Watkins and Akin shine, but trip starts with loss at Oakland

OAKLAND – For the Orioles, the opening game of this long road trip in Oakland had a familiar look.

For five innings it was close and low-scoring. The Baltimore offense was scuffling for runs again but the Baltimore pitching was getting the job done. Yet again they were.

On a night when the Orioles reduced their team ERA from an impressive 3.04 to an even better 2.86, they still lost. Four unearned runs in the last of the sixth doomed them to a 5-1 defeat at Oakland.

But right-hander Spenser Watkins was the latest O’s starter to throw well. He allowed two hits and one run over five innings on 67 pitches. He made a bid to stay in the rotation.

“That is always up to Skip on those (rotation) decisions,” Watkins said in the Orioles clubhouse. “But, I’m ready to take the ball whenever they give it to me and I’m going to compete.”

The O’s starting rotation ERA got reduced to 3.29. Watkins' outing was the fourth straight where O’s starters have allowed one earned run or none, something they have done in six of the last seven games. And the starters’ ERA is 1.48 in those seven games. Just stellar pitching. 

“Yeah, he did everything he could,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Watkins, who has an ERA of 2.25 in two outings. “He gave us five really good innings. Went three innings his last start and gives five this start, just the one run in the first inning. Everything you could have asked.

“I just think he made pitches tonight. He had a fastball, cutter. I thought he mixed extremely well. He hasn’t gone five innings, so he went five innings for us. That’s huge.”

Watkins added velocity over the offseason at Driveline Baseball near Seattle. His average fastball was 90.8 in 2021 and it was 92.8 his first game and 92.2 last night, touching 93 mph.

And lefty Keegan Akin touched 95.6 mph and averaged 93.7 on his fastball, per Statcast, in another good outing. He retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings. Akin has thrown 7 2/3 scoreless on two hits for the year over three appearances with an .080 batting average against and 0.26 WHIP. He’s still rolling.

“Really good tempo out of the ‘pen,” Hyde said of Akin, who has thrown 91 pitches for the season, with 72 strikes. “Attacking hitters. Fastball is getting better. Slider has improved as well. And, you know, he’s throwing the ball extremely well, attacking guys in the strike zone.”

But a throwing error with two outs in the A’s sixth by third baseman Ramón Urías led to the go-ahead run scoring and led to an inning in which Rougned Odor also made an error and the O’s allowed four unearned runs. They had allowed three unearned runs for the whole year before this game.

But the Orioles continue to get stunning pitching. Home or road. East Coast or West Coast. It’s working for the pitchers right now. But their offense and defense need to give them a bigger margin for error and more help.

Might lead someone to wonder what happens first: The O’s pitching has some struggles or the hitters start producing more runs.

On the first day of the road trip, the O’s had the pitching, but the hitting and defense were not nearly good enough as the club lost for the seventh time in 10 games.