BALTIMORE—The Orioles were looking for their second consecutive series win and had their best starter on the mound in John Means. He did his job, but the hitters didn’t do theirs in the Kansas City Royals’ 6-0 win before an announced crowd of 5,087 on Thursday night.
Means allowed a home run to Nicky Lopez, the game’s second batter, and held the Royals to two runs on five hits in seven-plus innings. He walked two and struck out five.
“I was just frustrated I couldn’t get through that eighth,” Means said. “I’ve got to be able to go out and finish. My pitch count’s not very high. I wasn’t able to do that. That’s the only negative thing I really have.”
The Orioles’ real negative was their offense, which put together three hits in the second inning and not another after that. They split the four-game series with the Royals and scored in only one inning — nine runs in the eighth on Wednesday — in the final two games.
Manager Brandon Hyde replaced Means (5-7) with Tanner Scott after he allowed a leadoff double by Hunter Dozier in the eighth. Dozier took third on a fly ball to right by Whit Merrifield and scored on a single by Lopez against a drawn-in infield.
“He was really good,” Hyde said about Means. “Besides the homer to Lopez early and the double to Dozier in the eighth, he was in complete command … He did a great job. We just didn’t score for him.”
Means has won just once in 15 starts since his May 5th no-hitter and hasn’t had the same command of his best pitch, the changeup. Four of his five strikeouts came on the curve.
“My changeup has sucked lately, to be honest,” Means said. “The curveball has been he pitch that’s been more consistent. Hopefully, we can get everything working here soon.”
Andrew Benintendi’s RBI single, which deflected off the glove of second baseman Jahmai Jones, scored Lopez, and Salvador Perez came home on an infield out by Carlos Santana to give the Royals (62-78) a 4-0 lead. Scott was charged with two runs.
“If you look at Tanner’s inning, they didn’t hit one ball hard,” Hyde said. “Not a whole lot of hard contact. He just didn’t put guys away with the slider.”
Dozier hit a two-run homer, his 11th, against reliever Manny Barreda in the ninth.
The Orioles (45-94) last won consecutive series against Minnesota and Cleveland from June 1st-6th, following their 14-game losing streak,
The Orioles had a chance to score against Royals starter Carlos Hernández in the second. With two outs, Pedro Severino, Jorge Mateo and Jones singled. Severino tried to score on the hit by Jones but was an easy out at home after a strong throw from Benintendi in left.
Those three hits were the only ones allowed by Hernández (6-1) in six innings. Hernández, Domingo Tapia and Scott Barlow retired 16 straight Orioles until DJ Stewart walked with two outs in the ninth.
“We had a tough time getting a rally together,” Hyde said. “I thought we drove a few balls to the wall the first half of the game … Besides that we didn’t square many balls up.”
Notes: Hyde said that Matt Harvey, who was placed on the 10-day injured list because of right knee inflammation, will be getting tests. “He’s definitely going to be out for a while,” Hyde said about a possible season-ending injury. “We’ll see when and if he comes back.” … The Orioles were shut out for the ninth time. … Chris Ellis (1-0, 2.16 ERA) will face Robbie Ray (11-5, 2.60) when the Orioles begin a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.
Minor league update: Third baseman Tyler Nevin hit a three-run home run, and first baseman J.C. Escarra added a two-run homer as Triple-A Norfolk beat Durham, 6-5. Nevin’s homer was his 14th. Escarra hit his fourth.
Grayson Rodriguez pitched three perfect innings, striking out five, in Double-A Bowie’s 5-3 win over Harrisburg. The Baysox hit four solo homers. Shortstop Jordan Westburg hit his third, rightfielder Zach Watson his 10th, third baseman Patrick Dorrian his 19th, and first baseman Andrew Daschbach his sixth.
Connor Loeprich allowed a run on three hits in five innings as High-A Aberdeen lost to Wilmington, 6-5. Loeprich struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. Designated hitter Cristopher Cespedes had three hits and two RBIs.
Shortstop Darrel Hernaiz hit a two-run home run, his sixth, and centerfielder Colton Cowser had two hits as Low-A Delmarva beat Fredericksburg, 6-2. Cowser, the Orioles’ first pick in the 2021 draft, is batting .368. Peter Van Loon started and allowed one hit in four scoreless innings.
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This offense is so inconsistent. One night they look like the greatest hitters and the next they can’t hit a little leaguer. Scott is so up and down. He seems to have been throwing a lot more sliders lately and he hasn’t had command of it. Another thing I don’t understand is why Hyde puts a starter out to start an inning and as soon as he starts to get in trouble he pulls them. Maybe just start the inning with the reliever. And why sit Hays in the middle of a 15 game hitting streak? Just because a righty is on the mound? I’ll take Hays against a righty over Stewart against anyone
Hays is batting .220 with a .658 OPS against righties. Stewart is batting .203, but with a .744 OPS against righties, so
more punch there.
I’m fairly confident the loss on d more than offsets that modest extra punch.
My point exactly. Hays also probably has a smaller sample sizes against righty’s compared to Stewart. How can he learn to hit them if he you don’t play him against them.
For the season, Hayes has a WAR (I know this impresses some people) of 1.8; Stewart's WAR is negative at -0.4. Personally, I don't find the righty/lefty splits persuasive unless there's a dramatic difference, with the overall better player being inept on an objective, rather than relative, scale.
Stewart has 258 plate appearances against righties this year. Hays has 253.
I love Means’ competitive nature. He takes losses seriously and looked so frustrated in the dugout.
I’d love to know if his disappointment was in his own performance or the lack of offensive support.
The guy pitched very well but the inconsistent offense (not to mention the bullpen) just handed a great start away.
Marty, he seemed disappointed about how he pitched. Hyde thought he pitched well and was a hard-luck loser, which is what I thought.
That’s what I figured too, Rich. His body language oozed frustration in his performance but he didn’t pitch badly at all.
I love that he cares so much.
Wonder what is Stewart’s future with the organization? Tough to just let go a first round pick. Cowser is hitting the ball well. It would be great to see Delmarva and Bowie make it to the post season and get that experience. Fast track Cowser next year. Stowers, Westburg too.
As a lifetime Os fan and outside observer on the west coast my heart will always be with the Os. I see a revolving team with good potential lacking the maturity to string together wins and the monster hitters needed at this level. I live in Oregon so coverage is limited. Go Os!!
You can watch Every game on MLB.com on your device.
I live in Florida half the time now and we never miss a game..or a pitch. It's not too expensive either.
Hey B. Castaway--when you say device do you mean TV,Phone,Laptop? If I can't watch it on my TV it's useless to me. Btw I have DIRECTV here in NJ so I can watch O's games on my TV.
Orial
I use an old iPad--works great. I can also use my notebook computer.
Hope you get to enjoy the games. We watch every one.
You need to Subscribe to the MLB Package in order to get their feeds. All their games are available to watch, not just the Orioles.
Stay well Gov.
Rutschman country…go O’s…
It's a beautiful thing to behold....the whole Continent is on its way to becoming Rutschman Country!
I use the MLB app to listen to some games, and get highlight reels and general info. I sometimes like to listen to the opposing team’s radio play by play as well. That’s a neat feature.
I didn’t pay for the TV aspect of it, though.
Watching games on a phone screen would be miserable IMO
Orial
I use an old iPad--works great. I can also use my notebook computer.
Hope you get to enjoy the games. We watch every one.
You need to Subscribe to the MLB Package in order to get their feeds. All their games are available to watch, not just the Orioles.
Stay well Gov.
The only way to judge talent,infield in particular,is by extended,consistent playing time. Well here comes Richie Martin so the carousel of middle IF playing time is back at square one. Hyde,Elias are running a catch-22 . They want good looks at these players BUT run out of patience after just a week or so. Make up your minds boys.
Martin is back because with Urias hurting, they don’t have an extra infielder, Al.
Richie Martin completes the NO INFIELD infield
Rich, I admit that I haven't been following the box scores of the minor leagues this year as closely as I have in the past.
But can you clue me into why Greyson Rodriguea would only be putting in 3 inning while he's not even being hit? Weather related maybe?
Someone said somewhere he was approaching a limit they put on him at the beginning of the yr, still, let him pitch…go O’s…
He's on a 100 Inning Limit for this season.
Mike, he's already pitched 98 innings.
Rich, what do think will be Innings Limit this season? Cant be much longer, can it?
If it's 110, he could start four more times, throwing three innings a start.
All I can say is, having been at the game last night, he looked unhittable. Now, the Senators are not a good team but I’m thinking everyone at City Island last night probably felt that if he’d continued it’s very possible we’d have seen a no hitter. I’d normally never make a comment like that after only 3 innings but trust me, he looked like a major leaguer pitching to a high school team. I love his approach. He seldom left the mound, worked very fast. He truly looks like the real deal.
DLG
How did Toby Welk look? He played lights- out last year in Aberdeen and seems to have fallen-off somewhat.
Any take after seeing him in- person?
Honestly, not too good. He K’d twice in an 0 for 4 game. I think his BA was around Mendoza line.