BALTIMORE—Last Saturday night, Dean Kremer was hit by a line drive by Colorado’s Jordan Beck and had to leave the game with a bruised right forearm. Manager Brandon Hyde gave the Orioles’ right-hander scant chance of making his next start, especially after seeing the swelling in the area where the ball struck Kremer.
Not only did Kremer make the start on Friday night, but he pitched six hitless innings in the Orioles’ 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays before 25,439 at Camden Yards.
Junior Caminero’s single to left field, leading off the seventh inning, broke up the no-hitter. Dylan Carlson followed with another single and first baseman Ryan O’Hearn booted Josh Lowe’s grounder to load the bases.
Yennier Cano replaced Kremer and struck out Jonny DeLuca and Jose Caballero and then got Ben Rortvedt to pop out to the third in a clutch performance.
Kremer struck out seven, walked three and hit a batter, throwing 88 pitches.
Cionel Pérez recorded the first two outs in the eighth, and Jonathan Aranda reached on an error by shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Seranthony Dominguez struck out Caminero for the third out.
In the ninth, with Dominguez still pitching, Lowe singled with one out and DeLuca reached on an error when Henderson couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. Lowe and DeLuca pulled off a double steal when Caballero struck out, but Rortvedt popped to short to end the game.
Dominguez recorded his eighth save with the Orioles.
The Orioles’ win combined with the New York Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Chicago Cubs kept Baltimore a ½ game in front in the American League East.
With the win, the Orioles (82-61) secured a winning record for the third straight season, the first time they’ve done that since 2012-2014.
Until the seventh inning hits, the only close call came when Jackson Holliday jumped and made a great play on Yandy Diaz’s line drove to second to start the sixth.
Tampa Bay’s Shane Baz (2-3) didn’t give up a hit until Henderson’s leadoff single in the fourth.
In the fifth, the Orioles scored without a hit. Colton Cowser led off with a walk, and with one out, he tried to steal with Cedric Mullins batting. Rortvedt threw the ball to second, not realizing that Mullins had walked. The throw was wild, and Cowser took third on the error and scored on Holliday’s sacrifice fly ball to left.
Henderson hit his 36th home run to lead off the sixth for a 2-0 lead.