The Orioles pitching was really good until it wasn’t, and the offense just never got going in the series opener.
An implosion by Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning meant a wasted Corbin Burnes start, and a 2-1 loss for the Orioles to begin a weekend series against the Athletics.
Before we get to that, perhaps the biggest long-term takeaway from this game was the Orioles’ new on-field look. As usual, they donned their City Connect jerseys for a Friday home game, but this time they altered the outfit just a tad. Instead of the corresponding black pants, they opted for the more traditional white trousers to complete the uniform.
Now to the play on the field…
Burnes started for the O’s and delivered the exact sort of performance we have come to expect from him. Unfortuntatley, that included what has been his lone issue this year, struggles in the first inning.
Coming into this game, Burnes had allowed four first-inning runs—including three home runs—across five starts. That problem got worse here as he served up a solo homer to Shea Langeliers to give the A’s a 1-0 lead. He followed that up with back-to-back walks before he got out of the jam with a pop out.
But that was Burnes’ only blemish in another stellar start. From the second inning through the sixth, he allowed only three baserunners and none of them made it beyond second base. His stuff was as good as ever as his fastball averaged 95 mph and he register a 42% whiff rate across all pitches. The O’s ace maintained his early Cy Young candidacy.
It took the Orioles until the third inning to get on the board against A’s starter Ross Stripling. Gunnar Henderson reached on a fielder’s choice with two outs, advanced on an Adley Rutschman single, and then scooted on home thanks to a Ryan O’Hearn RBI base knock.
Cedric Mullins gave the home team the lead in the fourth inning. With one out he launched his sixth home run of the season onto the flag court in right field to make it 2-1 O’s.
And that was all they could muster against Stripling, who had entered the game with a 5.34 ERA. To be fair, the veteran righty had pitched better than that number indicated to this point in the season. The difference for him in this game was that he did not issue any free passes, so while the O’s did well to get six hits off of him, the pitcher didn’t do them any favors to create additional opportunities.
From there it became a battle of the bullpens, an area where the A’s have been a better team than the Orioles this season. That was evident here.
After old friend T.J. McFarland got the final out of the sixth inning, the A’s turned the ball over to Mitch Spence. The rookie was fantastic. Over three hitless innings he allowed just one baserunner on a walk and a two strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the O’s went their typical route went leading late. Danny Coulombe was first out of the bullpen, followed by Yennier Cano, and finally Craig Kimbrel. Well, the first two parts of that trio went fine enough. Cano was particularly good. But Kimbrel was quite bad.
It was the worst that Kimbrel has looked in an Orioles uniform. Velocity wasn’t the issue. The closer was consistently at 93 or 94 mph with his fastball, average for him at this point in his career. But control was a problem. Of the 24 pitches he ended up throwing, only eight were strikes, an abysmal performance.
Brent Rooker led off the inning with a double. JJ Bleday followed with a walk (the first of Kimbrel’s nightmare outing). Abraham Toro was up next, and he knocked in the tying run with a double just over the glove of the newly promoted Ryan McKenna in right field. Bleday moved to third on the hit.
After a mound visit, Kimbrel immediately threw an insane wild pitch towards the first base dugout. Bleday broke for home as Rutschman chased the wayward offering. The O’s backstop got to the ball quickly and fed to Kimbrel covering. It seemed that the ball had arrived in plenty of time and Kimbrel was essentially blocked a sliding Bleday from touching the plate at all. And yet the home plate umpire ruled the runner safe anyway.
The Orioles immediately challenged and replay confirmed what most of those watching had assumed. Bleday never touched the plate and Kimbrel had managed to tag him. The call was overturned and the tie reinstated.
But Kimbrel continued to struggle. He walked the next two hitters before Brandon Hyde summoned Keegan Akin from the ‘pen. The southpaw came on to escape the bases loaded situation with a strikeout and pop out.
The O’s were unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings.
Jacob Webb came on for Akin in the top of the 10th inning. A grounder moved the Zombie runner over to third base. Langeliers was up next, and he hit a sharp grounder to third base. Ramón Urías fielded it cleanly and fired home to get the Zombie in a rundown, which ended in an out and Langelier failing to advance into scoring position. Perhaps the Orioles would pull off the miracle of not giving up an extra inning run? No, the next hitter, Rookie, hit a double into left field, Cowser failed to hit the cut off man and Langelier scored all the way from first base anyway. The A’s had a 3-2 lead and Mason Miller trotting in from their bullpen.
That went as well as you would think. Miller is the best closer in baseball right now. He struck out Cowser, induced a ridiculously weak grounder from pinch hitter Heston Kjerstad, and then struck out Gunnar Henderson to sit the Orioles down and send the home crowd home sad.
It was a bummer of an outcome after Burnes had pitched so well. Kimbrel had a meltdown in the ninth. That’s going to happen occasionally. It would have been nice if the offense had been able to score more than two runs all night and make his appearance unneeded.
Webb also should have done better in the 10th after the Orioles lucked into getting the Zombie runner out. But alas, it didn’t happen. Go get ‘em tomorrow, fellas.
Cole Irvin (1-1, 4.64 ERA) faces off against his former team. J.P. Sears pitches for the A’s. First pitch is 4:05 from Camden Yards.