New coast, same pathetic Orioles in 15-8 loss to Giants

Quick question: is this the worst it’s ever felt to be an Orioles fan?

I mean, technically this isn’t the worst Orioles team ever (who can forget the back-to-back-to-back 108+ loss seasons of a few years ago?), but it may well be the most disappointing. Think about the hopes and expectations that the Orioles had when the 2025 season began. They were supposed to be legitimate World Series contenders. And just look at what it’s turned into.

As I sat and watched at 1 o’clock in the morning while the Orioles clown-showed their way through a three-error inning, bungling and fumbling and making fools of themselves on one play after another, I began to question everything in my life that’s led up to this point. Why do I do this to myself? Why couldn’t I have taken up a more pleasurable hobby than Baltimore Orioles baseball? What did any of us do to deserve this?

Anyway, the Orioles lost to the Giants in San Francisco, 15-8. It was their fifth straight loss and they certainly earned it.

I’m going to start with that catastrophe of a seventh inning, where Grant Wolfram was torched for four runs but was hardly the only person to blame. The Orioles were already four runs behind at 10-6 but were determined to turn it into a Giants laugher. The rally started innocently enough with a one-out single. Drew Gilbert then hit a grounder up the middle that could have been a double play ball, or at least a force…but Jackson Holliday let the ball kick off his glove, getting nobody out. Error #1. There’s more where that came from.

Wolfram got the second out but then allowed an RBI single to Willy Adames. With two runners still on, Rafael Devers followed with a single to left. Dylan Beavers uncorked a horrible throw home that pulled Alex Jackson into the on-deck circle. Jackson, for some reason, tried to throw to second base, where there wasn’t a play, and the trail runner, Adames, steamed for the plate. Neither Jackson nor Wolfram covered home and the run scored. Embarrassing. Beavers was charged with an error, but everyone looked terrible on that play.

Next, Wolfram induced a grounder to third that should have been the final out…but Emmanuel Rivera short-hopped the routine throw to first and Ryan Mountcastle couldn’t pick it. Error #3. Brutal. The Giants again took full advantage of an extra out as Dominic Smith singled home Devers. If you’re keeping score, that’s four unearned runs and a master class by the Orioles in how not to play baseball. If you were asleep for all of this tomfoolery, consider yourself lucky.

Of course, the game was lost long before that travesty of an inning. Dean Kremer, guys…yikes. At times this season we’ve seen the very best of Kremer, including two starts ago against the Astros, when he threw seven shutout innings. But as Orioles fans are all too aware, Good Dean never sticks around for very long, and Bad Dean is always lurking in the shadows, ready to re-emerge. And tonight, Bad Dean was out in full force.

It all went haywire from the jump. In the first, Kremer immediately loaded the bases on two walks and a single. Matt Chapman grounded an infield single into the hole at short that brought in one run, and Smith lofted a sac fly to plate another. That was the only out that Kremer recorded in his first seven batters. Casey Schmitt’s single re-loaded the bases and Luis Matos — not that one — followed with a two-run single to increase the Giants’ run total to four. Kremer was fooling nobody. He finally recorded the final two outs, but not before he’d thrown 39 pitches, tying his career high for a single inning. Woof.

Things didn’t get much better from there. Kremer coughed up three consecutive singles to start the second inning, capped by a Devers RBI knock, and a Chapman sac fly made it 6-1. In the third, Gilbert’s RBI double increased the Giants’ tally to seven. After that inning, Tony Mansolino had seen enough, pulling Kremer after a brutal line of three innings, seven earned runs, and nine hits. It was Kremer’s shortest outing of the season by far. Even in his other Bad Dean games this year, he always managed to at least pitch into the fifth inning. Not tonight.

It’s too bad Kremer was such a disaster, because the Orioles’ offense finally made some noise for the first time in almost a week. Veteran Giants lefty Robbie Ray had troubles of his own. Ray, during his warmup tosses in the top of the first, looked visibly bothered by a blister on his left hand, summoning the training staff to the mound. After a brief chat, he stayed in to make a go of it, but seemed off his game all night. He issued a leadoff walk to Holliday and an RBI double to Mountcastle, who had a big game in store.

In the third, Ray walked two more batters and both eventually came in to score. Mountcastle delivered another RBI double and Rivera followed with a two-run single as the O’s continued to chip away at the Giants’ early lead. Mountcastle struck again in the fifth with a two-RBI hit up the middle, this one knocking Ray out of the game. The former Cy Young winner had a lousy night, giving up six runs in 4.1 innings. Maybe the blister was affecting him. Maybe Bad Dean accidentally inhabited his body for a while. Who’s to say?

Both bullpens were called into early duty. This will shock you, but the Orioles’ crew wasn’t up to the task of keeping the game close. Corbin Martin worked two innings and gave up a pair of prodigious home runs: a two-run blast by Smith into McCovey Cove in the fourth, and a solo shot by Matos in the fifth that pushed the Giants’ run total into double digits. Tell me again why I stayed up late for this? That was all the appetizer, of course, for the entree of suckitude that was the Giants’ four-run seventh inning. Poor Wolfram also gave up a Gilbert RBI double in the eighth for the Giants’ 15th and final run.

If you’re looking for silver linings, Mountcastle’s four RBIs tonight were his most in a game this season. Coby Mayo launched a solo homer in the eighth. And uh, I don’t know, Yennier Cano had a scoreless outing? I’m grasping at straws here. The sad fact is that the Orioles stink and are getting worse by the day. Good night!