Offense breaks out to back rookie arms
O’s roll to victory in front of crowd of only 4,981 fans
After the Orioles finished their series against the New York Yankees with a second straight one-run victory Sunday, manager Brandon Hyde quipped that he told his team it was acceptable to win 7-2 on occasion.
An unearned run in Tuesday’s eighth inning prevented Hyde from being prophetic, but an early offensive output led to a 7-3 victory against the Kansas City Royals in front of an announced crowd of 4,981, the smallest full-capacity attendance in the ballpark’s history. Rookie pitchers Alexander Wells, Tyler Wells and debutant Mike Baumann recorded 26 of 27 outs.
The Orioles (44-93) put up a four-run first inning, a total they had surpassed in only two of their previous 10 full games. Royals rookie starter Jackson Kowar opened his outings with walks of Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle, who respectively scored on Anthony Santander’s single through a shifted infield and Austin Hays’ chopped groundball. DJ Stewart brought himself and Santander home with a two-run home run.
Hays delivered another off Kowar in the third, extending his career-high hitting streak to 14. But as the Royals’ rookie pitcher struggled, three of the Orioles’ rookies combined to cover the game. A day after Zac Lowther limited Kansas City to one run in six innings, fellow soft-tossing left-hander Wells had a one-out walk turn into a run in the third and allowed a solo home run to Carlos Santana in the fourth, but he left the bases loaded in the latter frame, preserving Baltimore’s four-run lead.
Baumann, the Orioles’ No. 9 prospect promoted earlier in the day, took over in the fifth, retiring the next eight batters — with the help of a diving stop from rookie second baseman Jahmai Jones in the sixth — before pitching around a two-out double in the seventh. After Cedric Mullins tacked a run onto Baltimore’s lead with his 27th home run, Baumann left two men on for Dillon Tate with two outs in the eighth, who got a pair of groundballs the Orioles’ infield couldn’t convert into outs before an inning-ending strikeout. Wells pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.