Closer Craig Kimbrel faced a setback on Sunday, blowing his second save in as many opportunities and exiting the game with back tightness as the Oakland Athletics rallied to a 7-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, clinching the series.
“I mean I don’t know how long, what the time table is with Craig, or if any at all,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said postgame about Kimbrel’s injury. “We’ll see. I think we’ve been playing pretty good baseball, we’ve just had a couple unfortunate kind of endings this series.”
Kimbrel, a nine-time All-Star, struggled from the start of his outing, throwing six straight balls before being visited by Hyde and the team medical staff. Despite Kimbrel’s insistence to continue, Kyle McCann hit a home run off his 3-2 pitch, prompting Kimbrel’s exit from the game.
““The way he was walking around didn’t look right,” Hyde said of Kimbrel’s condition.
Following Kimbrel’s departure, Dillon Tate completed the inning for the Orioles, who have now gone 2-4 in one-run games.
Seth Brown hit his second home run and Brent Rooker singled in two runs off Orioles starter Albert Suarez, contributing to Oakland’s highest-scoring performance during a 10-game road trip.
Tyler Nevin homered off Danny Coulombe in the seventh inning to narrow Oakland’s deficit, setting the stage for McCann’s game-changing shot.
Kyle Muller delivered a strong relief performance for the Orioles, retiring seven of eight batters he faced. Austin Adams and T.J. MacFarland also contributed to the bullpen effort, leading to Lucas Erceg’s scoreless ninth inning and his first career save.
“Kyle’s been throwing the ball really well,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay praised Muller’s performance. “And without that type of performance from Kyle today, we wouldn’t have had that type of opportunity.”
Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman each hit their fourth home runs of the season for the Orioles, who also saw Ramon Urias homer, bringing Baltimore’s league-leading total to 44 home runs this season, including seven in the three-game series.
All six Orioles runs came off A’s starter Paul Blackburn, who was pulled after working only four innings, marking his shortest outing of the season.
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