Bats fall flat in 9-0 rubber match loss (updated)

PHOENIX – Ahead of Zac Gallen’s start for the Diamondbacks on Monday, Brandon Hyde described this series as “a test” for his Orioles lineup from a discipline standpoint. Baltimore couldn’t chase off the edges, or they’d be in for a long start to the week. 

On Monday, the O’s passed that test with flying colors. 

Gallen was knocked out of the game after 4 ⅔ innings, seven hits, four walks and five earned runs. He only struck out two after striking out 13 Bronx Bombers in his previous outing. Hyde called the performance “some of our best at-bats of the year.” 

In the first inning of Tuesday’s game, it seemed like much of the same. After two early runs off Merrill Kelly, the Birds seemed to be rolling. But the right-hander found a groove and 17 consecutive Orioles went hitless after Cedric Mullins’ two-run single in the first. 

So, in Game 2, the offense didn’t get the best grade with three runs on the board in a loss. 

Part 3 of the test, against Brandon Pfaadt, felt like it was worth more. The O’s bats needed to find a rhythm and carry some positive momentum into their series against Toronto. 

But in the rubber match against Arizona, no facet of the game came together in a 9-0 loss. 

“I thought Pfaadt was good, and I thought we just had a tough time stringing at-bats together,” Hyde said of the defeat. “We hit some ground balls, hitting into a lot of double plays right now. Just had a tough time stringing quality at-bats together.”

A 1-2-3 first inning didn’t get things off to a good start. Only three batters stepped into the box in the second inning, too, and just four in the third. Through three frames, the O’s had just two hits and no threats to score. 

The fourth inning started with more promise. Back-to-back walks from Adley Rutschman and Ryan O’Hearn had the O’s in business to start the frame. But with two lineouts and O’Hearn caught trying to take second on a ball in the dirt, Baltimore was once again empty-handed. 

In the other halves of innings, Orioles starter Dean Kremer delivered a solid performance early on. Corbin Carroll continued his scorching start to the season with a single and a run scored in the first, followed by a solo home run in the third, but the damage remained relatively limited. 

That was, until the fifth inning. 

The sinker/cutter combination had been effective for Kremer for the first four frames. But in the fifth, Geraldo Perdomo lined a cutter for a single, and Pavin Smith drove a cutter to deep right-center for a two-run home run. 

Josh Naylor was next to join the party. The former Guardian took a splitter 381 feet to right field, and in the blink of an eye, it was a 5-0 ballgame, and Kremer’s afternoon came to an abrupt end. 

The splitter was hit hard today, as it has been to begin 2025, despite being a more effective offering a season ago. 

“It's getting hit, but I still feel like I'm putting it in good locations,” Kremer said. “Sometimes they don't get hit and sometimes they do get hit. Just knowing when to mask it behind some other stuff."

Cionel Pérez entered the game, and things didn’t get much better. 

The lefty has gotten off to a rocky start to the season, and his rough stretch continued this afternoon. After a double from Jake McCarthy, a two-run single off the bat of Tim Tawa plated two. By the end of the fifth, it was 7-0 Diamondbacks. 

There’s no better example of how this game felt than the sixth/seventh inning turn. 

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Ryan Mountcastle got hold of one. He turned on a cutter and hit a 108.7 mph frozen rope … directly into Eugenio Suárez’s glove. 

Suárez was then the leadoff hitter in the seventh inning. Facing Matt Bowman, Suárez took an edge-of-the-plate sweeper out to left field. It was 75.5 mph off the bat and fell in for a double. 

That’s just the kind of afternoon it was. 

“Yeah, it's one of those things,” Mountcastle said. “It just happens. It’s baseball. And, yeah, I feel like we've been hitting some balls hard and just not really finding any holes right now. But hopefully it will soon.”

Jackson Holliday echoed that sentiment. 

“Baseball’s tough and we hit the ball hard and right at people, and kind of all up and down the lineup, everyone is hitting the ball hard and just haven’t been able to find holes the past few games,” the young second baseman added. “But it’s very important to just trust the process, trust that they’ll get through and hits will come.”

A Perdomo home run off the newly promoted Colin Selby pushed Arizona’s lead to 8-0 in the eighth. After a Smith double and an RBI single from Naylor, it was 9-0. That’s where things would end up. 

The afternoon was a clunker. There aren’t many positives to take away from a game like that, but we’ll try to find at least a few. 

Gunnar Henderson continues to hit the ball really hard, and eventually, that’s going to lead to better results. Today, there were three batted balls over 100 mph. Rutschman continues to get on base, and Ramón Urías is playing really good baseball. Perhaps the Orioles can build on that. 

The clubhouse isn’t panicking. 

“Guys are keeping their heads up,” Hyde said. “We’ve just got to keep working. It’s a talented team that’s not playing to our full potential right now. You’re going to go through challenges throughout the season. We’ve hit a challenge a little bit early in the season this year, which we haven’t in the past few years. Fortunately, it’s a long year, and we’ve just got to keep going.”

"I think we're OK,” Kremer added. “No need to hit the panic button yet. We've still got 150-something games left. So, I mean, I'm quite confident in our group here that once everybody kind of gets going at the same time, it's going to be a runaway train."

Keeping even-keeled is key as the Orioles leave Arizona with more questions than answers. They’ll try to find some back home against the Blue Jays this weekend.