Tandem of Wells and Kremer can't keep Orioles from losing series to Blue Jays (updated)

The plan was devised late last night or early this morning, depending on whether the clock struck midnight. Manager Brandon Hyde called Dean Kremer into his office to inform the right-hander of the club’s decision to use him in relief tonight behind Tyler Wells, who learned that he’d be removed from his rehab assignment, activated from the injured list and start against the Blue Jays.

Building up a starter’s pitches and innings is hard to do in the majors, but so is catching a team in the wild card chase and completing the improbable run from 110 losses to the playoffs.

The leash was transparent. Hyde said he wouldn’t extend Wells much past the 31 pitches thrown at High-A Aberdeen. Too soon for it.

Wells backloaded them tonight, with four in the first and 30 in the second before Kremer was tagged into the match.  

The wrinkle in an otherwise smooth plan was the Blue Jays breaking a tie in the fifth inning and winning the series with a 4-1 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards.

By losing three of the four games, the Orioles (72-65) are 4 ½ behind Toronto for the last wild card, almost double the distance when the series began. They host the Red Sox this weekend.

What's it going to take in order to make up that ground?

"It's going to take some wins," Hyde said. "We need to win. We won five series going into this series. We had a rough series. We've got to bounce back and continue to play winning series going forward."

Alek Manoah held the Orioles to one run over eight innings. He retired 14 in a row before Adley Rutschman’s double in the sixth inning, the rookie’s 29^th in 89 games.

Twenty-two of the last 23 Orioles came up empty against Manoah, who threw 95 pitches. Jordan Romano retired the side in order in the ninth for the save.

"I think the story tonight was Manoah, what he didn't allow us to do," Hyde said. "We didn't have many baserunners. Besides our little rally in the first inning, not a whole lot, so give him credit. I thought he pitched a great game."

Kremer was charged with two earned runs and three total over 5 1/3 innings. He allowed six hits, threw 92 pitches (70 strikes), and left after Whit Merrifield flied to the left field track with a runner on first base in the eighth.

Joey Krehbiel stranded Raimel Tapia to complete Kremer’s line. Jake Reed struck out two in a scoreless ninth in his Orioles’ debut, the 57^th player used this season.

Kremer said the late switch in his role had no impact on his approach and routine.

"Not even changed a little bit," he said. "The only thing I did different was not going into the game right after I played catch."

Kremer surrendered three hits and walked a batter in the fifth, while the Jays scored three times to lead 4-1. Rougned Odor bobbled a ground ball and settled for the out at first base as Santiago Espinal scored the go-ahead run, Alejandro Kirk followed a Bo Bichette walk with a soft RBI single down the left field line, and Bichette scored when Rutschman committed a throwing error while attempting to pick off Kirk.

"I thought it was solid," Kremer said. "Left a couple pitches up, gave up some weak contact that ended up scoring in that one inning. But other than that, the stuff was good."

Making his first major league start since July 27, Wells allowed one run and two hits with two walks and a strikeout. Everything in the second inning, when the Jays twice loaded the bases and couldn’t bust out.

The first time came with no outs on Alejandro Kirk’s single, Matt Chapman’s walk and Tapia’s bloop single to center field, the ball popping out of the glove of sliding center fielder Cedric Mullins. Sixteen pitches thrown in the sequence.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. beat out a potential double play grounder, stumbled as he crossed the bag and injured his left hamstring. The game was tied and Gurriel came out of it.

Espinal walked, Jackie Bradley Jr. struck out on a 94 mph fastball, and Ramón Urías made a nice stop of George Springer’s ground ball and got the force.

"Overall, body felt good, arm felt good," Wells said. "Definitely a little rusty on some things, but for the most part, I didn't really have any issues."

"Encouraging from Tyler to get out of that second inning," Hyde said. "I thought his stuff looked good. He's probably a little bit rusty. That was to be expected."

Wells is learning on the fly how the Orioles will proceed with him. Taking it day-by-day, start-by start and monitoring his health after his recovery from lower-back and left-side discomfort.

"I was told last night, and obviously very excited to be able to come and throw today," he said. "He told me last night and that was it.

"Obviously, very excited to kind of come back and be a part of it and try to help the push. It is going to be a tough month. Obviously, we face these guys quite a bit. I believe that we have quite a few more in-division games as well, so it's going to be a competitive month, but I think at the same time, too, it's also going to be worth it in the end. I'm hoping that we continue to push and we continue to battle, and if we continue to play the way we've been playing as of late, hopefully we can push and surprise a lot of people."

Manoah retired the first two batters he faced and fell behind 1-0 on Anthony Santander’s single and Ryan Mountcastle’s double into the right field corner. Santander dived across the plate, and Mountcastle had his 33^rd career RBI versus the Jays.

The Orioles, who are 7-6 against the Jays, didn’t have another hit until Rutschman’s double. Santander grounded out and Mountcastle struck out.

The calendar is shrinking. The Orioles are fighting to keep their playoff hopes from doing the same.

"I don't think anything's changed," Kremer said. "We're not pressing. There's still a good bit of season left. We just started September, and we do play them another two times. There's definitely chances to make up that gap.

"It doesn't matter what team it is, we're looking to at least split or win the series, so it doesn't matter whether it's the Blue Jays, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Nationals. It doesn't matter."

Hyde said he's "disappointed" that the Orioles couldn't do more in the series.

"But it's a really good team," he said. "We got shut down offensively tonight and those nights do happen, and unfortunately for us, tonight was one of those nights. We pitched well enough to win. We couldn't get anything going offensively.

"I think we're going to enjoy the off-day tomorrow. It's needed. And get ready for Boston."