The Orioles bumbled their way to a loss against the hated Royals
What is it about the Royals? When the Orioles play them, it feels like they catch no breaks and also do themselves no favors. Cheap hits and sloppy defense abound. It was more of the same tonight as Dean Kremer had to work around poor defense and the Royals doinked the ball all over the field. But it was still a close game until the bottom of the eighth when Cionel Pérez fell apart. The Orioles lose, 8-2.
The troubles started in the very first inning. With Bobby Witt on base via infield single and two outs, Salvador Perez hit a fly ball to left field that should have ended the inning. Heston Kjerstad appeared to be tracking the ball easily until suddenly he wasn’t. The ball fell to his left and Witt scored to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Perez was credited with a double.
So not only were the Orioles losing, but Kremer had to keep pitching. The next batter singled, but Perez did not score. Finally, Dean got the final out on a groundout back to him. He threw 26 pitches in the inning.
The Orioles took the lead back right away, which was nice. But they did it in a messy way. Ryan O’Hearn walked and Tyler O’Neill doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. Kjerstad tried to make up for his bad play in the last inning with an RBI single. O’Hearn scored easily and O’Neill got thrown out at the plate.
There were three unfortunate pieces to that out at the plate. First, it seemed like a bad send by the third base coach. The single was on a ground ball to left field and Jonathan India had the ball before O’Neill even reached third base. Second, India’s throw home was off line and O’Neill would have been safe if he slid. And third, Brandon Hyde made the bizarre decision to challenge the play. He lost that challenge.
The Orioles ended up getting their second run thanks to an error from Royals’ third baseman Maikel Garcia threw the ball away on a ground ball by Ryan Mountcastle. Kjerstad came in to score. But not getting that third run ended up being kind of big in the scheme of the game.
Kremer put get together a nice run after allowing the first-inning run, retiring seven batters in a row. The eighth batter should have been an out as well, but the just-returned Gunnar Henderson let a ground ball slip past him to start the fourth inning. With one out, Cavan Biggio floated a ball out to right field and doinked in for a hit in front of O’Neill.
A wild pitch put both runners in scoring position, where they promptly came in on a sharp single back up the middle from Garcia. The Royals took a 3-2 lead and even though it was only the fourth inning, that was all she wrote.
Starting with a double play from Mountcastle to end the fourth inning, Seth Lugo retired the final seven batters he faced to get through six innings. Old friend Hunter Harvey pitched a perfect seventh to make it 10 in a row overall.
In part because of the bad defense behind him and in part because of his own troubles, Kremer could not complete five innings. With one out in the fifth, Kremer gave up back-to-back singles. Vinnie Pasquantino singled to right, a hit with an exit velocity of just 83 mph. Perez singled on a ground ball that just made it through to the outfield. And that was it for Kremer.
Gregory Soto replaced Kremer, and both he and Seranthony Domínguez were very good tonight. Soto retired all five batters he faced and Domínguez worked around a walk in a scoreless inning.
Then Cionel Pérez came in and things got very bad.
Pérez was incredible in 2022. Since then, however, he has been bad. And it feels like the Orioles just keep expecting him to regain that 2022 form and treating him like that is who he is. And I really want him to be that guy, too! But he just doesn’t seem like he’ll be that guy again.
Tonight, Pérez faced nine batters and retired just three. He gave up five runs. He looked like he had no idea where the ball was going. He threw 37 pitches. The final blow came with the bases loaded and two outs, although in classic Royals fashion, it wasn’t even that big of a hit.
Brandon Hyde elected to intentionally walk Witt with two outs and first base open to set up the lefty-vs-lefty match up between Pérez and Pasquantino. It looked like the move worked when Pasquantino lofted a soft fly ball to right field. But just like earlier in the game, it fell just inside the foul line. All three runners scored.
Now down by six runs in the top of the ninth, the Orioles went quietly. In innings five through nine they had just two baserunners. Gunnar Henderson got an infield single in the eighth inning and Cedric Mullins walked in the ninth.
Orioles lose, 8-2. It was a crappy game played in crappy weather against a team we all hate. But it was only the eighth game of the season so let’s hope for a nice bounce back tomorrow.