Tag Archives: Cedric Mullins

Trevor Rogers was tasked with keeping Colorado at bay this evening for the Baltimore Orioles. Luckily for him and the Birds, Colorado wasn’t nearly as pesky as they were last night. Not even close. Rogers mowed them down with relative ease. Rogers’ line: 7.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K.

The Orioles began tonight’s game in a similar way they did last night, with a run in the first inning. Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI-single gave them a 1-0 lead. One inning later it was 3-0 after a two-run home run by Tyler O’Neill. It was O’Neill’s second straight game with a homer, which is obviously a good sign. O’Neill’s struggled to stay off the IL this year, as of course has seemingly everyone else.

Colorado almost had an extra base hit in the third against Rogers when Arcia sent a deep shot to center. However it ended up being a long fly ball out. Cedric Mullins took a dead sprint towards the wall, laid out, and caught it on a dive. And dazzled the crowd in the process. Needless to say, that’s a gold glove play.

Mullins of course is a prime trade candidate. So that might have come at a good moment. It was also a swan song in a sense (assuming he moves) for the Camden faithful. As was his three-run homer in the fourth to give the O’s a 6-0 lead.

Incidentally, that was Mullins’ 100th career home run – all of them of course in the orange & black. So it was fitting that he hit that homer at Oriole Park. Also perhaps in one of his last games as an Oriole. Potentially. To show he wasn’t kidding, Mullins reached on a swinging bunt in the sixth. Colton Cowser scored on an E1.

Jacob Stallings would plate a run a moment later in a similar fashion – an E1. Colorado’s Robison did not have a good night in the field. The O’s would blow the game further open in the seventh. They batted around, and then some. When the smoke cleared, the O’s put nine runs on the board in the inning. And Colton Cowser made a play for a two-run homer, but it ended up being a long fly ball out to end the inning.

Lost in the shuffle was Trevor Rogers’ effort. Seven innings of one-hit baseball. However the story of the game, aside from the margin of victory, was Cedric Mullins. What happens between now and Thursday’s trade deadline remains to be seen. But Mullins has been a solid Oriole. And he deserves to have had his 100th career homer in front of Orioles’ fans.

Also worth mentioning, Mullins’ contract is up after this season. So the Orioles could trade him this coming week, only to re-sign him (if they so choose) in the off season. For the record, Alex Jackson smacked a solo homer in the eighth to run the final to 18-0. The Orioles set a franchise record tonight incidentally – 18 runs is the largest shutout win (in terms of margin of victory) in team history.

The series concludes tomorrow at Camden Yards. Tomoyuki Sugano gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Colorado’s Austin Gomber. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.

Many people will look at the headline and say that the Baltimore Orioles shouldn’t be willing to live with any loss. And sure, that’s true in a perfect world. Dean Kremer wasn’t great tonight, but he wasn’t awful. And he probably worked a little extra into the game, saving a bullpen reliever. Kremer’s line: 5.1 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 6 K.

Going back to the point above, it’s not a perfect world. You can live with dropping a game like this where you fought and things didn’t break your way in the end. This as opposed to losing games perhaps because a computer program told you to do this or that in game.

The Orioles appeared to come untracked as a team today. That meaning that perhaps they didn’t have the reliance on analytics and only analytics. And it almost worked. It certainly did at first when Ramon Laureano smacked a solo homer in the second inning.

However Milwaukee put up three in their half of the frame, and took a 3-1 lead. Contreras would add an RBI-double in the last of the fifth, and the Birds trailed 4-1. But maybe you’ve noticed and maybe you haven’t – in each game of the newly-minted Tony Mansolino era the Birds have put up late runs. In this case tonight, they weren’t already too far behind for it to make a difference.

The O’s put two runners in scoring position in the seventh, bringing Cedric Mullins to the plate. And Mullins ambushed a pitch over the right field wall, tying the game at four. And that’s part of why I reference the computer program above. The Orioles have made it clear that analytics are their game – right or wrong. When’s the last time you’ve seen an Oriole player ambush a pitch like that early in a count? Maybe they put the iPad away for a moment and allowed themselves to play in the moment.

But end of the day, it’s chalked up as the Orioles’ seventh loss in a row. Yennier Cano issued a two-out walk in the ninth, and Turang promptly stole second. He scored on Contreras’ RBI-single, lifting Milwaukee to victory.

Again, you can live with dropping a game like this. It’s games when your use of analytics are used against you and where you can’t get out of your own way that stick in your mind. Also worth mentioning that the Orioles again made lots of hard contact in this game. Big time. And Milwaukee fielders made amazing plays. Par for the course for this year.

The series continues tomorrow night at American Family Field. The Orioles are yet to announce a starter, but whomever he ends up being will be opposed by Milwaukee’s Logan Henderson. Game time is set for just after 7:30 PM.

To be clear, I disagree with the concept of an “opener,” used by the Baltimore Orioles tonight. It’s too zaney and against the grain for an old school person such as myself, and I abhor spitting in the face of tradition like that. The Birds sent Keegan Akin to the mound in that capacity tonight, and in fairness it worked – for him, at least. Akin’s line: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.

There’s little point in giving the starting pitching line if you’re going to make the starter merely the inverse of a closer. Charlie Morton of course has struggled, so I assume Brandon Hyde was trying to do something different. And again in fairness, Morton only had one bad inning.

However before that the O’s did have a lead. Gunnar Henderson’s RBI-double gave them a 1-0 lead in the third. Rightfully, it should have been 2-0. Cedric Mullins was to be the second run, but he was thrown out at home plate. And that seemed to inspire Detroit.

Morton opened the third with a walk, a single, and an out recorded on a fielder’s choice. That brought Greene to the plate, who smacked a three-run homer to give Detroit a 3-1 lead. In reality, that was the only dust-up that Morton had. The home run hurt, but it came as a result of smaller things – that being a walk, a hit, and the inability to turn two. Or the ball being hit too softly to turn two, that is.

But that’s what teams like Detroit do. It’s fairly predominant in the central – both NL and AL. They paper cut you to death. Make no mistake, they were thrilled at the prospect of a double-play ball ending up a fielder’s choice. It gave them more life, this as opposed to a double-play. And they took advantage.

The Birds had their chances in this game. They started the sixth by getting two runners in scoring position with one out. Brandon Hyde then lifted Heston Kjerstad and pinch-hit Ramon Laureano. To be clear, there’s a certain methodology to that, as Laureano hits southpaws better. Detroit’s Hurter (who was in the game at the time) is a southpaw.

To be clear, Laureano did drive a run in on a sac fly-RBI – cutting the Detroit lead to 3-2. And that was a big moment. But it wasn’t enough. Detroit would put three insurance runs on the board in the seventh, again in a death by paper cut sort of manner. And the O’s dropped game two, 6-2. This after losing the first game of the doubleheader this afternoon.

Brandon Hyde matches up a lot. And overall, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes you wonder if it doesn’t shake things up too much. This to the point to where it’s detrimental.

Laureano was hitting .182 when he was inserted into the game. That isn’t to say that Kjerstad is hitting the world on fire – he’s hitting .210. But you get the point.

Sometimes you wonder if it’s not predictable that the Orioles are going to match up no matter what. Tarik Skubal, last year’s Cy Young winner, starts for Detroit tomorrow. My prediction is that the likes of Cedric Mullins and other lefty hitters are out of the starting lineup.

Now that said, keep in mind that the matchup numbers say that should be the case. But while stats don’t lie, sometimes reverse-locks happen. If you consistently allow a computer to determine your lineup and substitutions, you risk having things such as death by a thousand paper cuts occur.

The series concludes tomorrow afternoon at Comerica Park. Dean Kremer gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Detroit’s aforementioned Tarik Skubal. Game time is set for just after 1:40 PM.

Tomoyuki Sugano had his struggles this afternoon for the Baltimore Orioles. First off, Toronto came up swinging early, and he wasn’t getting borderline pitches at home plate. And Toronto wasn’t hitting the ball hard, they were fouling off pitch after pitch, driving up Sugano’s pitch count. Sugano’s line: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K.

Toronto put a run on the board in each of the first three innings, including former Oriole Anthony Santander hitting his first home run in a Toronto uniform in the third. Speaking of uniforms, the O’s wore their all-orange uniforms for the first time since 2010. They wore them in the early 70’s, but it was short-lived; they’ll wear these uniforms for every Saturday home game.

And Toronto followed suit, wearing their own alternate uniforms, all in powder blue. And that was all we saw for the first half of the game – those powder blue dressed guys celebrating. Oriole bats squared up a lot of pitches; they were just balls hit to fielders.

But this lineup is too good to go that quietly. The Orioles couldn’t get a base runner until the fifth inning when Cedric Mullins drew a one-out walk. Two hitters later Heston Kjerstad recorded the Orioles’ first hit of the game. Funny thing though, that one hit changed the scope of the game. Because it was a two-run homer that cut the Toronto lead to 3-2, and propelled the Birds back into the game.

One inning later it was tied following an Adley Rutschman solo home run. The O’s would later put two runners on base, and Cedric Mullins broke up the tie with a two-RBI double. He would also take third on a throwing error, and before you knew it the Orioles had the lead.

Toronto would push one across in the seventh when Guerrero grounded into a double-play with a runner on third, setting up Felix Bautista’s first save opportunity since 2023 in the ninth with a one-run lead.

With two outs Toronto had two runners in scoring position, and Bichette striding to the plate. It’s never easy with Toronto. However Bautista sent Bichette down swinging, netting his first save since August of 2023, and sending the Orioles home winners. That last part being the most inportant.

Backing up a bit, there was a big moment that occurred in the fifth that was really key. Santander had two runners on base and he flied out to right. However it ended up being a double-play, as the runners both tagged up however runner on first was found to have left too early. That helped keep the threat of a big inning down, keeping the game within reach.

To date, this was the biggest win of the season for the Orioles. Coming off of a semi-listless road trip, an off day, and a rain out, the O’s needed a spark to keep the season from spiraling. They got it. Not at the beginning, but they got it.

The series concludes tomorrow at Camden Yards. Cade Povich gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Jose Berrios. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.

The Baltimore Orioles opened on the road, get a token three-game home series, and then back on the road. However they made the most of their home opener this afternoon against Boston at Camden Yards behind starter Cade Povich. Povich’s line: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 8 K.

The O’s got RBI-singles from Tyler O’Neill and Ryan Mountcastle in the first inning, sending the hometown crowd into a frenzy. Ryan Mountcastle would add a two-run single, aided by a Boston error. And before you knew it, the home team led 4-0.

However Boston would battle back. And you expect nothing less. They put three on the board in the second and third, cutting the Orioles’ lead to 4-3. And there the game remained – for awhile.

Both sides danced out of trouble a few times along the way. The Orioles have left a small army on base thus far this year. That could be a problem. They also lost Colton Cowser for 6-8 weeks at a minimum before the game. He fractured his finger sliding into first base yesterday. Dylan Carlson replaced him on the roster.

With the AL East being so good, insurance runs are going to be a thing this year. You have to tack on runs late in a close game. And we saw it today.

Luckily for the O’s, that wasn’t a problem this afternoon. Heston Kjerstad’s RBI-single in the eighth extended the lead to 5-3. And here’s another thing; Jorge Mateo pinch ran, and promptly stole second. Following a Carlson walk, Cedric Mullins busted the game open with a two-RBI single.

Mateo’s speed is a game-changer. There’s a direct correlation with those two runs and Mateo’s speed. You can’t see it in the box score, but it made a difference.

Jackson Holliday added an RBI-single, and the O’s had all but won the game. Granted, Boston tacked on two against closer Felix Bautista in the ninth. Many might want to scrutinize that, however keep in mind that Bautista is still coming back from Tommy John’s. The fact that he got in today’s game is good for the O’s. Sure you’d rather a clean inning, but that will come.

End of the day, it’s a win. One game of 162. However…it was the home opener, the orange carpet, player introductions, fans out at bars all day leading up to the game, etc. It’s a holiday in Baltimore. It means just a bit more, and it goes as a win.

With today’s 2-1 loss to Kansas City at Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles were eliminated from the postseason, ending their 2024 season. It was another game of inches, and one that was there for the taking. Starter Zach Eflin probably would have gone deeper had this not been a postseason game. Eflin’s line: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K.

The lone run surrendered by Eflin came in the first inning on an RBI-single by Pasquantino. And that came following a double and a groundout. That’s how Kansas City plays.

Despite pitching fairly strong, Eflin was pulled after four innings. I found that curious, as Eflin seemed like he was shutting them down after a giving up the one run. But the fact is you have to manage postseason games differently than you do regular season ones. Brandon Hyde made the decisions he did, and for his own reasons.

And say what you will, but somehow that did spark something in the Birds – sort of. Kansas City did load the bases in the fifth following Eflin’s departure. But the Oriole bullpen pitched out of it, with Jacob Webb recording a strikeout for the final out. A few pitches into the last of the fifth, it was tied due to a Cedric Mullins solo homer.

The O’s would load the bases later in the inning with nobody down. Not only did they look to take the lead, but they were poised for a big inning. However Anthony Santander popped out softly on the infield, and Colton Cowser struck out – technically.

I say that, because he was hit on the hand. With the bases loaded. However in getting out of the way, he swung the bat. Strike three. Adley Rutschman would ground out to end the inning.

The Cowser strikeout was especially tough to fathom. Cowser was later lifted from the game. Unfortunately if you swing, it’s a strike. Even if it hits you also.

Detroit would put two on in the sixth; one on an infield hit that was legged out, and a second on an infield hit resulting from a Baltimore chop. The irony. Witt’s subsequent RBI-single gave Kansas City a 2-1 lead.

Maybe it’s fitting the game turned out that way. What should and could have been an RBI-HBP ends up a strikeout. And two infield hits which otherwise would have probably resulted in outs put the opponent in a position to win. There are a million things that could be said about this game and this season. And I suspect it will be. But it’ll have to wait.

I’ll leave it at this; the O’s won 91 games this year. That can’t be discounted, and it can’t be forgotten. That, along with the low moments are part of the overall season story. You’re hard-pressed to say a team that won 91 games underachieved. Especially with the injuries they had. But needless to say, many will.

End of the day, you win with class and lose with dignity. This team did both of those things. Always. Everyday. That should mean something. Most will say it won’t. But to the true blue fans of this franchise, it does. Make no mistake, the O’s made the playoffs for a reason. And they will do so again.

Albert Suarez was “gritty” today for the Baltimore Orioles. He was lifted needing one out to leave the game in line to be the winner. However manager Brandon Hyde thought it more important to piecemeal an effort by the bullpen if that was what it was going to take to win. Suarez’s line: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 2 K.

One interesting thing; the Orioles’ rally started while they were in the field in the third inning. You read that correctly. With a runner on second, Gunnar Henderson caught a line drive that was destined for the outfield. James McCann threw the runner out trying to steal a moment later. That could have gone south quick, but it didn’t.

And Oriole bats would follow suit in the bottom of the inning. They would load the bases with nobody out, and Gunnar Henderson would draw a walk to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Ryan O’Hearn would then drop a flare RBI-single into left field for an RBI-double. The bases remained loaded, and the runners had to wait to see if it would drop in…

…and Ryan Mountcastle would drive in two with a two-RBI single. Cedric Mullins would follow with a two-RBI double, and the Orioles would lead 6-0. However would it be enough?

In theory, yes. But San Diego would put three across in the fifth, chasing Suarez. The runs came on a run-scoring single, a double, and a GIDP. And the plot slightly thickened.

But it thickened further down the line. Bogaerts’ two-run homer in the sixth tightened it up to 6-5. And the momentum appeared to be on San Diego’s side. With a doubleheader in the division tomorrow, the O’s needed this game.

And it appeared that San Diego was going to make some noise in the eighth. Machado sent a deep liner to dead center field. I’m not sure it was destined to go out, but it appeared to be at least a triple. Cedric Mullins went on a dead sprint towards the wall, which was the only chance the Orioles had…

…at the 11th hour he lunged out, and caught the ball. It was perhaps the best catch in MLB all year. And it came in a moment where the Orioles desperately needed it. It’s a play that should rightfully appear on highlight reels this season.

But the O’s still needed insurance. And they got it in the last of the eighth. Ryan Mountcastle’s two-RBI double extended the lead to 8-5. Yennier Cano ran into some bad luck in the ninth when he loaded the bases due to an error and a couple of infield hits. And then…

…it was over. Or was it? Profar appeared to GIDP to end the game. However the runner took out Gunnar Henderson on the base paths. And it was called a double-play. However San Diego challenged, and the call was overturned. The second out was awarded, but so was San Diego’s sixth run.

Brandon Hyde was ejected arguing the call. And rightfully so. Needless to say, it was a curious call. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a defender taken out, interference called, and then reversed – with the game on the line like that. However end of the day, you win and move on.

The same is true with the Gunnar Henderson errors in the past few games – including today. You chalk it up as an anomaly. His overall body of work speaks for itself. If you scrutinize over a ln admittedly poor stretch of five games in the field, nobody will ever be a franchise player.

Toronto now comes to town tomorrow for a four-game set, starting with a doubleheader tomorrow at Camden Yards. The Orioles are yet to announce a starter for game one (however it’s expected to be newly-acquired Zach Eflin), but whomever starts will be opposed by Toronto’s Yariel Rodriguez. Game time is set for just after 3 PM.

To answer the question I posed in the title regarding the Baltimore Orioles, NO. Teams go through funks over 162 games. Often more than one. Unfortunately this afternoon, today’s “victim of the funk” was starter Dean Kremer, who you could argue shouldn’t have even given up a run. Kremer’s line: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R (1 earned), 1 BB, 7 K.

Again, teams go through funks. You can look at every recent World Series champion and see that truth. And in a sport like baseball, if you start doing draconian things due to a funk as such, you’ve already lost the war. Instead it’s better to convey calm, and a total lack of anxiety. Even if the truth is starkly different from that. Basically, steer the ship steady as she goes, and stay the course. (Incidentally, good life advice also.)

Kremer found himself with runners at the corners and two outs in the second inning. One unforced mistake Kremer did make was disengaging twice. That meant that if did do again without picking the runner off, it was a balk. This allowed the runner to steal second base.

However you figure that with two outs, maybe it won’t make a difference. And it didn’t, when Higashioka popped the ball up on the left side of the infield. That is…until it did matter. Gunnar Henderson and Ramon Urias appeared to miscommunicate and collide, allowing the ball to drop. Two unearned runs scored, and the O’s trailed 2-0.

At first that was ruled an error on Gunnar Henderson. However the shortstop is the quarterback of the infield, and Henderson clearly and emphatically called for the ball. A few moments later that was changed to an E5 on Urias. It’s a team effort, however regardless of who was charged with the error that falls on Urias to hear Henderson calling him off.

Machado’s RBI-double in the third extended the lead to 3-0. That’s the lone earned run that Dean Kremer surrendered, however again you could argue it should have never happened. It went under Urias’ glove at third. While not an error, it’s a play you expect Urias to make.

San Diego would score again in the fourth, and this time the error was on Gunnar Henderson. On what should have been a tailor-made double-play, Henderson threw the ball into the camera well. When things aren’t going well, they flat out aren’t going well. Following Kremer’s departure after the sixth, Machado also launched a three-run homer in the seventh, followed by a sac fly-RBI by Merrill.

The Orioles did show some life in the seventh. And that’s the silver lining in this game. Maybe there were signs of the O’s coming out of their latest slumber. Cedric Mullins’ two-RBI double cut the lead to 8-2. San Diego would add an additional run in the ninth, however Mullins would also smack a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. However the O’s still fell, 9-4.

Again, if you do something draconian you’ve already lost. They just need to work their way out of this, and that process hopefully started late in the game today, and continues tomorrow. Here’s one thing though; we all know the Orioles rely on the home run ball. Opposing teams know this also…

…ever notice the O’s are getting a lot of pitches out of the strike zone? And yet, they’re swinging. Teams know they’re looking for home run pitches, so they’re nibbling. Or you swing at balls you’re going to get balls.

The series with San Diego concludes tomorrow at Camden Yards. Al Suarez gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by San Diego’s Randy Vasquez. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.

Dean Kremer labored this afternoon for the Baltimore Orioles. Or should I say “this morning.” The series finale with New York began at 11:30 AM. Kremer’s line: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K.

Kremer didn’t struggle per se. He just labored. This on a sweltering day with heavy humidity in downtown Baltimore. He gave up an RBI-single to Grisham in the second, giving New York a 1-0 lead.

That was concerning for a team who hasn’t been scoring runs. But that changed. Gunnar Henderson smacked a two-run homer in the third, and the O’s led 2-1. Their first lead of the homestand.

But Grisham struck again in the fifth. His solo homer tied the game. The O’s spent a great deal of time trying to dance around Soto and Judge in this series – and record outs. They did that successfully today. But the bottom of the New York order hurt them.

However the Birds would get the lead back on a solo homer by Anthony Santander in the bottom of that fifth inning. And Oriole pitching shut NY down – until the end. Almost. As closer Craig Kimbrell was trying to pitch around the heart of the order, he walked the first two hitters of the inning. That turned the order over, and New York’s rookie first baseman, Rice, hit a three-run homer. And the Birds trailed, 5-3.

It’s tough to lose games that way. It exemplifies the agony of defeat. And Orioles fans at Camden Yards were staring that agony down. But…the game wasn’t over.

The O’s had runners at second and third with two down. Adley Rutschman drew a walk to load the bases. So you’re saying there’s a chance, huh…

And…there was. Ryan Mountcastle reached on a fielder’s choice. NY SS Volpe mishandled a routine ground ball, and Colton Cowser came into score. That cut the lead to 5-4.

And before the crowd could settle back down, it was over. Cedric Mullins hit what appeared to be a flair to left. However New York was playing their outfielders in, and that flair…was more than a flair. It fell in over the head of the left fielder Verdugo, for a two-run walkoff double. And the O’s go into the All-Star break with a 6-5 win, and alone in first place.

This snaps a five-game losing streak. There was also an uncharacteristic error by Volpe in the end. But remember, every other weird bounce in this series and on this homestand has gone against the O’s. These things even out.

And with that, the O’s scatter for a few days off over the All-Star break. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and others, will go to Texas for the festivities. But make no mistake that this is a huge win. They found a way to- one way or the other. And backs against the wall, that’s what the Baltimore Orioles do.