Kremer sizes up outing, Mancini on homer (O's win 11-9)

Orioles right-hander Dean Kremer had allowed just one run in six innings in his previous two spring starts. He looked headed for another good outing tonight until the Pittsburgh Pirates struck quickly after two were out in the third. Then a few misadventures on defense didn't help his cause, as he failed to get through the fourth inning.

Kremer went 3 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and five runs with two walks and three strikeouts. He threw 71 pitches, 42 for strikes, and got nine swings and misses. His spring ERA is 7.36 after four outings.

The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first today, thanks in part to three Pirates errors. Austin Hays smoked a ball toward second, reaching first on an error charged to Adam Frazier. Trey Mancini singled Hays to third and advanced to second on the play when left fielder Brian Goodwin bobbled the ball. The O's took a 1-0 lead on Anthony Santander's RBI groundout. The second run scored on Ryan Mountcastle's line drive single and he reached second on another Goodwin error.

Mountcastle, who started the night batting .179, drilled that single 108 mph, per Statcast.

Facing former O's minor league pitcher Steven Brault, the Orioles extended their lead to 3-0 in the second. Rio Ruiz was a hit by a pitch on his left hand leading off the frame. He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Hays' two-out single to right. Hays hit an outside corner offering to right to raise his spring average to .379 with his seventh RBI.

Meanwhile, Kremer did put up those two zeros to start his night. Ke'Bryan Hayes doubled with one out in the first, but a strikeout and groundout stranded him. In the second, Gregory Polanco drew a leadoff walk. With two outs, he stole second and went to third on a throwing error by catcher Pedro Severino. But Kremer fanned Goodwin swinging on a 94 mph fastball to leave the runner at third base.

Down 5-0, the Pirates scored three runs with two outs and none on in the last of the third. Hayes doubled again and scored on Bryan Reynolds' single. Todd Frazier followed with a two-run homer to left on an 0-1 fastball. It was a quick strike for three runs as the O's lead was cut to 5-3.

In the Pittsburgh fourth, Erik González walked with one out and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Goodwin was credited with a single when his shallow fly ball fell in left center on a ball that the Orioles should have caught. The run scored and Goodwin went to second on a throwing error by second baseman Yolmer Sánchez. That was just the beginning of the miscues by the Orioles, who made two more errors that inning - by shortstop Freddy Galvis and Severino - as Pittsburgh scored five against Kremer and Fernando Abad.

So after taking a 5-0 lead in the third, the O's trailed 8-6 at the end of the fourth.

"Felt good coming out, pretty much the whole time. Just made some mistakes in the later innings and they capitalized on them," Kremer said after his outing via Zoom.

He will probably have two more starts this spring.

"Just continue to work on the things that I need to, to be right where I want to be. Make sure I'm landing curveballs that I'm throwing and having a plan," he said of what is still to work on in Florida.

Mancini blasted his first spring homer in the top of the fourth and Kremer said it was a big-time blast to left center.

"That was a nuke. Yeah, that was hit pretty far," Kremer said. "Everybody was with their jaw on the floor because of how far it was hit. Everybody loved it. Good to see him back to what he was in the previous years."

Mountcastle hit a two-run homer in the sixth following a Hays RBI double as the O's tied the game at 9-9.

Mancini on the homer: "It felt really good. It's been no different than a lot of spring trainings. It kind of takes me a while to get going and start driving the ball like that. And it always seems to come here at LECOM Park when I break through power-wise. So it did feel really good to connect with one there and it had been a long time since I had that feeling, for sure."

Mancini is confident he could play all 162 games: "No, I have no doubt at all. I wouldn't be here if I did. I feel ready to play and I'm excited to be out there every day."

Was Mancini thinking about homer No. 1?: "Not really. Because I've been feeling good. I've driven some balls to the outfield that were caught. It's not like I've been punching balls through the four-hole all spring. I've felt pretty good, but I just happen to not have an extra-base hit before tonight. So it wasn't anything I was thinking about or bothering me at all."

Mancini on any surprises this spring: "It's about on par with what I expected. I knew that there would be some at-bats where I felt like I never left and some at-bats where I felt overmatched for whatever reason. And it's been like that pretty consistently for the most part. And even within the same game. One at-bat, I'll feel great and then strike out the next two and be like, 'What is going on?' And so I will have that thought sometimes but that is how I am every spring. It's been no different than how I've been my entire life gearing up for a season."

In this crazy game where they led 5-0 and later trailed 9-6, the Orioles now lead 11-9 after Cedric Mullins' two-run homer in the seventh.

This entry will be updated.

O's win a wild one: This crazy game ended as an 11-9 Orioles win. They are 3-1 in their last four games and now 6-11-1 for the spring.

Amid all the hitting and errors tonight, there was a solid pitching performance by left-hander Wade LeBlanc. He went three innings, allowing no hits but one run that was unearned. He walked two and fanned three, throwing 45 pitches with a fastball that averaged 86 mph. His ERA is now 2.25 in three spring outings.

Right-hander Shawn Armstrong pitched a scoreless eighth inning and righty Eric Hanhold put up a zero in the last of the ninth.

For Baltimore, Mountcastle drove in three runs, while Hays and Mullins had two hits and two RBIs each. Mullins' tiebreaking homer came off a lefty. Of the O's 13 hits, they produced three doubles and three homers.

The Orioles host the Yankees on Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. with Matt Harvey getting the start.

BOOM BOOM IS BACK 💥 pic.twitter.com/YipunN7Dyx

-- Baltimore Orioles 😷 (@Orioles) March 19, 2021