Dean Kremer Faces Tarik Skubal as Os Try to Avoid Sweep

Orioles need big start on Sunday afternoon from Deano Kremer

The Baltimore Orioles are very close to being a really good team.  They’ve shown fight on the field, but they need to start winning games by scoring runs.  They’re getting people on, and not able to execute in key spots to chase pitchers and bring in runs in bunches.  That ability and their mindset will be crucial in a Sunday contest against one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, Tarik Skubal.

Dean Kremer is having a rough start to the year, posting a 6.84 ERA in 25 innings pitched over 5 starts.  One issue with Dean is that he gets chased early, with only 5 innings pitched per start the Orioles are forced to go to the pen early.  The biggest frustration with Kremer is that he has nasty stuff.  He just when he fails to execute his pitches - he misses big.  Hitters are able to key in on his cutter, and four seam fastball as he has a tendency to leave it over the middle of the plate.

Against the Washington Nationals last week - Dean Kremer gave up an early lead in a game that the bird were shut out by Mitchell Parker

In a key matchup against a team that has already taken 2 off the Orioles in this series.  The Orioles will need Kremer to step up in a big way on Sunday.  If he’s able to go 6 innings that would be huge for a team that could use a win.  Dean seems to struggle a bit between the ears when pitching, and when mistakes happen it tends to pour when it rains.

Tarik Skubal, 2024 Cy Young Winner, Looks to Bring Brooms to Comerica Park on Sunday

Tarik Skubal is building on one of the best seasons ever by a pitcher.  You can argue where to rank it, but last year this dude was in a league of his own.  To start this year, his numbers are impressive, and his advanced metrics jump off the page as well.

Skubal is 2-2 in 5 starts with a 2.83 ERA in 28.2 IP.  The lefty works 4 primary pitches with the very rare curveball.  His ability to pump heat in the zone, along with nasty changeup keeps hitters on their toes.  His four seam, and sinker average over 97 on the radar gun, and his ability to locate his change up at the bottom of the zone leads to one of the best average exit velocity off hitters bats in the 2025 season.

The Orioles need to find a way to chase Tarik Skubal early, and an early lead could give Dean Kremer the breath he needs to get a quality start under his belt.  The Orioles will look to avoid a sweep for the second series in a row, as the last series they dropped to the Washington Nationals, winning their only game in the rubber match.  That matchup featured a 2-1 victory from Cade Povich against MacKenzie Gore.

Brandon Young With Up and Down 2nd Career Start

The Orioles turned to 26 year old Brandon Young for the first matchup of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers.  Brandon Young showed flashes of potential during Spring Training.  But I’m sure the Orioles GM office would have preferred to rely on more veterans early in the season.

Young did a lot of good things in this start, but definitely left more to be desired in an outing he went 4 and ⅔ on 95 pitches.  Young showed his stuff with 6 strikeouts of Detroit Tigers hitters, but also allowed 5 walks.  He allowed 3 earned runs on 4 hits, and he managed to limit his mistakes.  If Young gets the chance to start again, look for him to be a bit more aggressive attacking the zone.  Young is doing a good job limiting mistakes, but if those walks continue to add up it’ll be tough for him to carve out a role in a rotation that needs inning eaters right now.

Expect Young to be a name that starts a bunch of games for the Orioles this season.  Depending on his performance and other injuries could force the Os to rely on a younger arm.

Orioles Lead With Akin as Starter to Setup Uncle Charlie Morton

Charlie Morton has been terrible to start the year, and the Orioles are trying to find ways to get a guy confidence that should not have much.  The Os chose to lead with a strategy that the Tampa Bay Rays have used for years which is to open the game with a reliever to give hitters a different look the first time through.  What this allows you to do as a manager is to give yourself options of who to bring in after the opener, but also allows you to take pressure off the true starter.

That’s exactly what Brandon Hyde and Co did by starting the game with relief pitcher Keegan Akin.  Akin started with 1.2 innings pitched 0 earned runs with only 1 walk allowed.  Charlie Morton came in, and really did not perform well in his 3 and ⅔rds innings pitched.  3 earned runs on 3 hits, 5 walks, plus one of the hits a dinger?  Not what we like to see from a guy that was only able to go just shy of 4 innings pitched.

The Orioles are trying to find a way to make what looks like a sunk cost in Charlie Morton work, but it could be time for the old timer to adopt an Albert Suarez role from last season where he is able to eat innings in low pitching availability days.  Or make a spot start.  But he’s getting absolutely embarrassed every time he steps on the hill.

It's tough to see as Charlie Morton probably thought he still had some left in the tank before the year, and clearly the Orioles did too.  Hopefully the pitching coaches and the veteran will be able to figure out ways to have any sort of effectiveness, but it might be time to shut him down with a quick IL stint if the young arms can continue to show promise.