his young career to do it, clubbing an opposite-field, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday night at Camden Yards to lead Baltimore to a come-from-behind 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
“That was the coolest moment of my career so far,” the Orioles’ second baseman said in the clubhouse after getting doused with an ice water bath and being mobbed by teammates at home plate. “So, to have my first one here in Baltimore was pretty special.”
After the Orioles infield recorded a pair of uncharacteristic errors in the first inning, the club came up big defensively in key moments to overcome a 3-0 deficit. Westburg’s walk-off swing was necessitated by a Kansas City rally in the top of the ninth against closer Craig Kimbrel, who allowed the tying run in the top of the frame in his Orioles debut.
First baseman Ryan Mountcastle also had two clutch swings to lead the offensive charge, but the defense kept Baltimore in it.
Two of the Orioles’ best defenders picked up their first errors of 2024 four batters into the game as third baseman Ramón Urías, a Gold Glove Award winner in 2022, and shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who graded out well above average at both third and short as a rookie last season, could not field ground balls cleanly. Urías booted a ball in the dirt with his glove to allow the leadoff man to reach and Henderson mishandled a double play ball that could have ended the inning.
Starter Dean Kremer picked his teammates up, working out of the frame without allowing a run to cross. His evening was off to a nice start before his home run troubles from a year ago resurfaced. Nineteen of Kremer’s 27 home runs allowed in 2023 came on either his fastball or cutter, and those two pitches proved susceptible again in the third.
After recording two quick outs to begin the frame, Kremer couldn’t put the Royals away. Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. blasted a four-seamer over the heart of the plate for a 440-foot solo home run to left-center. Two batters later, catcher Salvador Pérez took a cutter deep to right for a two-run homer.
Kremer settled down from there, retiring eight of the final nine hitters he faced before manager Brandon Hyde pulled him with one out in the sixth. It was, in the end, a solid start for the right-hander, who finished with five punchouts including a swinging strikeout of Pérez for his last pitch of the evening before giving way to reliever Keegan Akin.
“It is what it is,” Kremer said of the first-inning errors. “We’re all human. Guys make errors. It is what it is but it’s my job to pick them up and they picked me up all night on the offensive side.”
Kremer’s final pitching line was aided by some spectacular plays by right fielder Anthony Santander, who made a running catch at the warning track in the first to rob first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino of a hit in the first and a fully extended diving grab to take another away from center fielder Kyle Isbel in the fifth.
The defensive showcase carried over into the later innings. Catcher Adley Rutschman made a sliding backhand catch in foul territory in the sixth to help Akin escape after falling behind left fielder MJ Melendez 2-0 in the count. The next inning, Mountcastle caught a sharp grounder with a diving snag to his left before getting up and diving again, this time toward the bag, to beat Isbel for the out.
Mountcastle’s big dig day extended to the batter’s box as well, where he hit a game-tying two-home run home run off Royals starter Michael Wacha in the fourth and drove in the go-ahead run on an infield single with two outs in the eighth. A victim of the deep Camden Yards left field wall Saturday when he hit a ball off the top of the fence, Mountcastle cleared it with a 408-foot longball. It gave him the privilege of being the first to try out the Orioles’ tentative new home run celebration: parading through the dugout with the handlebars of a bike.
“I feel like I’m always the first to do” the home run celebrations, said Mountcastle, who was also the first to use the Orioles’ homer hose last season. “They handed them to me, I didn’t really know what to do with it. I was like, ‘OK,’ I honestly didn’t know what it was. I grabbed it and was like, ‘Handlebars?’ But no, it’s cool.”
Monday’s contest also offered a first look at the Orioles’ bullpen duo of Yennier Cano and Kimbrel. Cano, who made his season debut in Sunday’s 4-1 loss, took the ball for his first high-leverage appearance of the year when he replaced Akin with two outs and a runner on third in the seventh. He got out of the jam and evaded another in the eighth, this one a mess of his own making, putting two runners in scoring position before retiring three straight hitters to keep the score tied at 3.
Mountcastle’s go-ahead single gave the Orioles (3-1) a one-run lead heading into the ninth, paving the way for Kimbrel to get his first save opportunity with the club. The future Hall of Famer wasn’t able to convert, however, as the Royals scraped a run across with a one-out single by Isbel and two stolen bases by pinch runner Dairon Blanco. Third baseman Maikel Garcia brought him home with a sacrifice fly.
“That was an unfortunate bloop,” Hyde said of Isbel’s single. “Made a good pitch, and the guy just finds the right spot.”
That set the stage for Westburg, who came up with a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth and took an 0-2 offering from Royals reliever Nick Anderson and deposited it into the second row of seats next to the right field scoreboard for the Orioles’ first walk-off win of the season. It was the first walk-off of Westburg’s young career and Baltimore’s first such victory of 2024.
“I’m still still learning, still adjusting,” Westburg said. “But I’m more comfortable in the clubhouse and more comfortable in the dugout, more comfortable with my role and understanding what’s going to be asked of me right now. So, hopefully I can just continue to pump out a good product on the field and help this team win.”
Royals at Orioles
Tuesday, 6:35 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
