Orioles lose ground in AL East after Akin allows 10th-inning home run to Red Sox

BOSTON–What happened? Keegan Akin allowed a three-run home run to Tyler O’Neill in the bottom of the 10^th as the Orioles lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-3, on Wednesday night.

With the loss, the Orioles dropped 1 ½ games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3, in 11 innings.

The Orioles have lost consecutive series. They dropped two of three to the Red Sox after losing two of three to Tampa Bay.

Emmanuel Rivera’s RBI single in the 10^th gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead.

Rivera and Anthony Santander homered for the Orioles. It was Rivera’s third and Santander’s 41^st.

Dean Kremer allowed two runs, one unearned, on five hits in seven innings.

What happened in the 10^th? In the bottom of the 10^th, Rafael Devers struck out against Akin on three pitches. Pinch-hitter Romy González grounded to second baseman Jackson Holliday, who muffed the ball, sending Jarren Duran, the automatic runner, to third. Had Holliday fielded the ball cleanly, there would have been two outs and the Orioles probably would have issued an intentional walk to O’Neill, who hits left-handers extremely well.

“I was trying to get the ground-ball double play,” Akin said. “Just get an out, really. Like an infield popup, get a ground ball. Obviously, a punchout would have been great. But, yeah, obviously not that result.”

Akin threw a slider that didn’t make it to the inside part of the plate before O’Neill lifted it over the Green Monster for the game-winning homer.

“Just made a bad pitch,” Akin said. “Paid the price for it. Had to be at a crucial point in the game, obviously. But it’s baseball, it’s going to happen.”

Hyde considered walking O’Neill to load the bases but decided against it with Rob Refsnyder a potential pinch-hitter. Refsnyder hit two home runs on Monday night. .

“I could bring [Matt] Bowman in there with the bases loaded. Hoping we wouldn’t give O’Neill something good to hit,” Hyde said.

Had Holliday fielded the grounder, it would have been the second out with Duran at third.

“It changed some things a little bit with O’Neill there, just because you don’t want to walk him and load the bases for somebody and put the winning run at second base,” Hyde said. “Errors happen and just need to rebound from it.”

Can the offense get going? Since the Orioles scored 22 runs in their first two games against the woeful Chicago White Sox last week, they’ve lost five of seven and scored 15 runs.

Adley Rutschman’s drive to the left field corner was caught by a leaping Duran to lead off the ninth. Had the ball not been caught, Rutschman could have scored on Colton Cowser’s single.

“I thought we were really unlucky offensively the last third of the game,” Hyde said. “I thought we hit a lot of balls hard. Credit to them, they made some nice plays defensively, too. But they just got the big hit tonight.”

Rivera, who was acquired off waivers from the Miami Marlins on August 22^nd, has been playing regularly since Ramón Urías went on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right ankle. He hopes to spark the offense.

“Well, baseball’s like that sometimes,” Rivera said through a translator.  “The game’s going to go like that, but we have to keep going forward, keep playing our game and get ready for the next one.”

Rivera thinks the Orioles can get hot in their final 15 games.

“We have to keep going out there with the same mentality, stay strong and not trying to change too much,” he said. ”We have to go out there and be strong and get the job done.”

How well did Kremer pitch? Kremer pitched extremely well, but there wasn’t enough offense to back him.

“Unearned run through seven innings. Built off his last start, two outstanding starts in a row,” Hyde said. “Dean gave us a great chance to win that game.”

Kremer wasn’t dissatisfied with his performance.

“I gave the team a chance to win. It’s my job. I feel like I accomplished that tonight,” he said. “Losing sucks, no matter the circumstance but, yeah, definitely dropping a series like this definitely hurts. But looking forward to the next one and trying to pick up momentum and finish the season strong.”

Kremer is frustrated with the how the team is playing and was asked if anything needs to change to get pitching and hitting to mesh.

“I wish that was my job to tell you, but that’s not my job,” he said. “My job is to go out there and pitch. That’s a question for the higher ups, the guys who make the decisions of who plays, who doesn’t play and all that stuff. So, I wish I could tell you but I got no answer for that.”

What does it mean? With 15 games remaining, the Orioles can’t keep losing series and hope to win a playoff series next month.

What’s the word? “Definitely frustrating, you know? We’re at kind of a crucial point right now. Haven’t really been playing our best ball, but I think it’s coming, I do. You’re starting to see a little bit of it. Just got to kind of put it all together at one time, and I think we’ll go from there.”-Akin on the Orioles’ mood.

What’s the stat of the day? 2-for-28. Ryan O’Hearn was 1-for-13 in the series, and he’s in a 2-for-28 skid.

What’s going on in the minor leagues? Danny Coulombe pitched a scoreless inning in his first rehab start, allowing one hit and striking out one, throwing 10 pitches, nine strikes, in Triple-A Norfolk’s 5-0 loss to Durham. Coulombe is on the 60-day injured list after surgery for removal of bone chips in his left elbow.

“Coulombe hasn’t thrown in months,” Hyde said. “You have to build up the endurance and see how they feel after. He only threw one inning.”

Catcher Creed Willems homered and drove in four runs as Double-A Bowie lost to Erie, 10-6.

Heston Kjerstad was 2-for-5 with an RBI in his second rehab game with the Baysox. He’s on the injured list with a concussion.

Bowie placed right-handed pitcher Alex Pham on the development list and activated right-hander Tyler Burch from the 60-day injured list.

What’s next? The Orioles are off on Thursday and begin a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers on Friday night at Comerica Park at 6:40 p.m. Neither team has named its starter.

Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com