9 October 2023
Dean Kremer started perhaps the two most important games of the Orioles’ regular season, and he delivered both times.
He’ll likely need to again for Baltimore to stay alive.
Manager Brandon Hyde on Monday named Kremer as Baltimore’s starting pitcher for Tuesday’s Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers. Hyde did not name a Game 4 starter, though it’s likely to be veteran Kyle Gibson should the Orioles win Game 3 at Globe Life Field.
Baltimore dropped the first two games of the ALDS, as Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez weren’t their second-half selves in their postseason debuts. Bradish didn’t make it through five innings Saturday after a rough fourth inning, and Rodriguez was hammered for five runs in the second inning of his short start Sunday.
Tuesday, it’ll be up to Kremer, who went 13-5 with a 4.12 ERA in the regular season, to help keep their season alive. He’ll pitch opposite Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who posted a 12-5 record with a 3.63 ERA in the regular season. In his career, Eovaldi, a 33-year-old veteran, has a 2.90 ERA in 49 2/3 playoff innings.
After an up-and-down first half, Kremer reestablished himself in the second half. In his final 15 starts of the regular season, the right-hander posted a 3.09 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 81 2/3 innings. Home runs were a problem in his first half, as he surrendered 19 in his first 17 starts, but he gave up just eight over his final 15 outings.
The Orioles won 24 of the 32 games Kremer started this season, and none were bigger than his two solid starts in the club’s clinch victories. In mid-September, he allowed one run in five innings in the Orioles’ playoff-clinching win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Eleven days later, he delivered 5 1/3 scoreless innings in Baltimore’s AL East title-clinching victory over the Boston Red Sox.
During the second clinch celebration, Kremer’s teammates said he is a “big-game” pitcher.
“No moment is too big for him,” Bradish said. “He knew what was on the line, and he just showed up.”
“It’s who he is,” said left-hander John Means, who isn’t able to start either game in Arlington because of elbow soreness that kept him off the ALDS roster. “He pitches in big moments, and it’s his personality.”
This story will be updated.
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