The Baltimore Orioles hope to shake off one of the worst losses in franchise history when they open a three-game Beltway series at the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.
Baltimore was routed 24-2 by the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday while the Nationals ended a disappointing road trip with a doubleheader split at the Colorado Rockies.
Orioles starter Charlie Morton didn’t make it through the third inning Sunday, charged with seven runs in 2 1/3 frames. The 24 runs allowed were the most by the Orioles since the Rangers scored 30 on Aug. 22, 2007.
Five Baltimore pitchers combined to walk 11 batters.
“You’re just not going to be able to win games that way,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “You’re going to win them once in a while because you’re going to outscore teams, but that’s not how you win Major League Baseball games.”
Baltimore starting pitchers carry a league-worst 6.11 ERA. Opponents are hitting .312 against them (29th in MLB) and have smacked 21 homers. The starters are allowing 1.62 walks and hits per inning pitched (also 29th).
Washington starters, meanwhile, have a solid 3.87 ERA, but Nationals relievers carry a league-worst 7.19 ERA into the series with opponents hitting .283.
Baltimore is still without starting pitchers Grayson Rodriguez (sore shoulder) and Zach Eflin (right lat strain).
The Orioles’ search for consistent starting pitching will fall on right-hander Dean Kremer (2-2, 6.41 ERA) in the opener as he opposes left-hander Mitchell Parker (2-1, 1.85).
Kremer is coming off a win against the Guardians on Wednesday in which he allowed a run on four hits over 5 1/3 innings. He allowed his fifth home run of the season.
“I thought he competed extremely well,” Hyde said that day. “Best start of the year for him.”
Kremer is 3-0 with a 2.04 ERA in three starts versus Washington.
Parker has worked at least six innings in each of his four starts and allowed more than one run only once. He took a loss against the Pirates on April 16 despite holding them to one run on four hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out six.
“Team sport. You win as a team, you lose as a team,” Parker said. “You can pick good things out of (my start), but at the end of the day it’s a team sport.”
Parker, in his second big-league season, allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings of a no-decision in his only prior start versus Baltimore last May 8.
The Nationals topped the Rockies 3-2 in the opener Sunday before dropping the nightcap 3-1 to finish their road trip 4-6. They managed only four runs in 18 innings on Sunday after exploding for 12 in a win on Saturday.
“Obviously, we can’t go up there and put up a dozen every night,” said Nationals designated hitter Nathaniel Lowe, who had three hits in the loss. “But we’d like to score more, obviously score more than we did (Sunday) because we didn’t like the outcome. We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard and obviously didn’t perform to that standard in Game 2.”
Kyle Finnegan earned his 96th career save with the Nationals in the opener to move into second place in club history (2005-present), trailing only Chad Cordero (113).
–Field Level Media
