The Orioles on Monday tested their new home run celebration for the 2024 season — the homer handlebars — but players maintained after the exhilarating win that the celebration is still a work in progress.
They’ll have to wait at least another day to continue its development.
Baltimore’s bats stalled on Tuesday and starting pitcher Cole Irvin struggled in a 4-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. The offensive output was fitting for the conditions, as a few thousand fans — official attendance was 9,404 — at Camden Yards witnessed the Orioles record just three hits while braving the low-40-degree wind chill and persistent rain.
“We didn’t do anything offensively, so just not our best night,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
Orioles hitters were stymied by right-hander Alec Marsh, who entered the chilly evening with just eight career starts. His seven innings and one run allowed were both career bests. Marsh, who posted a 5.69 ERA in his first big league season last year, needed only 76 pitches to get through seven frames, as Orioles hitters swung — and got out — early and often in their at-bats.
“Tonight wasn’t our best night, for me, approach-wise,” Hyde said. “I thought we had a lot of early-in-the-count outs. … We didn’t really make Marsh work, I thought. Giving him credit, I thought he threw the ball well, really kept us off balance and threw a bunch of strikes.
“But we need to be kind of a grind-out, next-guy-up type of team, and tonight, for me, we just had a lot of soft outs early in the count.”
It didn’t get much better against Kansas City’s bullpen, as John Schreiber and Will Smith followed Marsh to slam the door. The Orioles’ offense had six or more runs and nine-plus hits in three of the club’s first four games, including Monday’s win thanks to Jordan Westburg’s walk-off home run. No heroics were available Tuesday, as Smith set down the side in order in the ninth.
“It felt like one of those nights,” right fielder Ryan O’Hearn said. “I feel like we had a lot of balls hit hard right at guys. Sometimes it happens that way.”
The Orioles’ lone run came across the plate on an RBI double by Colton Cowser, one of the club’s top prospects who was in the starting lineup for the first time this season. His cue shot down the left field line scored Westburg, who smoked a double to left field. The 24-year-old outfielder went 2-for-3 with two opposite-field hits and perfect defense in Camden Yards’ large left field in Austin Hays’ stead.
“That’s nice to see him stay on the baseball and drive the ball the other way,” Hyde said.
Baltimore (3-2) trailed 3-0 in the second inning as Irvin, the Orioles’ fifth starter with Kyle Bradish and John Means on the injured list, was hit hard. The veteran left-hander allowed four straight batters to reach base as the Royals (2-3) built their early lead. After a one-out walk and single, Irvin surrendered an RBI single to Nick Loftin and a two-run double to leadoff hitter Maikel Garcia.
He pitched well from then on, stranding Garcia by striking out star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. for a second time and getting Vinnie Pasquantino to ground out. Irvin put up zeroes in the third and fifth but allowed one run in the fourth because of a two-out walk and a triple by Garcia. Irvin gave up seven hits and walked two with three strikeouts in five innings.
“I thought he was OK,” Hyde said. “Just that second inning, just a few too many balls in the heart of the plate that got hit, and then he gave up one during the fourth, but just a rough second inning.”
Irvin, who hadn’t started a game in nine days since spring training, said he got away from his changeup, his most consistent offspeed offering, in the second inning. Once he committed to it, he was pleased with his stuff, especially his curveball, which generated four swings and misses.
“That’s just the tale of the game: When I was throwing my changeup, I was really good,” Irvin said, adding later that he believes he’s in a “really great spot” heading into his next start.
Orioles minor league report: 5 timelines for when Baltimore could promote Jackson Holliday
The Orioles’ starting rotation had impressed entering Tuesday, as Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer combined to strike out 32 batters versus two walks with three quality starts. Irvin is the only Orioles starter to not pitch into the sixth inning through the first turn of the rotation. He mostly pounded the zone, but both batters he walked scored.
“Those two walks … led to runs,” Irvin said. “It might be a 2-1 ballgame there going into the ninth, and it might’ve helped our team ignite some offense.”
Relievers Dillon Tate, Jacob Webb and Jonathan Heasley followed Irvin to throw four scoreless innings.
After Cowser’s RBI double, the Orioles’ best chance to score came in the eighth when the 2021 No. 5 overall pick got his second knock. Unlike the first, which had an exit velocity of 61.6 mph, his single was smoked at 104.7 mph. It appeared Cowser could score on a line drive by Tony Kemp, also starting his first game of the season, down the right field line, but first base umpire Paul Clemons ruled it a foul ball. Hyde challenged the call, and it stood as called but was not confirmed by reviewers in New York. Kemp popped out, and Henderson grounded out to end the threat.
To lead off the ninth, catcher Adley Rutschman clobbered a fly ball with an expected batting average of .670, according to Statcast tracking data, but the cold air and extended left field wall at Camden Yards robbed a right-handed home run from Rutschman.
The unfavorable weather will continue Wednesday for the rubber match at 1:05 p.m., as forecasts project rain for most of the morning and afternoon.
“You don’t ever want to play in 40-whatever and the sleet and the wet and all that,” O’Hearn said. “But it’s our job to go out there and try to win a ballgame no matter what the conditions are, and both teams have to deal with it. It is what it is.”
Around the horn
• The top hitting prospects at Triple-A Norfolk opened the season scorching hot at the plate this past weekend. They kept it going Tuesday in the Tides’ series opener against the Charlotte Knights (White Sox). Jackson Holliday, Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers all blasted homers — the second of the season for each — while Heston Kjerstad went deep twice in the Tides’ 10-6 win.
• Former Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen signed a contract with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League — a team filled with ex-Orioles. He will pitch to Chance Sisco, who played for the rebuild-era Orioles. The Ducks’ coach is Lew Ford, who played for Baltimore in 2012, and their hitting coach is Alexi Casilla, an Oriole in 2013 and 2014. Chen, a starting pitcher in Baltimore from 2012 to 2015, won 46 games with a 3.72 ERA during a successful tenure with the Buck Showalter-era Orioles.
Royals at Orioles
Wednesday, 1:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
