Kremer crushes major league debut and O's win series (updated)

Seven Orioles bolted out of the dugout for the start of today's series finale against the Yankees, but Bryan Holaday stayed back and waited for the kid he was going to catch.

Holaday stood on the top step, glancing over his shoulder until it was time. And then another piece of the Orioles' future emerged. In the present. With longish hair and flowing confidence.

Dean Kremer had finally come out, under a bright blue sky, with Holaday jogging behind him. They separated at the appropriate point, Kremer completed his warmup tosses and promptly struck out the first two batters.

The latest prospect to receive the call from the secondary camp site, Kremer held the Yankees to one run and one hit in six innings and the Orioles claimed a series win with a 5-1 victory over the Yankees at Camden Yards.

Kremer struck out seven batters, the highest total for an Orioles pitcher in his debut since John Parrish fanned nine Yankees on July 24, 2000. The only hit was Miguel Andújar's single in the second inning. Kremer retired 12 in a row before Luke Voit walked in the sixth and 14 of his last 15.

The Orioles improved to 19-21 and won their first series against the Yankees since March 2019 in the Bronx.

Kremer also is the first Orioles pitcher to allow only one hit in six innings or more in his first start since left-hander Chris Waters on Aug. 5, 2008 in Anaheim. Waters tossed eight scoreless innings and was shelled by the Rangers in his next outing, allowing six runs in four frames.

The Orioles expect a lot more out of Kremer.

"I thought he did a tremendous job of just keeping his composure out there," said Holaday, who was chosen to catch today based on his experience. "He just attacked the strike zone and stuck to his strengths and that's really all you can ask out of him."

"It's a dream come true," Kremer said. "We practice every day for years to get to this point. Just to have had it is a dream come true."

Kremer found out about his promotion around 10:30 p.m. last night via a speaker phone call from executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde.

"They were like, 'Hey, you want to come pitch tomorrow?' And I said, 'Yeah, absolutely, I'd love to pitch,' " Kremer said. "I was pretty excited. I got enough sleep, but it was definitely, my mind was racing that late at night, so I'm happy that my body held up and I could still perform."

DJ Stewart homered in his third consecutive at-bat, a two-run shot off Masahiro Tanaka after Hanser Alberto's leadoff bunt single in the first inning. After Kremer had retired the side in order on 12 pitches, freezing DJ LeMahieu with a 95 mph fastball and getting Voit to swing through a curveball.

An 0-for-17 start didn't break Stewart, who's returned from the alternate camp site and found his stroke. He popped up in the third inning to leave him one short of the club record for most consecutive at-bats with a home run shared by Don Baylor (July 1-2, 1975) and Jeff Manto (June 8-10, 1995). Four also is the major league mark, most recently done by the White Sox's José Abreu in August.

Hyde said earlier today that he's got a "full trainers' room." He handled an inquiry about the health of his roster by smiling and saying, "Next question."

The schedule provides a break on Monday. The Orioles should spend it packed in ice.

The latest in a series of lineup adjustments raised Ryan Mountcastle to the cleanup spot and he drew his sixth walk in the first inning after Pedro Severino singled. The first four batters had reached against Tanaka, but Rio Ruiz struck out, Pat Valaika flied out and catcher Erik Kratz picked off Severino at second base.

Alberto lost track of the outs last night and raced to third base on a fly ball. The mental mistakes keep dogging this club, but it's managed to get within two games of .500.

Mountcastle's sacrifice fly in the seventh scored Severino with the Orioles' third unearned run of the day.

Kremer's first major league strikeout and 1-2-3 inning was followed by his first jam in the second. The Yankees loaded the bases and Kremer received his first major league mound visit from pitching coach Doug Brocail before surrendering a run on Kratz's ground ball. Ruiz stepped on third base for the force and threw late to first after a double-clutch.

Defensive slumps are a thing, too, and Ruiz appears to be in one. He also committed an error in the eighth.

The game could have gotten away from Kremer in the second, but he limited the damage. He also threw 30 pitches while doing it.

As the Orioles learn more about Kremer, they'll note how he rebounded by retiring the side in order in the third with two strikeouts and throwing only nine pitches. And how he retired the side in order again in the fourth on 11 pitches and raised his strikeout total to six. And again in the fifth on 10 pitches.

The streak of retired batters ended with the Voit walk in the sixth, but Kremer induced a fly ball from Brett Gardner and struck out Clint Frazier with a slider.

Today marked only the fourth time that an Orioles starter completed six innings. Tommy Milone did it twice and Alex Cobb once.

"I think you saw his stuff and his composure on the mound," Hyde said. "I was really impressed with that second inning. Really hitting adversity for the first time. Had a little bit of a command issue in that second inning and to be able to wiggle out of it, only allowing a run, for me that showed a lot about this character and his poise. And to be able to settle down after that and really pitch well the next four innings. ... So it shows you a lot about his character and his confidence.

"I just think you're seeing young talented guys and if you look around the field this series where there's not a whole lot of major league experience on the field and you're seeing some youthful energy and talent. And they played well this series. No doubt about it."

Hyde summoned Tanner Scott with Kremer at 88 pitches. Hunter Harvey retired pinch-hitter Gleyber Torres on a ground ball to strand two runners in the seventh and made Ruiz's error in the eighth inconsequential, accepting the challenge presented by the Yankees' bats and Kremer's hair.

New York's lineup also was missing Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sánchez, but nothing could diminish Kremer's accomplishments today.

"They're a storied franchise, they always have power hitters, they're always got guys who are pretty good with the bat," he said. "I'm just happy that I could compete."

The seven strikeouts in Kremer's debut put him behind Parrish, Sammy Stewart (nine in 1978 versus the White Sox), Charlie Beamon (nine in 1956 versus the Yankees), Tom Phoebus (eight in 1966 versus the Angels) and Rick Krivda (seven in 1995 versus the White Sox).

The big key to his success?

"Making sure that I stayed aggressive and not try to tinker around the zone rather than just attack hitters," he said.

The Orioles padded their lead with two runs in the sixth. Luis Cessa issued a bases-loaded walk to Holaday after replacing Tanaka and Andrew Velazquez followed with an infield hit.

Cole Sulser was handed the ninth inning in a non-save situation and stranded Andújar after a triple. And the Orioles won again.

A team that appears to be going away and then comes back.

Introducing fans to the future while refusing to give up on the present.

"I think overall as a team, we're just keeping our heads down and attacking every day and trying to win every day," Holaday say. "That's the game plan for us. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves and look at the big picture too much."

"I want to believe I'm an optimist," Hyde said, "but I do think about all the games I felt like we should have won these first 40, so I try to turn the page on those. Like I've said all along, I just want to try to win as many games as possible, try to win as many series as possible and not look too far down the road too far. So I'm really taking it series by series. Was very pleased with how we played against the Yankees here and especially how we pitched."

Note: The start time for Game 1 of the Sept. 17 doubleheader against the Rays has been changed to 4:35 p.m. The second game will begin approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.