Dean Kremer twirled seven shutout innings, Jordan Westburg slugged a three-run homer as part of his fifth career four-hit game, and the visiting Baltimore Orioles claimed the rubber match of a three-game series against the Houston Astros with a 12-0 victory on Sunday.
Kremer (9-9) continued his mastery of the Astros, surrendering three hits — all singles — while tossing a career-high 114 pitches. Kremer improved to 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA across five career starts against Houston. The Orioles won with Kremer on the mound for the first time in six starts.
Kremer allowed a one-out single to Carlos Correa in the bottom of the first inning and a leadoff single to Yainer Diaz in the second. He followed the Diaz hit by retiring nine consecutive batters before Victor Caratini walked to open the fifth. Kremer immediately erased Caratini by inducing Mauricio Dubon to roll into a double play and followed by notching three consecutive strikeouts.
After surrendering a leadoff single to Jose Altuve in the seventh, Kremer retired the subsequent three batters in order to complete his stellar outing. Kremer issued one walk and recorded seven strikeouts and posted 21 whiffs, eight on his splitter and another half-dozen on his cutter.
Astros right-hander Cristian Javier (1-1), making his second start following a 14-month injury absence, departed after three innings with an illness. The Orioles capitalized by pouncing on the Astros’ bullpen, starting with a four-run uprising in the fifth against Astros reliever Shawn Dubin.
Jackson Holliday produced a third consecutive single against Dubin to open the fifth, plating Dylan Beavers to double the lead to 2-0. Westburg hit his 15th home run one batter later, a three-run blast to right-center field that chased Dubin and upped the lead to 5-0.
Two innings later, Westburg added an RBI single as part of a two-run seventh that featured a run-scoring groundout by Adley Rutschman. The Orioles sent 10 batters to the plate in their five-run eighth, tagging Astros reliever Jordan Weems with all five runs. Westburg had another RBI single in that frame, while Samuel Basallo added a two-run single in his big league debut.
Westburg finished 4-for-5 with a career-high five RBIs. Rookie Jeremiah Jackson posted his first three-hit game and scored three runs. Holliday recorded two hits, two walks and scored three times.
–Field Level Media
