Orioles offense stalls after second inning and Henderson's return can't prevent 8-2 loss (updated)

KANSAS CITY – Gunnar Henderson swung at the second pitch of his 2025 season and lined out to short at 106.8 mph. He didn’t get on base, but he was back.

The Orioles are lagging behind with three losses in a row after tonight’s 8-2 defeat in Kansas City.

Henderson went 1-for-4 with an infield single in his last at-bat and also committed a fielding error on Salvador Pérez’s ground ball that he charged in the fourth. The game was as ugly as the weather with a start-time temperature of 47 degrees and rain falling all night, and the Orioles dropped to 3-5.

They haven’t been two games below .500 since their record stood at 42-44 on July 9, 2022.

The offense stalled again with two runs scoring in the second and nothing else. Henderson beat out a grounder with one out in the eighth and the Royals turned a 1-6-3 double play with Adley Rutschman at the plate.

The Royals scored five runs off Cionel Pérez in the bottom of the eighth to transform a tight game into a blowout. Pérez threw 37 pitches, and three runs scored on Vinnie Pasquantino's bases-loaded, bloop single into right field after an intentional walk to Bobby Witt Jr.

The bullpen got busy again with starter Dean Kremer logging only 4 1/3 innings and allowing two earned runs and three total with eight hits, no walks and one strikeout. Gregory Soto stranded two runners after back-to-back, one-out singles off Kremer in the fifth.

Kremer threw 26 of his 88 pitches in a first inning that stretched longer than necessary.

Witt reached on an infield single with one out, Pasquantino flied to shallow left field and Pérez concluded an 11-pitch at-bat with a fly ball to left-center that Heston Kjerstad tracked but didn’t catch. The ball dropped for a double and Witt raced home for a 1-0 lead.

Kjerstad might have lost it in the gray sky and precipitation. He slowed up, looked at Cedric Mullins and couldn’t recover.

"It just looked like he didn’t get a good read on it," said manager Brandon Hyde. "I don’t know if he lost it or not. It looked like he looked at Cedric. But not sure.”

Redemption came in the next half inning. Ryan O’Hearn drew a leadoff walk against Seth Lugo, Tyler O’Neill doubled and Kjerstad singled into left field to tie the game. O’Neill was ruled out at home after he went in standing – the call stood after a challenge – but third baseman Maikel Garcia’s throwing error scored Kjerstad.

The Orioles totaled one run against the Royals in two games in the Wild Card Series, but they doubled it in the second inning.

Lugo allowed one earned run and two total with five hits in six innings, with lots of hard contact against him. He came out after 85 pitches, with nine of his last 10 batters retired. Kjerstad singled again in the fourth.

Kremer retired seven in a row after Michael Massey’s single in the first. He threw 12 pitches in the second and only nine in the third. But Henderson’s error was followed by a strikeout, Cavan Biggio single, a wild pitch and Garcia’s two-run single up the middle that Kremer tried to deflect with his foot.

"I was competitive in zone the whole game, didn’t have any walks, kind of throwing the ball pretty much where I wanted to," Kremer said. "Came out a little unlucky, but that’s the game of baseball. Sometimes you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way. Sometimes you do everything wrong and it does go your way. That’s the beautiful thing about this game."

Prior to the wild pitch, Hyde and head athletic trainer Scott Barringer came to the mound to check on Kremer, who appeared to flex his right hand. Kremer told them that he was OK.

Kyle Isbel also singled in an inning that cost Kremer 33 pitches and raised his total to 81.

"I thought we extended his pitch count probably 25 by not making a couple plays defensively," Hyde said. "Probably cut his outing at least two innings short, and with a taxed bullpen it makes it tough. I thought Soto threw the ball well. I thought Dean threw the ball really, really well. That’s twice now he’s had really good stuff and we haven’t helped him out defensively."

Pasquantino’s line drive to right in the fifth inning fell in front of a diving O’Neill after he broke late and tried to recover in the sloppy conditions. Statcast calculated the catch probability at 90 percent, the same as Isbel’s single the previous inning. Salvador Pérez’s ground ball sneaked through the left side of the infield and Hyde played the matchup game with the left-handed hitting Massey on deck.

Bad weather and luck conspired against Kremer, who has a 6.52 ERA in two starts. Pérez reached base in his first three plate appearances and easily could have gone 0-for-3.

“I’m sure the conditions a little bit but they’re playing in the same conditions," Hyde said. "We have to get better defensively. We’re pretty good the last few years and that’s something we’ve got to get back to, because we can’t allow extra … We’ve got to make the routine play and we’ve got to be able to throw to the right base and things like that.”

Soto retired all five batters he faced to keep the Orioles close. He’s tossed four scoreless innings with two hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Seranthony Domínguez walked a batter and struck out two in a scoreless seventh. But Cionel Pérez continues to struggle. He allowed back-to-back, one-out doubles to Mark Canha and Garcia in the eighth, and Ryan Mountcastle fielded Isbel's bunt and made a late throw to the plate for a 5-2 lead after Pérez hit MJ Melendez.

Pasquantino's fly ball came with two outs. O'Neill chased it to the right field line and threw to second base as Witt kept motoring. Pérez has a 19.64 ERA in four appearances and he walked three batters in his only scoreless inning.

“Well, tonight he’s pitching on a wet mound," Hyde said. "You get the grounds crew out there to put some stuff on it, but he didn’t want that, so unfortunately he kind of had to stay out there for it. But yeah, he’s off to a tough start. But Cionel had a really good spring training. He’s just off to a tough start.

"I thought we had some good ABs early. We ran ourselves out of an inning also. We didn’t play clean baseball tonight. Pretty poor game played overall. But it’s early. We’re gonna get better."

The chances improve with Henderson back on the team.

"First at-bat, hits a bullet up the middle right at Witt," Hyde said. "Showed his athleticism on the infield single there. You know, it’s his first game so he’s just kind of getting in a groove now.”

* Triple-A Norfolk’s Samuel Basallo, who isn’t able to catch due to right elbow inflammation, came out of tonight’s game with left hamstring discomfort. He singled and scored a run in his only at-bat.

Basallo is the No. 1 prospect in the system and No. 13 in baseball.

* Norfolk’s Cody Poteet surrendered a grand slam to Charlotte’s Andre Lipcius in the fifth inning. He allowed two hits, walked three batters and struck out three. Nathan Webb tossed two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.

Double-A Chesapeake began its season with a 3-2 win over Altoona. Alex Pham allowed two runs and three hits in four innings, with four walks and five strikeouts. Enrique Bradfield Jr. was 1-for-3 with an RBI, two walks and a strikeout. Jeremiah Jackson homered.

High-A Aberdeen's Braxton Bragg allowed an unearned run and two hits in four innings. Austin Overn hit a solo homer in the fifth.