Kansas City, Missouri – Dean Kremer was exhibiting symptoms of fatigue, walking two consecutive batters in the sixth inning of an otherwise strong start.
He next fired a center-cut 88-mph cutter to Royals catcher Salvador Perez, who narrowly avoided hitting it over the left-field wall at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
Manager Brandon Hyde removed his starter, hoping that left-hander Keegan Akin could get one out, strand two runs, and keep the Orioles’ one-run deficit. Instead, the Royals’ gritty lineup pounded Akin, scoring five more runs in the frame as the reliever allowed the first four batters he saw to reach base on two singles, a walk, and a double.
Adley Rutschman tried his hardest to bring his club back by hitting his first career grand slam, but reliever Dillon Tate gave up a three-run homer in the seventh, and Baltimore’s offense couldn’t rebound in a 9-4 loss to the Royals.
The loss snaps Baltimore’s four-game winning streak after escaping its first regular-season whitewash since May 2022 on Sunday and sweeping the Minnesota Twins earlier this week.
It also brought the club’s streak of three-homer games to five, one shy of matching the MLB record set by the 1987 Orioles. Kremer (0-2) gave up only two hits, but he was credited with three runs, two of which came on Akin’s watch.
Akin and Tate combined to allow seven hits and six runs in one of Baltimore’s worst bullpen efforts of the season. The Orioles (12-7) entered Friday with the 10th-best bullpen ERA in MLB (3.36), and the relief corps was even better in key metrics like strikeout and walk rate, ranking in the top five in both categories.
Rutschman was Baltimore’s only hitter to get multiple hits, going 3 for 4 including a huge fly in the seventh. After the Royals (13-7) beat Akin 6-0, the Orioles promptly attempted a comeback.
Cedric Mullins extended his hitting run to ten games with a single, Austin Hays hit a single despite his early season struggle, and Jordan Westburg followed suit to load the bases.
After Ramon UrÃas and Gunnar Henderson struck out, Rutschman hit a 398-foot right-handed home run to left field off left-hander Will Smith. The ball would have been out in any MLB stadium except Camden Yards.
