BALTIMORE _ With the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr.'s record-setting 2,131st consecutive game celebrated Sunday at Camden Yards and around baseball and providing so many with a reason to look back and smile, young Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer stole the spotlight and turned it directly to a bright future.
In a 5-1 win over the New York Yankees that gave the Orioles a series win against the collapsing title contenders and improved them to 19-21 with 20 games left, Kremer struck out seven in six innings of one-hit, one-run ball in his major league debut.
His spectacular stepping-out came on a weekend when, combined with a similarly impressive start from fellow rookie Keegan Akin on Saturday, continued production from rookie Ryan Mountcastle, and a long-awaited offensive breakout from 2015 first-round pick DJ Stewart, the Orioles continued to lay down markers of what kind of upward trajectory their rebuilding project is on.
Kremer, fortunately for them, began as he intended to go on. The Orioles summoned him from the secondary site at Bowie to give him three weeks worth of starts in Asher Wojciechowski's rotation spot, and he struck out the first two batters he faced in a perfect first inning.
The 24-year-old right-hander, who was one of five players acquired when the Orioles traded Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers in July 2018, struggled with his command in the second inning and loaded the bases on a walk and two hits before third baseman Rio Ruiz couldn't turn a difficult double play, allowing a run to score on a fielder's choice.
But after that, Kremer was masterful. He retired the Yankees in order on nine, 11, and 10 pitches in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, respectively, and didn't allow another base runner until a one-out walk of Luke Voit in the sixth inning. Kremer, though, got Clint Frazier to chase a slider with two outs for his seventh strikeout of the game to cap an impressive debut.
Only four Orioles pitchers have struck out more batters in a major league debut than Kremer, most recently when John Parrish struck out nine Yankees on July 24, 2000. With a game score of 70, Kremer's debut was the best for an Oriole since Mike Wright carried a shutout into the eighth inning in his debut May 17, 2015.
