Starter Dean Kremer held the Rays to one run in five innings, and if you can believe it, there were lots of well-timed RBI hits.
Do you get the feeling that interim manager Tony Mansolino is actually pretty good? Tonight’s matchup featured a tight leash on the starter, aggressive baserunning and hitting in 3-0 counts, and lots of hitters with favorable numbers against Rays starter Zack Littell: Gunnar Henderson (7-for-15 with 2 HR), Adley Rutschman (4-for-13), Colton Cowser (3-for-9), and Ramón Laureano (6-for-18).
These men and these moves made Mansolino look quite brilliant tonight. Cowser homered, Laureano had two RBIs and a web gem in right field, and Gunnar Henderson came through in a lefty-lefty matchup to drive in an insurance run. Mansolino managed this game as though it were a late-season divisional matchup and the Orioles were fighting for a wild card spot. Maybe that’s all a pipe dream, but still, tonight felt like old-school baseball: good pitching, clutch hitting, solid defense, and a watertight bullpen.
Tampa Bay’s Zack Littell is the MLB leader (not in a good way) in home runs allowed, at 21 (er, make that 22), and hanging breaking balls is the reason… This includes the 88-mph slider he left in prime position for Jordan Westburg to smack 409 feet at 111 mph. The powers-that-be called it a double, and so it stood, but fortunately this technicality didn’t hurt the run-scoring effort: Ramón Laureano singled Westburg home. 1-0, Orioles—and score one for Tony Mansolino.
About that: the very next inning, Jonathan Aranda hit a ball to the gap—a tailor-made double—but Ramón Laureano didn’t care. Swiftly cutting off the ball, Laureano threw a bullet from his back foot to Gunnar Henderson, who froze Aranda at second with a no-look tag. Dean Kremer gave a deserved hat tip. If you can imagine Ryan O’Hearn or Anthony Santander making this play in right field, I’ll tell you you’re a crazy person.
Dean Kremer wasn’t perfect: he hung some curveballs and splitters that perhaps a true slugger would have socked out of the park, but he got by with a little help from his friends. A first-inning double play erased a Kremer leadoff walk, Laureano’s assist came in the second, and Kremer held the Rays to one run in a nail-biter of a fourth after a leadoff Brandon Lowe double, Yandy Díaz walk, and a sac fly and single. But Kremer froze Jake Mangum with a dart to the outside corner and fanned catcher Matt Thaiss with a nasty splitter after a nine-pitch duel.
The O’s starter deserves credit for holding the Rays to one run over five innings (I mean, we saw Zach Eflin do far worse the night before). Tonight was the night of the Kremer breaking ball: he threw 30% splitters and 25% curveballs. The hook, it must be said, looked gigantic, with plenty of silly swings across the four strikeouts he sprinkled through this game. Here’s one against Kameron Misner, Kremer’s career 500th.
Managing this game extremely tightly, Mansolino lifted Kremer after five and brought in Akin. That move also worked.
As for the Rays starter, it wasn’t that Littell looked bad so much as that his mistakes were costly. Cut to the fifth inning, with two outs, the game tied 1-1, and Colton Cowser down in the count 0-2. Littell could have thrown basically anything, but he chose to serve up a hittable slider that Cowser powered over the fence. MASN color commentator Brian Roberts practically cackled, “Colton Cowser’s got his swagger back!” The Milkman wasn’t gloating or anything; mostly he just looked relieved. Mostly this was a beautiful swing.
I still remember a crazy ALCS game where Rays manager Kevin Cash lifted his starter too early. This is not at all the same thing, but Cash might have left in his starter a little too long. (Backseat drivers are no fun, huh?) In the sixth inning, Littell started to miss the zone, and the Orioles strung together three straight singles, including this one by Laureano to drive in Jordan Westburg, who was hitting everything tonight.
“That is a big league at-bat by Laureano,” summarized Brian Roberts. Totally right.
Insurance runs have been hard to come by this year, but tonight the Orioles tacked on a welcome two. In the seventh inning, two switch-hitters, Dylan Carlson and Adley Rutschman, flipped to the right side of the plate against hard-throwing lefty reliever Mason Montgomery, and singled back-to-back. Two outs, runners on the corners is a situation the ’25 Orioles have frequently failed in, but Gunnar Henderson came through against the lefty Montgomery to score Carlson. As MASN’s Kevin Brown recounted, Henderson has a hit in his last seven games where he’s faced a lefty. It was a terrific piece of hitting.
Carlson also set up a fifth run, this time against old Orioles friend Cole Sulser. He legged out an infield single, stole second, and came home on a Jackson Holliday single off a 3-1 pitch, third base coach Buck Britton continuing his aggressive ways with the send. “I love this brand of baseball!” exclaimed Brian Roberts. We agree!
The O’s bullpen also continued its dominant run. Keegan Akin pitched a pretty 1.2 innings, twisting up good hitters like Díaz, Aranda and Caminero. Gregory Soto made a cameo appearance, striking out lefty Josh Lowe, the one guy he faced. Soto’s been hitting the strike zone lately and also looks like a terrible pitcher to face. Bryan Baker seems, like, totally amped up lately, and he, too, kept the rally going. “La Montaña” Bautista retired three Rays in order.
Back on May 17, when manager Brandon Hyde got fired, it felt like a brave new world of uncertainty, and perhaps futility. The team was thirteen games below .500, and with a battery of injuries, not likely to soar into contention anytime soon. Well, as Kevin Brown said, “We’re seeing the Orioles play with freedom.” Certainly right. It’s a lot of fun.