O's game blog: Dean Kremer faces the Mariners in Seattle in Game 2

As the Orioles continue to play winning baseball and are 21-16 since May 19, they are compiling a number of good stats on both the pitching and hitting sides. Let’s take a look at several of them as they get set tonight to play the second game of a three-game series at Seattle.

A 21-16 record produces a win percentage of .568 over a 37-game span, which is nearly a quarter of the season. A team that could play at that percentage for 162 games would finish 92-70.

The Orioles' 9-2 win last night at Seattle gives them a 35-40 record and they have won five of six, six of eight and eight of 11 games. The Orioles are now 11-5 the last 16 games and 13-8 over their past 21. While they have an overall losing record in road games at 17-23, they are 11-7 in their past 18 games away from Oriole Park and they are 4-1 to start this 10-game road trip.

The Baltimore pitching staff has put together a stunning run with a team ERA of 1.99 over the last 11 games, and they have allowed two runs or less in eight of those games. O’s pitchers have allowed nine combined runs the last six games, 13 in eight and 22 runs over the last 11 games.

In addition to that, the O’s starting pitchers have an ERA of 1.82 over the last eight games. And the Baltimore bullpen has allowed zero or one earned run for 13 consecutive games with an ERA of 1.34 in those 13 games and 0.93 over the past six games.

Meanwhile the Baltimore offense tied a season-high with five home runs in Monday’s win. The O’s offense has now produced six runs or more in 12 of the last 24 games. Over the past 19 games, the Orioles have scored 96 runs (5.05 per game), and since scoring 24 runs in the season’s first dozen games, the Orioles offense has put up 287 runs the last 63 games (4.56 per game). The average in the American League this year for runs scored is 4.19 per game.

The Orioles five home runs matched the five they hit June 7 versus the Chicago Cubs and May 5 against Minnesota. The five homers are the most by Baltimore in a road game since Sept. 23, 2019 at Toronto. And it is the most homers by the O’s against Seattle since May 28, 1996 at Kingdome when the team hit six.

The Orioles hit back-to-back homers twice in two innings last night with Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle connecting in the third inning and Anthony Santander and Austin Hays doing so in the fourth. And this marked the first time the Orioles have hit back-to-back home runs twice in one game since Aug. 10, 2017 at Oakland when Adam Jones and Trey Mancini did so in the fourth inning followed by Mancini and Mark Trumbo in the sixth inning. The O’s have now hit back-to-back home runs seven times this season and Mountcastle has been involved in four of those.

Santander’s homer came on the 12^th pitch of his at-bat. The 12-pitch homer is tied for the second-most number of pitches in an at-bat that ended in a home run by the Orioles in club history. It trails only a 14-pitch at-bat by Brady Anderson on Aug. 5, 2000 at Tampa Bay when he homered off of Tanyon Sturtze. Others to homer on the 12^th pitch were Mark Reynolds on June 9, 2011 at Washington, Brian Roberts on Aug. 11, 2010 at Cleveland and Bill Ripken on Sept. 4, 1990 versus Seattle.

A few other O’s hitting notes:

* Hays is 10-for-25 (.400) in six games since hitting for the cycle with four doubles, a triple, two homers and eight RBIs. He has five homers his past 20 games.

* Mountcastle is batting .333 (21-for-63) over his past 15 games with seven doubles, five homers and 11 RBIs.

* Cedric Mullins is 9-for-22 (.409) during a five-game hitting streak. Over his past 17 games, Mullins is batting .324 (23-for-71) with six doubles and nine RBIs.

* Rutschman has seven extra-base hits his last six games with five doubles and two home runs. Over his past 15 games, he is batting .327 (18-for-55) with 10 doubles, three homers, nine RBIs and five multi-hit games. After producing two extra-base hits his first 15 games, he has 13 in his past 15.

* Santander is 12-for-43 (.279) his past 11 games with five homers and nine RBIs.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (2-1, 1.71 ERA) makes his fourth start tonight and has allowed just one earned run in 16 2/3 innings over his past three starts. In fact, since allowing a three-run homer in his first big league inning this year, he has given up one earned run over his past 20 innings. The Orioles went 3-10 in his 13 starts last season but are 3-1 in 2022.

Kremer is using his fastball less this year, down from 56 percent usage last year to 45 now, and his cutter more, up from 21 to 29 percent. He is getting a 33 percent whiff rate on his cutter. The average exit velocity against him is down from 93.1 mph in 2021 to 89.1 this year.

Lefty Robbie Ray (6-6, 4.07 ERA) gets the start against Kremer. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2021, going 13-7 with a 2.84 ERA with Toronto. He’s been on a recent roll for Seattle, allowing two runs over 20 innings his past three starts for an ERA of 0.90 in that span. On June 1 he took the loss in Baltimore against the Orioles, allowing four runs over five innings.  

The Birds have outscored their opponents 121-96 (+25) in 24 games this month, averaging 5.04 runs per game, third-best in the AL and seventh-best in MLB. In their last 11 games, the O's have gone 8-3, outscoring their opponents 52-22 (+30), their best run differential over an 11-game span since July 29 to Aug. 8, 2017 (+30). And O's relievers own a 2.48 ERA (25 ER/90.2 IP) in June, the third-lowest in MLB.