The Orioles didn’t mount enough offense and kicked the ball around at a couple critical points in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to Boston in 10 innings.
Those are hardly new developments for a club that’s looked as mediocre for as long as it was really good early in the 2024 season. Still, it hurts to waste an excellent seven-inning start from Dean Kremer and a rotation that’s been a recent bright spot despite its well-documented injuries and the ticking clock for Grayson Rodriguez’s possible return. Aside from rookie No. 5 starter Cade Povich, the rotation does appear to be moving in a positive direction with October looming.
But Wednesday illustrated the difficult search for a longer chain of trust in the bullpen as lefty Keegan Akin — after a backbreaking error by rookie second baseman Jackson Holliday — gave up a three-run homer to Tyler O’Neill to lose the game and another three-game series. Despite his detractors, Akin has been one of Baltimore’s better relievers over the course of 2024, but much of his work has come in low-leverage situations. The lefty failing his latest high-pressure audition was disappointing but not exactly surprising.
It only put a brighter spotlight on the rehab assignments for relievers Danny Coulombe (left elbow surgery) and Jacob Webb (right elbow inflammation). Webb threw a scoreless inning in his third rehab appearance Tuesday while Coulombe struck out one and allowed a hit in a scoreless frame Wednesday, which marked his first time pitching in a real professional game since June 8.
The Orioles really need those two to return looking like themselves on the mound.
In the meantime, who does manager Brandon Hyde trust with only 15 games to play?
Seranthony Dominguez has become the closer down the stretch, and aside from that August series against the New York Mets, the right-hander has been very good. He’s 9-for-9 in save opportunities and averaging 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings since being acquired from Philadelphia at the trade deadline.
In the second half, right-hander Yennier Cano has looked much more like the dominant setup man who was chosen for last year’s All-Star Game. After walking a batter roughly every other inning in the first half, Cano has issued just two free passes over 16 1/3 innings since the All-Star break. He’s also struck out 11.6 batters per nine since the break, a profile more befitting of a late-inning reliever in October.
(As an aside, Hyde lifting Cano in favor of Dominguez for Wednesday’s ninth inning after the former threw just two pitches to record the last out of the eighth was peculiar, especially with the Orioles having an off-day on Thursday. Cano starting and pitching the ninth could have saved Dominguez for the 10th, which turned out to be a save situation that instead went to Akin. Of course, the manager is also trying to avoid running his two best bullpen arms into the ground before October, and you never know how any reliever could be feeling on a given night.)
It’s apparent that Hyde trusts left-hander Cionel Perez despite his numbers not being nearly as impressive as those of Dominguez or Cano. Perez hasn’t allowed a home run all season and has defended himself well against right-handed hitters, but his 42-26 strikeout-to-walk ratio is less than ideal.
After those three, who knows?
Lefty Gregory Soto looked like he was turning the corner with 10 straight scoreless appearances to follow the brutal beginning to his Orioles tenure in early August, but his last couple outings were shaky and Hyde still hasn’t used him in tight spots to gauge how he’d respond. Soto being a two-time All-Star closer for Detroit in 2021 and 2022 feels like a long time ago.
Right-hander Matt Bowman, 33, has provided a recent lift, but he still feels more like this month’s version of Burch Smith than someone you’re going to hand the ball to in October. Since his good start with Baltimore back in July and early August, the 34-year-old Smith has really struggled and hasn’t appeared in a close game in the month of September.
That it’s taken this long to mention Craig Kimbrel says everything about the ex-closer sporting an 8.83 ERA over his last 17 1/3 innings since recording his last save on July 7. The organization has done all it can to try to get the 36-year-old back on track and avoid embarrassing someone ranking fifth on the all-time saves list, but Kimbrel is a better candidate to be designated for assignment than to be part of the postseason bullpen at this point. And with so little regular-season action remaining and these games being so important, Kimbrel has very likely run out of time to get on the kind of roll needed just to put himself back in the meaningful conversation for October.
With even the best starters rarely going seven innings in recent Octobers, let alone the distance, the Orioles figure to need four or five legitimate relievers Hyde can trust in just about any meaningful situation. That doesn’t mean five Mariano Riveras, of course, but the 2014 Orioles had Zack Britton, Darren O’Day, Andrew Miller, Brad Brach, and starter Kevin Gausman for a pretty formidable postseason bullpen on paper. Considering how few regular-season games remain, I’ve begun wondering if Rodriguez could find himself in a hybrid role similar to Gausman’s that postseason, but such speculation remains to be seen until he begins pitching to live hitters at the very least.
For now, the Orioles remain too short out of the pen with Wednesday providing the latest example. The bullpen ERA ranks 24th in the majors since the All-Star break (4.61) and 22nd in September (5.04).
And though the series loss to the Red Sox reinforced the resounding need for the offense and defense to pick up the pace as well, tight games in October are inevitable — hopefully anyway — and require a bullpen that can handle such pressure.
The Orioles only hope some help is right around the corner.
