Dean Kremer pitched impressively into the seventh inning and Austin Hays singled home the game’s only run in the fourth to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a 1-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
Kremer (1-0) worked out of a second-and-third, nobody-out jam in the third, and that was as close as the Nationals came to scoring on the right-hander. He allowed only four hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out six without a walk.
Danny Coulombe got the final out of the seventh, Yennier Cano breezed through the eighth and Félix Bautista pitched the ninth for his fifth save. The Nationals had the tying run on second when Bautista retired Keibert Ruiz on a groundout to end it.
Josiah Gray (0-4) yielded a run and four hits and was a hard-luck loser again despite lowering his ERA to 3.74. The Nationals have managed only one run in the four games he’s started, and that was in the ninth inning April 1 against Atlanta - well after his outing ended that day.
Kremer allowed 13 runs in his first three starts, but he was excellent against Washington, which has lost five of six. In the third, a throwing error by third baseman Gunnar Henderson left men on second and third with no outs. Kremer responded by striking out the top three hitters in the Nationals’ batting order.
Hays’ one-out single put the Orioles up 1-0 the following inning, and that was enough.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: INF Ramón Urías did not play, but manager Brandon Hyde said he had passed all his tests and was available off the bench. Urías was hit in the helmet by a pitch Saturday and went into concussion protocol.
Nationals: OF Corey Dickerson (left calf strain) may do some agility drills this week as he works toward running again. … INF Ildemaro Vargas (right shoulder strain) did some soft-toss hitting Tuesday.
UP NEXT
MacKenzie Gore (2-0) takes the mound for the Nationals in the finale of this two-game series Wednesday night. The Orioles had yet to announce a starter.
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