Surprising many this season, the Orioles burst into contention early on the strength of their bats. But they’ve been a streaky group, enjoying for long stretches one of the American League’s best offenses by a variety of metrics. They’ve also been prone to sudden spells, however, and are now fading from the postseason picture as those bats have gone silent.
Limited to a run on four hits by Jordan Montgomery and four Yankees relievers, the Orioles dropped their fourth straight with Saturday’s 2-1, 10-inning defeat at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles spoiled fine outings from Dean Kremer and Cesar Valdez and stranded the go-ahead runner on third in the 10th before Luke Voit’s walk-off sac fly off Hunter Harvey provided the final tally.
The Orioles have, in a 24-hour span, lost the first three games of this pivotal four-game weekend series to the Yankees, falling 4 1/2 games behind New York for the final AL Wild Card spot with 15 games to play. They’ve scored just two runs over 24 innings this weekend, going 10-for-84 (.119) with one homer and 28 strikeouts over their last three contests.
“The bottom line is, we’re having a tough time scoring runs here,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’ve got to be able to score some runs. … I was disappointed in our at-bats today.”
After the Orioles were held in check by Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka in Friday’s doubleheader, Hyde and his players in large part tipped their caps to the two accomplished, veteran pitchers for pitching like the accomplished veterans they are. The tone Saturday was more one of frustration, with Hyde bemoaning his team’s lack of plate discipline and mercurial nature; the O’s entered play this weekend averaging more than six runs per game this month, having scored 22 on the Yankees over four games last weekend.
The Orioles struck out nine times and managed just three hits off Montgomery, who lugged an ERA approaching 6.00 into the game. The O’s could not capitalize on three Yankees errors, and their bottom six hitters combined to go 0-for-24. As their struggles mount, the O’s chances at making a surprise run to October are dwindling.
“Watching those games yesterday, I thought those guys were outstanding and excellent,” Hyde said. “Today we just chased way too many pitches out of the strike zone. That’s why we’re streaky, because when pitchers are throwing strikes to us and we’re aggressive, we’ll have some good nights. And here we are leaving the zone way too often and putting too much pressure on our pitching staff.”
Starting against the Yankees for the second time in a week, Kremer held New York to a run on four hits over five solid innings. He struck out seven and walked three for the second time in two career starts, largely matching Montgomery throughout the afternoon.
Kremer became the first pitcher to make each of his first two MLB starts against the Yankees since Rangers righty Brian Sikorski in 2000. The 24-year-old Kremer, the Orioles’ No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, held New York to two runs across 11 innings over those two starts.
“Once again, he showed poise, aggressiveness with his fastball, a good breaking ball, good slider,” Hyde said. “That’s not an easy thing to do: face that team twice in five, six games. He pitched excellent both times.”
Said Kremer: “I am very critical of myself, so nothing is ever good enough. But my main goal is to go out there and compete and give our team a chance to win.”