This one was ugly start to finish
Tonight was a letdown game for sure. The first-place Orioles returned home to face the last-place Cubs and just did not play well on all sides of the ball. Starting pitching? Bad. Defense? Ugh. Offense? Ick. Every team loses games and any one loss isn’t worth getting worked up over. But it really would have been nice to win this one.
Dean Kremer was back on the mound for his second start since returning from the injured list and it did not go nearly as well as his first. He pitched four innings and gave up runs in all four. Altogether he was responsible for seven of the nine runs the Cubs scored, although just five were earned. Shoddy defense played behind him in the third inning resulted in two unearned.
The trouble started in the first inning when Kremer allowed a one-out home run to Michael Busch. Busch ambushed a first-pitch fastball to the opposite field onto the flag court. Even with the homer, though, Kremer looked his best of the night in the first inning. He got final two outs quickly and needed just 10 pitches. I think I can say I wasn’t worried about starting pitching at that point.
Kremer gave up another single run in the second inning but the inning was a struggle. Ian Happ and Christopher Morel started things off with back-to-back singles. Dansby Swanson appeared to hit into a double play ball but a manager’s challenge from the Cubs showed pretty clearly that Swanson beat the throw. Kremer couldn’t bounce back and walked the next batter to load the bases.
The next two batters hit the ball to right field. For Tomás Nido the result was a sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Nico Hoerner hit a sinking line drive that looked like trouble but Anthony Santander made a nice diving play to snag the ball on the fly and end the inning.
The Orioles got one of their two runs in the game in the second inning courtesy of Jordan Westburg. The newly minted All-Star celebrated with a home run into the Bird Bath. There are no cheap shots to left field at Camden Yards and this one went 418 feet. Heston Kjerstad followed the dinger with a walk, his first of two times getting on base in the game. But the other Orioles couldn’t get a rally going as the next three batters made outs.
The third inning was a mess in both halves. In the top half, Kremer got one out on a pop-up, but then things went wrong. Cody Bellinger hit a ball back up the middle. Gunnar Henderson was in a position to play it but Kremer deflected it a bit, causing Henderson to backtrack to get it. He should have put the ball in his pocket at that point. Instead, he let the ball sail past first base and into the dugout. Bellinger took second and promptly scored on a single from Seiya Suzuki. Argh.
Kremer responded to this bad luck by walking Happ. Christopher Morel hit a ball to third base. It might have been an inning-ending double play, but Ramón Urías booted the ball for the second error of the inning. Swanson came to the plate and hit a ball to third as well. Urías stepped on third for the second out but couldn’t turn it into a double play. Suzuki scored, 4-1 Cubs.
Kremer dragged out the inning with another walk but got a fly ball for the third out without another runner crossing the plate. It was a very ugly top of the third inning. The bottom wasn’t much better.
Henderson and Rutschman started the third inning with back-to-back singles. That put runners on the corners with no outs and it felt like the Orioles were in business. They were not in business. Santander hit into a double play that did result in a run but also squashed the budding rally. O’Hearn lined out to end the inning. The Orioles would not have another hit until the seventh inning.
Despite three ugly innings, the game was still within reach. A 4-2 score is nothing. It didn’t stay 4-2 for long. Kremer put the first two batters on with a HBP and a single, but then got two outs and went 0-2 on Happ. He was so close to getting out of it. But, alas. Happ fouled off a few pitches before launching a ball onto Eutaw Street, his 14th homer of the year. That made the score 7-2.
Jameson Taillon is having a very good year and tonight was more of the same. After he danced out of trouble in the third inning, he went on a tear. Starting with the double play ball from Satander, he retired the final 11 batters he faced, racking up a total of seven strikeouts.
Taillon came out of the game after six innings with his team armed with a big lead. It was only then that they picked up another hit, a Kjerstad single in the seventh. But that was the only base runner they had against the Cubs’ bullpen over the final innings of the game. Tyson Miller, Mark Leiter, Jr., and Hunter Bigge retired nine out of 10 to wrap things up. Bigge was making his major-league debut and he threw 100 mph.
The Orioles’ bullpen did not have the same success, though it was not the A-team. Bryan Baker was good with two scoreless innings, but Keegan Akin and Dillon Tate were both bad. Akin gave up one run on four hits in two innings. Tate was even sloppier with a run on three hits in just one inning. Not ideal.
Orioles lose, 9-2. They are back in action tomorrow at 6:35 with a premiere pitching matchup: Corbin Burnes vs Shota Imanaga. Hopefully the Orioles bring their bats to that one. And their gloves.