Your worst losing streak is always the most recent one.
On the heels of thrilling series wins over Philadelphia and the New York Yankees that lifted the Orioles to a season-best 24 games above .500, they’ve now lost four in a row for the first time all season and have scored a total of four runs over their last three games. That 17-5 victory in the Bronx was less than a week ago, mind you, but fortunes quickly turned in Houston and Baltimore’s bats remained quiet in Monday’s 3-2 loss to Cleveland.
Baseball has a way of humbling you, doesn’t it?
Such stretches have been rare over the last two years as Brandon Hyde’s club hasn’t suffered worse than a four-game slide since before Adley Rutschman arrived in the majors in May of 2022. The Orioles have experienced only one full losing month since then, which was the final month of Rutschman’s rookie season.
A mark of the great teams is not allowing such inevitable rough patches over 162 games to persist and turn into something more serious. The Orioles have passed that test repeatedly over the last two years.
A short memory and an ability to turn the page quickly.
In late June of 2022, the Orioles lost four in a row and immediately responded with a 10-game winning streak, which transformed a then-losing team into a surprise wild-card contender for the remainder of the season.
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Right around this time last year, Baltimore dropped four straight and six of seven, leaving some to fear an upstart club was crashing back to earth. An eight-game winning streak and victories in 13 of 16 immediately put such thoughts to rest, and the Orioles moved into first place just 2 1/2 weeks later.
A four-game losing streak last September allowed Tampa Bay to pull into a tie for first before the Orioles won four in a row and nine of the next 12 to clinch their first AL East championship in nine years and reach the 100-win mark for the first time since 1980.
Forgive me if I’m not sounding the alarm after one lousy weekend against the Astros and a single loss to the club currently holding the AL’s best record. As former Orioles manager Buck Showalter liked to quote, “This too shall pass.” Of course, it helps that the first-place Yankees haven’t been playing their best baseball of late either.
The key is not allowing four straight losses to turn into a 6-14 stretch or something more prolonged. We know the Orioles have been walloped by pitching injuries over the last month, so it’s hardly unreasonable to ask the offense — a healthy one — that entered Tuesday still leading the majors in runs scored per game (5.19) to do the heavier lifting over the next few weeks as general manager Mike Elias aims to upgrade both the starting rotation and bullpen between now and next month’s trade deadline.
Despite an ugly last week, the pitching wasn’t the problem in Monday’s 3-2 loss as rookie Cade Povich shook off a rough beginning to go 5 2/3 innings and the bullpen allowed one hit and one walk over 3 1/3 scoreless frames. The Orioles didn’t have a hit after the third inning and looked all but helpless against the Cleveland bullpen, striking out six times and managing a single walk over the final three innings.
As Hyde noted after Monday’s loss, Baltimore has faced some tough pitching over the last few games, but “it doesn’t get much easier tomorrow.”
The Orioles have been excellent at bouncing back for two years now and need to again.
8Kjerstad returns
The return of Heston Kjerstad was a bright spot in Monday’s loss as he collected two hits on the first two pitches he saw from Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee and had a 13-pitch at-bat against tough right-hander Hunter Gaddis in the eighth inning.
That battle ended with a fly out, but Kjerstad’s at-bats were easily among the best of the night for a lineup that struck out 13 times, which tied for the Orioles’ fourth-worst total of the season.
Will Kjerstad play more than he did in his first 2024 stint in the majors when he started only four games upon being recalled on April 23 and optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk on May 13?
“In this stretch right now with the limited amount of off-days, maybe it’s a little bit easier to rotate guys around,” Hyde said prior to Monday’s game. “But Heston was swinging the bat really well in Triple-A. You’re going to see him get some at-bats up here.”
For prospects not named Rutschman or Gunnar Henderson over the last couple years, a similar pattern has played out with rookies playing sparingly, but that’s to be expected on a contending club. Jordan Westburg has become an everyday player this season after platooning with Adam Frazier much of last season. Colton Cowser has been given every opportunity to do the same since his red-hot stretch in April, but he’s also batted .183 with a .584 on-base plus slugging percentage since the start of May.
The Orioles are clearly looking for more consistency in the outfield from anyone not named Anthony Santander, so Kjerstad is as deserving of a look as anyone else after producing such impressive numbers at Norfolk. But with an understanding by now that Hyde and the Orioles aren’t going to let veterans rot on the bench either, Kjerstad needs to take advantage of every opportunity he’s given.
8He did exactly that Monday night.
Next step for Kremer
Right-hander Dean Kremer is expected to make at least one more rehab start before being activated from the 15-day injured list.
Hyde said Kremer felt fine physically despite recording just two outs and throwing 39 pitches in last Saturday’s start for Norfolk. The right triceps strain that landed him on the IL in late May is no longer a concern, but allowing five earned runs, five hits, and two home runs prevented Kremer from getting out of the first inning and stretching out to the point where he may have been ready to return to the rotation this week.
“It wasn’t an ideal situation for him from a pitch-count standpoint, but he did feel good after the two-thirds that he threw down there,” Hyde said. “I’m going to assume that we’re going to give him another rehab start. We just haven’t finalized it yet.”
You’d also like to see better results and the best version of Kremer returning to a rotation that needs him more than ever now.
