Orioles can't find more late magic as streak ends in 5-4 loss to Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — During the Baltimore Orioles’ recent hot streak, their offense hasn’t been much better than it was before. Instead, it’s been timely hitting in clutch situations that’s helped carry the team.

Baltimore’s bats couldn’t do the same Friday night in a 5-4 loss to the Athletics, ending a season-high six-game winning streak.

After scoring four runs in the first five innings, the Orioles stranded seven runners in the final four frames against the Athletics’ bullpen. Baltimore went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the game.

The Orioles’ best chance to score was in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases with one out against reliever Tyler Ferguson. But the A’s brought in All-Star closer Mason Miller to escape the jam and hold onto the one-run lead. Miller struck out pinch hitter Heston Kjerstad on three sliders and struck out Jackson Holliday on a 103.1 mph fastball.

Baltimore is 25-37, and the loss is a reminder that this uphill climb won’t come easy. The Orioles must go at least 59-41 in the season’s final 100 games to have a chance at making the postseason.

Early in the game, it appeared as if the Orioles were en route to an easy win. Baltimore arrived in California as baseball’s hottest team, winners of six straight after sweeps of the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners. The Athletics, meanwhile, are as cold as any ballclub could be, losers of 20 of their past 22 games to fall back into the cellar where they’ve spent most of the past few seasons.

The contest marked the Orioles’ first game at Sutter Health Park, a minor league stadium hosting the Athletics after the club’s owner decided to controversially move the team out of Oakland. The A’s are playing in Sacramento until their new stadium in Las Vegas is ready.

While the minor league park is a strange setting for a big league game, the setting was nostalgic for Dylan Carlson. The outfielder grew up in nearby Elk Grove and frequently attended games at the stadium, which also hosts the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and formerly the Athletics.

“This is an exciting time just for me,” Carlson said pregame. “Grew up coming to this stadium as a kid, sitting right above the first base dugout. And now I get to be in the first base dugout, playing a game today.”

Carlson had 15 people, friends and family, in attendance, and he gave something to stand up and cheer for in the second inning when he parked a two-run homer to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead. The switch-hitter struggled to begin his Orioles career, but with more playing time recently, he’s started to find his swing. From May 24 (when injuries began piling up and forced Carlson into the lineup) through his homer Friday, he posted a .325 batting average and .966 OPS — an integral part to the Orioles’ six-game winning streak.

Outfielder Ramón Laureano, who returned from the injured list Friday just in time to face left-handed starter JP Sears, tacked on another run in the third with a sacrifice fly.

Starting pitcher Dean Kremer couldn’t hold onto the lead or maintain the momentum the Orioles’ rotation had built. Since Game 2 of the doubleheader in Boston on May 24, Orioles starters posted a 2.56 ERA in 11 games — in which Baltimore went 9-2. Only one of those 11 games featured a starter allowing more than three earned runs.

Kremer allowed four in Friday’s third inning.

After not allowing a hit to the first eight batters he faced, the right-hander allowed four straight, including an RBI double by Lawrence Butler and a two-run single to Jacob Wilson, who raised his batting average to an impressive .369. Tyler Soderstrom then gave the A’s a 4-3 lead with an RBI groundout.

Holliday tied the game in the fifth with a solo homer off Sears — the youngster’s first left-on-left blast of the season and only the second of his career — that banged off the batter’s eye in center field after traveling 430 feet. Kremer quickly coughed up the lead in the bottom half, though, on Brent Rooker’s RBI single.

Both bullpens were shaky but successful the rest of the game. The Orioles stranded two runners in the sixth after interim manager Tony Mansolino elected to keep Jorge Mateo in to hit with two outs rather than pinch hit Henderson or Kjerstad. Ryan O’Hearn struck out to end the seventh to strand Laureano on second, and then the Orioles couldn’t cash in against Miller in the eighth or ninth.

Instant analysis

Yeah, he’s the leadoff hitter for good.

When Holliday became the Orioles’ leadoff hitter in mid-May, it was seen as a temporary promotion to help give a jolt to a lifeless lineup. Once Tony Mansolino took over as interim manager, he kept Holliday as the Orioles’ everyday leadoff hitter, but he didn’t commit to keeping him in the top spot. Leadoff candidate Colton Cowser returned from the injured list Tuesday, and another in Jordan Westburg will likely be back early next week.

But Holliday’s performance Friday — most notably his left-on-left solo homer — was the latest piece of evidence that the 21-year-old is ready to take the mantle as the Orioles’ everyday leadoff hitter.

A year ago, Holliday was playing in Scranton after his first taste of the show was sour. Now, he’s in the midst of a breakout campaign, the leadoff hitter for a big league team and a legitimate candidate to be an All-Star.

On deck

Charlie Morton has pitched in 34 MLB stadiums. When he takes the mound Saturday night, he’ll make it 35. The 41-year-old has seen and done (almost) it all in his 18-year MLB career, and he’ll add a new MLB ballpark to his tally when he pitches opposite Luis Severino.