Milwaukee hit three home runs and the Orioles’ offense looked lost for much of the night as the O’s drop to 0-4 under interim manager Tony Mansolino.
The Orioles have been all about embracing change recently, but they couldn’t do anything with Logan Henderson’s changeup as they fell to the Brewers, 5-2.
From the very beginning of the game, the Baltimore bats looked lost against Milwaukee’s rookie right-hander and his excellent offspeed offering. Henderson started off the 1st with back-to-back strikeouts of Jackson Holliday and Adley Rtuschman on changeups—including one cambio that made Adley look absolutely silly. Henderson got the first six outs of his outing all on changeups, as he consistently worked the pitch to both sides of the plate.
The O’s wouldn’t get their first hit off Henderson until the bottom of the 4th, when Gunnar Henderson hit a hard ground ball to the left side and hustled down the line to beat the throw to first. With Baltimore down 1-0, Henderson immediately stole second to try and spark a game-tying rally. Those sparks failed to ignite anything, though, as Ramón Laureano K’d on a fastball up and away and Ryan O’Hearn’s sinking liner to left found a Brewer glove—leaving Henderson stranded. The 23-year-old right-hander ended up throwing five shutout innings, while allowing only two hits and racking up seven Ks.
The Orioles’ inability to hit with runners in scoring position reared its ugly head once again Tuesday, as multiple chances to eat into a 3-0 Milwaukee lead came and went. In the 5th, Ryan Mountcastle led off the inning with a single on the first pitch he saw. RMC later moved to second on a two-out walk from Ramón Urías. That gave Jackson Holiday the chance to finally get the O’s on the board, but the budding star could only swat a fly ball down the left field line for the final out.
Holliday would redeem himself in the 7th, but only after another run-scoring opportunity dripping with disappointment. Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins started the inning with back-to-back singles against Brewers reliever Tyler Alexander. That brought Heston Kjerstad to the plate, who, all too predictably, grounded into a 4-3 double play to leave only Mounty at third with two outs.
Urías delivered the O’s first hit with a runner in scoring position all night, dropping a single into shallow left center to score Mountcastle and cut the deficit to 3-1. Holliday then came inches short of tying the game, blasting a triple off the top of the wall in left center to score Urías and bring the Orioles within a run. Adley Rutschman failed to keep the rally going, though, leaving Holliday stranded at third after a lazy fly ball to center.
Those back-to-back hits in the 7th were the only excitement the Baltimore bats provided all evening, as a weak Dylan Carlson single in the 8th was the only other hit they’d register in their tepid attempt at a comeback. Up 5-2 after a disastrous bottom of the 8th for the O’s, Milwaukee close Abner Uribe struck out the side in the 9th to hand the Orioles their 8th straight L.
On the mound, Keegan Akin got the start as Tuesday’s opener, working a scoreless bottom of the 1st with a pair of Ks. The O’s then turned to rookie Chayce McDermott in the 2nd, looking to get the 26-year-old on the right track in his third big league appearance. McDermott was better against the Brewers than his other two big league outings, but no one mistook his appearance Tuesday for being “good.”
He worked a relatively clean 2nd inning, starting with retiring Rhys Hoskins on a one-pitch pop-up before working around a one-out walk with a pair of groundouts. The walk was a foreboding sign of things to come, however, as McDermott struggled to get ahead of hitters and never really settled in against Milwaukee.
With one out in the 3rd, McDermott fell behind Brice Turang 3-1 before throwing a fastball right down the middle of the plate. The Brewers’ leadoff hitter pounced on the mistake, sending the ball into the left-center bullpen for a solo HR. It was the first of three batters that inning were McDermott found himself in a three-ball count, and the rookie was fortunate to escape the inning only down 1-0.
McDermott ran into more trouble in the 4th, though not entirely of his own making. Hoskins led off the inning by launching a high pop-up into shallow right field. In a turn of events all too indicative of the Orioles’ struggles, the Brewer 1B ended up with a double after Laureano’s foot got stuck on an attempted sliding catch, leaving him unable to haul in the pop fly.
While the way he got on base may have seemed cheap, there was nothing cheap about the hit that brought Hoskins home. With one out, McDermott hung a slider to Sal Frelick, who turned on the breaking ball and deposited a two-run homer into the right field seats. Immediately before the long ball, Kevin Brown called Frelick, “one of the softest hitters in baseball,” but there was nothing soft about the 412ft, 105 mph blast to right.
McDermott’s best moment of the night game in the 5th, as he Houdini’d himself out of a two-on, nobody out jam. Jackson Chourio led off the inning with a single on another hanging slider and then William Contreras walked to start the potential rally. Both runners moved up on a Christian Yelich groundout, meaning McDermott would have to lock in to keep the game at 3-0.
He did just that, punching out Hoskins on a high and away fastball and getting Isaac Colling to ground out to third to end the threat. McDermott would get the first two outs of the 6th before being pulled, giving him a final line of 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 5 BB and 2 K. The 4.2 innings were a career high for McDermott, and we’ll have to see if the outing was enough to keep him in Baltimore.
Félix Bautista entered in the 8th and gave up a solo HR to Hoskins to give Milwaukee a 4-2 lead. The Mountain then walked Frelick, who stole second and game around to score on a throwing error from Holliday.
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The loss drops the Orioles to 15-32, just 1.5 games ahead of the White Sox for the worst record in the AL. Tomoyuki Sugano will take the mound tomorrow afternoon, trying to save Baltimore from their fourth sweep in their last five series.