Urías’ walk-off single gives O’s first home win
Through the Orioles’ first four home games of 2021, it was their mistakes, either on the mound or in the field, that allowed their opponents to send them to an 0-4 start at Camden Yards.
That trend reversed itself in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader with the Seattle Mariners, a 7-6 walk-off victory in which the Orioles scored five unearned runs, rallied from an early deficit and blew a late lead. After Sam Haggerty tied the game in the top of the seventh with a two-run home run off Adam Plutko, Baltimore won its first home game of 2021 on a walk-off single by Ramón Urías, ending a four-game slide.
The first two Orioles batters in the bottom of the seventh, the final inning of
regulation in doubleheaders, went quietly before Maikel Franco drew a two-out walk. The game seemed bound to join the first game of the doubleheader by going to extras when Ryan McKenna’s half swing led to a slow roller between first base and the pitcher’s mound, but Seattle pitcher Casey Sadler failed to pick up the ball clearly. After a wild pitch sent the runners to second and third, Urías followed with a single into center to score pinch-runner Rio Ruiz, delivering the Orioles their first home victory with fans in the stands since a 2-1 triumph over the Mariners on Sept. 22, 2019 — a span of 570 days.
Sadler’s error was Seattle’s second that allowed the Orioles to score, with the Orioles using a rally built around an error by second baseman Ty France to erase a four-run deficit in the third inning. The rally immediately followed a Seattle fourspot, with a single, double and walk against rookie right-hander Dean Kremer loading the bases for Kyle Seager, whose sacrifice fly to left accounted for the game’s first run. José Marmolejos then hit a three-run home run on a full-count cutter from Kremer.
Shortstop Freddy Galvis, who has struggled thus far in his first season with Baltimore, opened the bottom half with a single. After DJ Stewart reached on French’s
error, Anthony Santander was hit by a pitch from Seattle lefthander Nick Margevicius to load the bases. Margevicius struck out Trey Mancini on three pitches, but Franco doubled into the leftfield corner on the next pitch, clearing the bases and getting the Orioles within a run. Ryan Mountcastle tied the game with an opposite-field single to score Franco; all four runs in the frame were unearned.
The Orioles (5-6) added two runs in the fourth to take the lead. Chance Sisco and Galvis, the bottom two hitters in the order, reached to begin the inning, then Cedric Mullins doubled Sisco home. Mullins has hit safely in 15 straight games dating to last season and is among league leaders in hits and doubles. Santander’s subsequent sacrifice fly doubled Baltimore’s lead.
Mixed results
With Kremer’s outing, every member of the Orioles rotation has made at least two starts, with Means’ work in Tuesday’s first game making him the exception with three. Means, buoyed by seven shutout innings on Opening Day, has the best numbers of any rotation members, while rookie left-hander and Ellicott City native Bruce Zimmermann’s two starts both reached the baseline for quality by featuring three earned runs allowed in six innings.
Veteran Matt Harvey’s line of six runs allowed in 9 ⅔ innings would appear better if not for a pair of runners he left for the Orioles bullpen in the team’s homer opener only to see them score. There’s no sugarcoating the first pair of outings from Jorge López and Kremer. They’ve combined to allow 18 earned runs in 14 innings, and Tuesday marked the first time the Orioles had won one of their starts.