BALTIMORE — When Dean Kremer jogged out to the Camden Yards mound Wednesday, he did so just past the five-year anniversary of when the team he was about to face traded him to the Orioles.
The 27-year-old right-hander is the only player left of the five Baltimore acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers when they traded star infielder Manny Machado five years ago Tuesday. For the Dodgers, the trade was one of many they have made at the cost of continually pushing for World Series titles. It took half a decade, but the Orioles are now at the level to challenge for them, too, with their trade of Machado beginning a painful rebuild that’s finally paying off.
With Wednesday’s 8-5 victory to close their series with Los Angeles, the Orioles have gone 70 straight multi-game series without being swept, the eighth-longest streak in major league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. With the Texas Rangers’ 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, completing a three-game sweep, Baltimore will enter its upcoming series at Tropicana Field tied with the Rays (60-39) for the American League East lead.
Making his first start against the organization that drafted him in 2016, Kremer had a long first inning in which he allowed two runs. But the Orioles (58-37) answered with four runs in the bottom half of the inning, with Aaron Hicks and Jordan Westburg delivering RBI singles before Ramón Urías drove in two with a double. Kremer settled in, retiring nine straight Dodgers (55-40) as Baltimore plated two more runs in the third on another double by Urías and a wild pitch.
In the fourth, James Outman broke Kremer’s streak with a solo shot, becoming the first left-handed hitter to homer over Camden Yards’ deep left-field wall in its two seasons. The Orioles answered that run with Austin Hays’ sacrifice fly in the inning’s bottom half, and they responded to Max Muncy’s two-run shot in the fifth with a home run by Gunnar Henderson, the rookie’s first home run off a left-handed pitcher as Baltimore plated eight against Los Angeles’ Julio Urías, who finished third in National League Cy Young Award voting last year.
As Machado was a decade ago, Henderson is a young infielder who arrived amid a long-awaited playoff chase, and he’s one of a large group of young talent guiding Baltimore. But experience has helped, too. Entering for Kremer with two outs in the fifth, veteran left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe retired seven of eight batters he faced to bridge the game to All-Star relievers Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista.
The game began after a 41-minute delay because of wet field conditions.
