With 3 wins in 36 hours, O's show 'there’s still time' to turn things around

BALTIMORE -- When the Orioles traded right-hander Bryan Baker to the Rays in exchange for the No. 37 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft on Thursday morning, it appeared Baltimore’s Trade Deadline strategy may be set. The O’s looked like a team operating as a potential seller.

General manager Mike Elias acknowledged it, too, stating the Baker trade was “a step in that direction.”

Then, the Orioles went out and swept a Thursday doubleheader vs. the Mets at Camden Yards, leading interim manager Tony Mansolino to address the elephant in the room.

“You guys don’t want to hear it, but there’s still time, and despite making a move this morning,” Mansolino said afterward. “I’m sure our obituary was probably getting written somewhere this morning because we made a trade."

Mansolino could be right. It may be too early to proclaim the O’s postseason aspirations dead.

In the 36 hours since the Baker trade, Baltimore has won all three games it has played. The Orioles followed Thursday’s sweep with a 5-2 victory in Friday night’s series opener against the Marlins at Camden Yards, as they got seven scoreless innings from Dean Kremer and two RBIs apiece from All-Star Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano.

The O’s (43-50) improved to seven games below .500 for the first time since May 4 (13-20). They have won six of their past seven and are 27-16 since sitting at their low-water mark of 16-34 on May 24. They’re also only six games out of the third American League Wild Card spot.

“It’s like, ‘About time,’ you know what I mean?” O’Hearn said. “I feel like there’s so much talent in this room and there’s so many good players that we’ve been waiting to kind of get the ball rolling, come together and rattle off good baseball for, I don’t know, it’s been a month or so -- or a couple of weeks or whatever it’s been.

“It feels like how it should feel. We have enough talent in this room to win games, and tonight was great.”

Kremer yielded only three hits (all singles) and one walk while striking out seven. The 29-year-old right-hander retired 21 of the 25 Miami batters he faced, while inducing 13 whiffs (nine coming via his splitter).

Baltimore has gotten five starts of seven or more scoreless innings this season. Three have come from Kremer, who also blanked the Royals (May 2) and Rays (June 29) for seven each. He ended his first half by posting a 2.17 ERA over his last five starts.

“He's been on such a roll here lately,” Mansolino said. “The stuff is ticking up. It feels like every time out, there's a lot of life to the fastball. The split was sharp. He dropped in some breaking balls in the right spots. Super competitive. He's just been so good here for a while.”

All season, Kremer has expressed a strong belief that he and his teammates would play better baseball following their disappointing start. Now that it’s happening, he isn’t surprised to see the team trending in a better direction.

“When things start rolling our way, we can do some pretty cool things,” Kremer said. “The last week and a half has been very encouraging for every guy in this room, and I'm sure the staff feels that as well -- that we're definitely not out."

The Orioles tagged Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera for four runs on eight hits over four innings. A two-run rally in the first featured a leadoff double by Jackson Holliday, an RBI single from Jordan Westburg and an RBI double from O’Hearn. Baltimore didn’t look back.

The top of Baltimore’s order provided much of the offense, with Holliday, Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, O’Hearn and Laureano combining to go 10-for-19 (.526) with three doubles, two walks and five RBIs.

“We have really good hitters,” Mansolino said. “When you roll out Jackson Holliday, Westburg to Gunnar to O’Hearn that first inning, the way we felt about just seeing [Francisco] Lindor to [Juan] Soto to Pete [Alonso from the Mets], that’s probably what they felt like, seeing that in the first inning.”

History remains against the Orioles. The only teams to win 43 or fewer games through their first 93 and still reach the postseason are the 1984 Royals (84-78) and the 1973 Mets (82-79), who were each 42-51 at that point.

But if the O’s stay hot to end the first half and come out of the All-Star break strong, maybe their playoff aspirations will stay alive -- perhaps even beyond the July 31 Trade Deadline.

“It just seems like things are coming together right now,” O’Hearn said. “I don’t want to speak too much on it and jinx it or anything like that. I think we’re just going to take this win and roll it into tomorrow.”