Early homers, Kremer's gem lead O's past Houston (updated)

HOUSTON – The Orioles took the field tonight following afternoon losses by the Blue Jays and Rays. They knew if they won this evening, they would gain some ground in the AL wild-card race. Two homers later, they took early control of this game and were on their way to a second straight win against the team with the best record in the league.

Another gem on the mound proved pretty vital as well.

Anthony Santander and Austin Hays homered in the third inning and right-hander Dean Kremer allowed one run over 7 2/3 innings as the Orioles beat the Houston Astros 3-1 in front of 34,526 at Minute Maid Park.

The Orioles (67-59) moved eight games over the .500 mark for the first time since May 21, 2017. They are now 1.5 games out of the last AL wild card spot. 

They have won five of six and eight of 12 games and are 32-15 in their last 47 games. Baltimore has now won five straight games at Houston after a sweep here last year. Before that, the O's were 6-20 all time in Houston.

After Kyle Bradish allowed just two hits over eight scoreless last night, Kremer came out tonight and retired the first nine batters on 39 pitches. He threw 17 in the first, 14 in the second and eight in the third. But Jose Altuve led off the fourth with a single for Houston’s first hit. His stay on the bases was short as the O’s quickly turned a 6-3 double play on Yuli Gurriel and Kremer went on to put up another zero.

He gave up just four hits in his outstanding outing as the O's tied a season-high with a fourth straight quality start. They did that just one time before, in early May. Kremer walked none and fanned three, throwing 96 pitches. He used his two-seam and four-seam fastballs just 33 percent and threw 40 percent cutters. 

Kremer improves to 6-4 with an ERA of 3.24. Tonight was the sixth time in 15 starts he's allowed one or zero runs. The last two nights, Kremer and Bradish allowed one run over 15 2/3 innings combined. 

O's starting pitchers have an ERA of 1.26 the last four games and 2.25 with six quality starts in the past 11 games. 

Houston starter José Urquidy came into this outing with strong stats, a 12-4 record and 3.63 ERA. And his ERA was just 2.70 this month. But he had allowed 21 homers and the O’s increased that total to 23 and took the lead in the top of the third.

With one out in the frame, Adley Rutschman doubled to right – his 26^th double in 79 games. Then Santander found a 2-2 curveball that broke into the middle of the plate to his liking. He smoked a two-run homer to the second deck in right field for a 2-0 Baltimore lead. It was No. 23 for Santander on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. He drove the ball 394 feet with an exit velocity of 102.5 mph.

After Ryan Mountcastle lined out at 103 mph, Hays hit an 0-1 slider into the seats in left field for the 3-0 lead. Hays hit No. 15 a distance of 397 feet to expand the O’s lead.

The O’s got Urquidy’s pitch count up from the outset when he needed 31 pitches to strand two in the top of the first with a nice running over-the-shoulder catch in short right by Gurriel at first base, saving him a run or maybe two.

The Astros had been 16-7 in Urquidy’s 2022 starts and 5-1 in the last six until tonight. He entered this outing with 14 quality starts in 23 games. The O’s entire staff has produced 30 this season.

Houston finally scored - its only run in two games in this series - on a Yordan Álvarez RBI single in the seventh. But Félix Bautista got the last four outs, with three strikeouts, for his 10th save as the O's held on to win.

Now the Orioles have a series win in Houston with a chance to sweep a team that entered this series with a home record of 42-18 and was 27-8 in their previous 35 games at Minute Maid Park. Tomorrow, righty Austin Voth (4-1, 4.73 ERA) pitches against right-hander Justin Verlander (16-3, 1.87 ERA).

A few postgame quotes

O's manager Brandon Hyde on Kremer: “Dean just continues to improve, like a lot of our young starters are right now. Great to see these guys going deeper in the game, learning how to pitch, but he had really good stuff again. Every pitch going. Really unpredictable. Good curveball tonight, along with that good cutter he has and threw some changeups. Great to see him go into the eighth inning like he did. Just an outstanding performance.”

Santander on the pitching this weekend: “Man it’s incredible. To do what they have done to that lineup the last couple of days. Going 7 2/3, eight innings yesterday, just incredible. They really gave us the opportunity to go out and win the game. Especially tonight, just three runs but we go out and win.”

Kremer on his night and was he motivated to match Bradish from last night?: “Yes and no. Every day is independent from the last. You can go and roll outing after outing, but every day is a different day. But watching him set the table, made me feel like I can do this too.

“A little bit of everything (was working) in different parts of the game. Didn’t really have my best changeup towards the end of the outing and curveball pretty much kept me in it, curveball and cutter pretty much kept me in it. And flashing the sinker and the four seam every once in a while.”

Kremer on being allowed to pitch the eighth: “Awesome. I’ve never been there in the minors either. So, I think, my couple best in the minors were seven innings and getting out there and getting to experience the eighth was a little bit different. To beat the Astros at their place, take two, potentially three tomorrow, is huge.”