CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gavin Williams did not make many mistakes Wednesday, but the ones he did make cost the Guardians both early and late in a 9-1 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Jackson Holliday hammered a 1-0 slider from Williams that hung over the middle of the plate for a grand slam in the second inning to put the O’s in front 4-0, and Cleveland never recovered. Ex-Guardians outfielder Ramon Laureano added a run in the seventh with a towering drive to left field for his first home run and first RBI in an Orioles uniform.
For Holliday, it was the second grand slam in the former No. 1 overall pick’s brief career and the first one allowed by the Guardians this year.
Baltimore pushed four more runs across the plate in the eighth against reliever Triston McKenzie on a Ryan O’Hearn solo blast, a two-run single by Heston Kjerstad and a sacrifice fly to deep center by Ramon Urias.
Angel Martínez, who had moved to center field after making his first start of the season in right, made a brilliant catch as he crashed into the wall on Urias’ drive and was removed from the game. But by then the damage had already been done.
Manager Stephen Vogt said he thought Martinez could have remained in the game, but he made the decision to get the 23-year-old checked out by trainers off the field instead.
“What a great catch that was in selling out to the wall,” Vogt said. “But I think he’s doing fine.”
Gabriel Arias answered Holliday’s blast for Cleveland in the third. His solo shot to dead center was his fourth of the season and third in his last five games. In 10 career games against the Orioles, Arias has a .333 (11-for-33) average with three home runs and eight RBI. But Cleveland’s offense was unable to add on against righty Dean Kremer and the Baltimore bullpen.
Kremer scattered four hits in 5 1/3 innings and walked a pair to earn his second win. Williams, meanwhile, struck out four and walked four in taking the loss, his first in four starts. But Guardians hitters were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight on base.
Williams told reporters afterward that he thought he was “being too fine early on and trying to hit the corners a little bit too much.” But being able to pitch into the seventh inning was a positive takeaway from the outing.
“That’s one of the main things I want this year is to go deep in games,” Williams said. “I didn’t do that a lot last year, so hopefully it’s going to be like that a lot more this year.”
Vogt said Williams struggled with his command at times, but made pitches when he needed to.
“I really liked the curveball tonight,” Vogt said. “He was landing the curve very consistently and we saw some really good heaters and outside of the one slider — Holliday got him in that inning and then hung one pitch and the outing looked very different outside of that.”
Martínez found himself in the middle of the action with two of the biggest at-bats of the night in the sixth and again in the eighth.
José Ramírez opened the sixth by beating Baltimore’s infield shift with a cue-shot single past third base. Ramírez later moved up to second when Kyle Manzardo popped a ball into shallow left that dropped between three Orioles defenders.
After Sean Baker was summoned from the O’s bullpen, Lane Thomas popped out to second, setting up an epic nine-pitch battle between Baker and Martínez.
Martínez fouled off four pitches before driving a 98 mph fastball into the gap in right-center field. But with Ramírez and Manzardo hauling around the bases, Orioles right fielder Heston Kjerstad ran down the ball and made a sliding catch just as he got to the warning track to end the inning.
Ramírez again led things off in the eighth with a double and Carlos Santana followed with a base hit. Pinch-hitter Nolan Jones drew a walk against O’s reliever Yennier Cano to load the bases and set up another dramatic at-bat for Martínez.
Cano escaped without a run scoring when Martinez’s bat splintered on a ground ball back to the mound.
Cano flipped to Adley Rutschman at the plate for the force out, and Rutschman’s throw to first hit Martínez, who was ruled to be outside the runner’s lane by home plate umpire Will Little. The resulting interference call ended the inning, diffusing the Cleveland Rally.
Vogt had words of encouragement for Martinez after two tough-luck outs.
“It tends to find you,” Vogt quipped. “But for Angel, just continue to be yourself, continue to fight. It’s not always going to be perfect, but keep going at it.”
Stay hot: Both Ramírez and Santana have multiple hits in back-to-back games and have hit safely in four of their last five contests.
Next: The series concludes Thursday with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch from Camden Yards. Right-hander Tanner Bibee (1-1, 4.40) will start for Cleveland while the Orioles send righty Tomoyuki Sugano (1-1, 3.86) to the mound. CLEGuardians.TV, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM and the Guardians Radio Network will carry the game.
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