Zac Lowther shines in O's homestand opener

After they held leads and won the last two days at New York, the Orioles bullpen could not do that today in the opener of a long homestand. The Kansas City Royals scored twice in the top of the eighth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win in the opener of a four-game series and 11-game stand.

The Orioles (43-93) are 2-2 against Kansas City and now 3-3 their past six games. Their last five games have been decided by one run each, and they are 2-3 in those games.

A few positive things did happen today as the club lost on a sunny afternoon at Camden Yards.

Zac Lowther was outstanding: While the lefty did not record a 1-2-3 inning until his sixth and final frame, this was some solid outing. Considering it's been a tough year for him between not really getting settled into pitching any long stretch successfully on the farm and that he got hurt too, this was a banner day for the southpaw with a very strong minors resume through 2020.

Today he went six innings, allowing three hits and one run with two walks and strikeouts. He threw 92 pitches, 56 for strikes, and was in line for his first major league win until the eighth. He now has a 6.91 ERA after six big league games covering 14 1/3 innings this year.

The O's could have called righty Mike Baumann to make this start. They did not, and Lowther, at least today, made the decision to call him look good.

And Lowther pitched well against a Kansas City team that was coming off a series win over the first-place White Sox in which they scored 20 runs in three games.

This game went a lot better than Lowther's previous career start, when he allowed seven runs in 2 1/3 innings on May 8 versus Boston. Today he threw 41 four-seam fastballs that averaged 90.2 mph. He mixed in a lot of curveballs early in his outing, with the changeup later, throwing 26 of the former and 21 of the latter along with four sliders.

While this has been a tough and challenging season for him, we can't forget he spent the entire 2019 season at Double-A Bowie, going 13-7 in 26 starts with a 2.55 ERA. In 148 innings he walked 63 with 154 strikeouts and held opponents to a .197 batting average. He earned midseason and postseason Eastern League All-Star honors and was named a Baseball America Double-A All-Star.

Lowther split the 2018 season between low Single-A Delmarva and then high Single-A Frederick, going a combined 8-4 in 23 games with a 2.18 ERA. In 123 innings, he walked 35 with 151 strikeouts. After that year he was named the Orioles Jim Palmer Minor League Co-Pitcher of the Year with lefty Keegan Akin.

For his career on the farm coming into this season, Lowther was 23-13 with a 2.26 ERA and 1.018 WHIP over 326 innings. He led all O's minor leaguers in strikeouts in 2018 and 2019.

He showed some poise and quality pitches today. It was surely uplifting for him during a mostly tough season.

Mullins again: Cedric Mullins hit homer No. 25 yesterday and today hit No. 26 in the bottom of the fifth. That broke a 1-1 tie from the top of the inning when former Oriole Hanser Alberto homered off Lowther to provide Kansas City's only run off the lefty.

Mullins giving up switch-hitting and his ability to hit so well this year left-on-left has been huge for him. Coming into today, he was batting better against right-handed pitchers, but more than holding his own versus the lefties this season.

He was batting .293/.356/.463/.819 against lefties and .315/.377/.570/.946 against right-handers.

After his homer today versus Kansas City southpaw Kris Bubic, Mullins averages a homer every 20.1 plate appearances against right-handers and one every 26.5 plate appearances against lefties.

Mullins is the only player in the majors so far this season to have hit 25 home runs and stolen 25 bases, and his 26 stolen bases are tied for the third-most in the majors. Mullins' leads the O's in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, hits, doubles, triples, runs scored, stolen bases and walks.

Mullins' 271 total bases are the sixth-most in the majors, trailing only: Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. of Toronto (299), Marcus Semien of Toronto (287), Salvador Pérez of Kansas City (286), Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels (283) and Rafael Devers of Boston (272).

The O's played another close game today and came up short. Now they need to win the next three games to take this series or two of three to gain a split.

The 30/30 chase is on. pic.twitter.com/1aY33D0WYW

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 6, 2021