This story was originally published by Dead Spin
There was no quick fix for the Baltimore Orioles when they began this week’s homestand.
Maybe they can get it right on the second try against the San Francisco Giants.
The teams meet Wednesday night in the middle game of a three-game series after San Francisco cruised to a 10-0 win on Tuesday behind left-hander Blake Snell.
“I thought the energy was great in our clubhouse, like it normally is,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said postgame. “Thought our guys were prepared. We had a really good hitters’ meeting. We just faced one of the better pitchers in the game, and we didn’t swing the bat well against him. We had a tough time.”
The Orioles (84-67) struck out 12 times during Snell’s sterling six innings. The Giants subsequently used four relievers en route to a five-hit shutout.
“That was six unbelievable innings, I thought,” Hyde said of Snell’s outing, in which Baltimore managed one hit and two walks. “He had multiple pitches going on the corners. … We’ve been scuffling offensively.”
The Giants (73-78) have won just two of their past seven games, but they began their nine-game road trip with an impressive performance.
“It was nice, and then keep adding on,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of his team’s offense. “We haven’t done that a ton, either.”
Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, who spent six seasons in the Baltimore farm system, had a game-opening home run, an RBI single and a walk Tuesday night.
“You’ve just got to find something right now to lean on,” Yastrzemski said of the team’s various motivations to get through the rest of the season. “When you look at tonight, we see that we still have a lot of good baseball left in us.”
Melvin said he felt “confidence for guys to knock in some runs and get some hits and keep the line moving. Hopefully, there’s some carryover.”
The Orioles’ offensive woes have been a topic for at least a couple of weeks. In the past 11 games, Baltimore is averaging less than two runs per outing and has lost eight times.
Several of Baltimore’s batters changed their walk-up songs to try to alter their fortunes in the batter’s box.
“They’re trying; they know they’re grinding,” Hyde said. “They’re trying to snap out of it a little bit.”
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson believes the Orioles will eventually break free from their skid.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while,” he said. “Just trying to figure out a way to get through it.”
The result left the Orioles four games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East, though Baltimore is still 2 1/2 games up on the Kansas City Royals in the chase for the top AL wild card.
Baltimore will give the ball to Dean Kremer (7-9, 4.10 ERA) on Wednesday. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 2.62 ERA in his past six starts. He matched his season high by logging seven innings on Sept. 11 in a no-decision at Boston, where he gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits.
Kremer picked up a victory on June 2, 2023, after allowing two runs in six innings at San Francisco in his only previous encounter with the Giants.
Right-hander Hayden Birdsong (3-5, 4.74) is slated to be San Francisco’s starting pitcher. The rookie is 0-5 with a 6.75 ERA across seven starts since posting his last win on July 27, though he tossed five shutout innings while allowing two hits Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Because of the margin Tuesday night, Melvin said he was glad he could save some bullpen arms, particularly with Baltimore’s big left-handed bats in the lineup.
–Field Level Media
