SAN FRANCISCO – Dean Kremer had six days to reflect on a seven-run outing against Houston on Aug. 23. Now he’ll have a week to ruminate on another seven-run start Friday night against the Giants.
That’s a huge downside for pitchers in a six-man rotation, which the Orioles are adopting down the stretch. They have more time to stew over bad games. For thoughtful pitchers, that extra time also presents a greater opportunity to study what went haywire and try to fix it.
More than once after the Orioles’ 15-8 loss at Oracle Park, Kremer responded to questions about his struggles with a pledge to “go back and look at it,” presumably on video.
One issue requires little analysis. In a first inning that set the tone for Baltimore’s fifth straight loss, Kremer got ahead 0-2 to three of his first seven hitters. Willy Adames and Casey Schmitt fought back and singled, while Dominic Smith hit a sacrifice fly during the four-run rally.
Kremer also had two strikes on Jung Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers before walking each. The only Giant among the seven to make contact while ahead in the count was Luis Matos, who laced a 2-1 pitch to left for a two-run single. The Giants batted around and forced Kremer to throw 39 pitches.
“I think I could have been a little bit more aggressive in the zone with the splitter, but I don’t know,” Kremer said. “We’ll have to go watch it again.”
Kremer and interim manager Tony Mansolino both said the right-hander was victimized by some soft contact that found holes, but that alone can’t explain how a pitcher who had a 14-inning scoreless streak over two starts could surrender 14 runs over eight innings in his next two.
“He’s got to floor it from the get-go,” Mansolino said. “I think when Kremer is good, he presses down on the gas pedal right away and he attacks. I think when Kremer gets in trouble, he feels for things a little bit, and I think that’s where a couple of those walks showed up tonight.”
Kremer gave up two more runs on three singles plus a Matt Chapman sacrifice fly in the second inning, then an RBI double by Drew Gilbert in the third for his seventh and final run allowed. Kremer did not see the fourth inning.
There were several times where the Orioles seemed bent on coming back. They got a 6-1 deficit down to 6-4 and a 9-4 deficit to 9-6 – all against Robbie Ray, who needed a trainer to scissor some torn skin off a finger on his pitching hand before he threw a pitch. The 2025 All-Star lacked his usual command and seemed frustrated with the hits and walks he was allowing.
Ryan Mountcastle produced three of the hits, two doubles and a single, good for four RBIs against Ray.
“I just felt like we were putting together really good at-bats, just grinding some at-bats out there, and I know that can be frustrating for any pitcher,” Mountcastle said. “I thought we did a good job of doing that.”
Hope for a complete comeback wavered with Smith’s two-run homer into McCovey Cove in the fourth and Matos’ solo shot in the fifth, both against Corbin Martin, and vanished with a three-error bottom of the seventh.
The most egregious was left fielder Dylan Beavers’ ill-advised, very high and very wide throw home on a Devers single. Catcher Alex Jackson had to range far from the plate to catch it as Gilbert scored. Adames followed Gilbert home from third when he noticed the plate was unoccupied.
“That seventh inning was ugly, without a doubt,” Mansolino said. “We’ve seen our guys do that this year, where games get out of hand and we don’t help ourselves in a lot of ways. Other teams do that, too. We’re not the only ones.”