Kremer makes progress against Yankees, but pinch homer sinks O's

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

May 14, 2021, 5:49pm

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For Orioles right-hander Dean Kremer, it was the same team, but a different night and a much different result.

For the Orioles, the final result was not at all what they wanted.

A pinch-hit three-run homer in the seventh by Gio Urshela off Travis Lakins Sr., lifted the New York Yankees to a come-from-behind 5-4 win in the series opener.

The O's led 4-2 until that home run, and they fall to 16-22 and have lost six of seven games. Their major league-worst home record drops to 5-14. They are 0-4-1 in home series.

For Kremer, at least, it was a night of some continued progress.

When he faced the Yankees on April 28 at Camden Yards, New York got to him and there were numerous well-struck balls. The Yankees produced 10 hits and six runs against him in 4 1/3 innings as they won 7-0.

Kremer allowed career highs in runs and hits allowed. New York went 10-for-22 (.455) with two doubles and two homers. Their average exit velocity that night was 98 mph.

But tonight, Kremer was much better against the same club. He was in line for his first win this year, until New York's rally in the seventh.

Over five innings, Kremer allowed five hits and two runs with no walks and four strikeouts on 77 pitches, 50 for strikes. He lowered his ERA to 5.81.

His ERA was 8.40 after that earlier start against the Yankees. But now he has allowed six runs over 16 innings in three starts since then, counting tonight, for an ERA of 3.38 in that span.

Yankees batters produced an average exit velocity of 88 mph against him tonight. And they hit just .250 (5-for-20) off him for the game.

He did allow two solo homers to Aaron Judge. Judge hit a curveball out to left in the first and hit a 94 mph fastball out to right-center in the fourth. He hit homers No. 9 and 10 and both just made it out, going 383 feet. It's his third multi-homer game of the year and first against the Orioles.

This year, Judge is 10-for-18 versus Baltimore pitching with five homers and nine RBIs. In 58 career games, he has 22 homers and 54 RBIs against the Orioles.

The Orioles turned an exceptional highlight-reel double play tonight. Adam Plutko came on in the sixth and walked the leadoff man, Judge. Then Gary SÃ¡nchez ripped a ground ball at 110 mph to the glove side of third baseman Maikel Franco. He might be in a huge batting slump right now, but he made a diving stop to his left to start a 5-4-3 double play.

But the Urshela homer turned the game into the Yankees favor as they improved to 21-17. They have won five of six, 10 of 13 and 15 of their last 21 games. They improved to 10-13 in American League East games.

The Orioles are 3-5 against New York. They had won five of their past seven home games against the Yankees until tonight.

Austin Hays hit a solo homer in the Baltimore first off Corey Kluber, his fifth. Baltimore scored three in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead. Pedro Severino ended a 13-game RBI-less run with a double to tie the game 2-2. Pat Valaika's RBI single put the Orioles ahead and they went up 4-2 on Trey Mancini's double to right, which scored a run but also saw Hays thrown out at the plate.