Orioles strike out season-high 16, hang on for crazy win in LA rubber match, 6-5

The Orioles had a 6-0 lead at one time that turned into another stressful win

Beware of soft-tossing lefties, goes a familiar saying around these parts. I’m kidding; that’s not a saying. It’s true, though, that the 2024 Orioles have a sad .666 OPS against left-handed starters on the season thus far.

But—this is a real saying—good teams find a way to win.

So against Los Angeles starter Tyler Anderson, the Orioles scratched out a couple runs, worked the count, drove the starter from the game early, then went to town against the bullpen. Good game plan. And it worked: the Orioles tagged lefty reliever José Suárez for four runs on four hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch to build themselves a 6-0 lead in the sixth inning.

Which is to say, there was no way this game would end with the score 6-5, O’s closer Craig Kimbrel on the mound in the ninth inning with two outs, and the umpires in New York reviewing a game-ending caught stealing by James McCann.

Well, dear reader, the game did end that way. It was nuts. But it was—after everything—a win.

Let’s point out the obvious: for a mediocre Angels offense to whittle down a six-run lead to practically nothing over the last twelve hitters means the Orioles bullpen had another crappy day.

Jacob Webb continues to be homer-prone: he entered with two outs and a runner on in the sixth and surrendered a two-run home run on his very first pitch. Yennier Cano gave up a solo home run to No. 9 hitter Zach Neto. And while Craig Kimbrel deserves no blame for the Angels’ fifth run, which scored on a Jorge Mateo two-bag throwing error and a groundout, it was still scary to watch him out there before McCann shut the door.

In truth, the last four innings were weird enough that they obscured what was otherwise an excellent start by Orioles starter Dean Kremer.

Dean Kremer has heard what you said about his spot in the rotation—and he doesn’t care for it. Kremer’s stuff was certainly sharp today. He struck out a career-high 10 Angels in 5 2/3 innings, drawing 18 whiffs on 48 swings, good for a superlative 38% whiff rate. He had a no-hitter going through 4 2/3 innings and ended up allowing just two singles and a solo home run to Mike Trout (I mean, if you’re going to allow a solo home run to anyone….)

Kremer’s final line—5 2/3 IP, 2 R, 10 K, 1 BB, 1 HR—is decent, not stellar, but really: his stuff was on-point. It was an excellent performance and something to build on.

As far as the Orioles offense went, well, it pays to be patient. The hitters had to slowly chip away at soft-tossing, soft-contact-allowing Tyler Anderson, but several showed solid approaches today.

One happened to be Gunnar Henderson, who reached base five times and continues to look like a total beast. In the third inning, Gunnar launched a gorgeous 379-foot home run to put the O’s up 1-0. At that moment, MASN happened to catch someone in the dugout go, “MVP right there.”

Gunnar bolstered this case in the fifth inning, reaching a third time as he poked a changeup the opposite way for a leadoff double. Next man up, known I Think You Should Leave fan Adley Rutschman guessed right and smacked a slow fastball into right, his first hit of the day. It was enough for Henderson to zoom around third base and score the Orioles’ second run.

That was all Baltimore would do against Anderson, but the team had pushed his pitch count north of 100 before the end of the fifth. The Angels bullpen has a collective 4.58 ERA (higher after today), 22^nd in MLB. It was time to take advantage. The Angels brought in the barrel-shaped José Suárez in the sixth, and the Orioles made them pay.

James McCann hit a leadoff double off Suárez, and Colton Cowser followed with a four-pitch walk. From the bottom of the lineup, Jorge Mateo blasted a ball into the left-field corner that Taylor Ward couldn’t leg out, and the ball became a ground-rule double after taking a bad bounce into the stands (bad because almost certainly Cowser would have scored from first on it, and Mateo would have had a triple).

It wasn’t a total loss: Henderson’s third hit of the game went for a two-run single, scoring Cowser and Mateo. It was 5-0 Orioles, and they’d tack on a sixth run that inning on a Ryan Mountcastle GIDP.

Speaking of Henderson, he gave his team one more contribution in the eighth inning, backing up an otherwise-solid Danny Coulombe with this defensive gem. Henderson is 22, one of the AL’s Top 3 in offensive WAR, and does this in the shortstop position? It kind of boggles the mind.

After trying but failing to get some insurance runs, the Orioles summoned Craig Kimbrel in the ninth in what was now a save situation. Kimbrel drew a weak roller from utility infielder Ehire Adrianza, but horrifyingly, Mateo tried to make a hero play and threw the ball away while Adrianza scampered all the way to third. A groundout brought Adrianza home and clipped the lead to one run.

Was Craig Kimbrel up to the task of securing his 424^th career save and the series for Baltimore? Yes, but I can’t say it was pretty. Kimbrell whiffed pinch-hitter Matt Thaiss with 96 up in the zone for the second out, but walked speedster Jo Adell, and you knew Adell would run on the notoriously lax-at-holding-runners Kimbrel.

Lo and behold, with two outs, Adell took off. But at the best imaginable time, catcher James McCann threw a dime to Gunnar Henderson covering second. Bam! Adell was out, and the game was over.

The umpires reviewed the call for what felt like forever, but at the end of their meditations, this was a final third out and a series win for Baltimore. Good news everywhere: the West Coast road trip ends with a successful 4-2 record and the Orioles have a 16-8 record, tied for first in the AL East.