Irvin struggles again as O’s lose series and final home game (updated)

The Orioles had been hoping for their third four-game sweep of the season and third in their last 11 series since May 23. But left-hander Cole Irvin’s problems continued tonight as the Birds fell behind early and suffered a big loss on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”

Irvin allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings as the Rangers scored two runs in the second inning and struck him out with three runs in the fourth. The Rangers prevented the Orioles from sweeping, beating the Birds 11-2 tonight in front of 23,439 fans in the final game of the series and home opener at Oriole Park.

After New York’s win this afternoon, the Orioles are back in a tie with the Yankees for first place. Baltimore leads the American League East with a .631 (53-31) slugging percentage to New York’s .628 (54-32).

After only their second day off since May 31, the Orioles begin their West Coast tour tomorrow, Tuesday, in Seattle and then travel to Oakland.

The Orioles are 18-12 (.600) in their 30-game series over the last 31 days.

Needing a home run to complete the cycle while at bat in the eighth inning, Texas left fielder Wyatt Langford accomplished it with a three-run shot against Matt Krook, who was making his O’s debut. In doing so, Langford became the 11th Ranger to complete a cycle and the first since Carlos Gomez on April 29, 2017 against the Angels. He is the second Ranger to do so as a rookie, joining Oddibe McDowell in 1985.

Irvin got off to a promising start with a 1-2-3 first inning, but needed two good defensive plays. One was by left fielder Austin Hays when Marcus Semien hit a 100 mph ball into the corner. And the other was a diving catch at third base by Jordan Westburg to steal the ball from Josh Smith.

Texas took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. The O’s failed to make an inning-ending double play on a Nathaniel Lowe grounder to third base, so center fielder Derek Hill stepped up and hit a two-run homer 414 feet to left for a 2-0 lead.

Hays, playing for the first time since Tuesday despite a knee injury, hit a first-inning double against left-hander Andrew Heaney. An RBI single by Ryan O’Hearn, in a game in which he got a rare lefty-on-lefty at-bat, cut the O’s deficit to 2-1.

But a three-run fourth put Texas back in front. Langford started with a triple, which led to more loud contact against Irvin, and scored on Lowe’s single. A pair of RBI hits from Andrew Knizer and Josh Smith followed, leading to a 5-1 lead.

The score was 5-2 in the fourth inning, thanks to Heston Kjerstad’s RBI double to left, giving him four hits in six at-bats in his last three games. His season-high OPS was .962 in his first 12 games this season.

But the O’s bullpen couldn’t extend the game to three runs, as Texas added three more runs to left-handed reliever Nick Vespi in the fifth inning to make the game 8-2.

In that inning, Hill hit his second home run, a solo hit that slammed 436 feet into center. Hill didn’t have a home run in his first seven major league games this year, but he hit two tonight and three in the last two games. This was his first game with multiple home runs.

Through the fifth inning, Texas had hit 10 of 24 with six extra-base hits and 5 of 12 with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles’ four-game winning streak ended. They had allowed just 10 runs in those victories. Texas (38-46) ended a six-game losing streak and a nine-game road losing streak by winning the final game of its seven-game road trip.

During the third inning tonight, Gunnar Henderson announced to the national audience live on the field as shortstop with a microphone during the ESPN broadcast that he would be participating in the Home Run Derby in Texas the night before the All-Star Game.

Henderson had a rough night at bat, however, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, and his on-base streak ended at 36 consecutive games.

Irvin’s final total was five hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings with two walks and two strikeouts on 80 pitches. He is now 6-5 with a 4.13 ERA.

In his last four games, he allowed 29 hits and 22 runs (17 earned) in 18 innings, increasing his ERA from 2.87 at the time. The O’s are now 9-5 in his 14 starts, but 1-3 in his last four games. Irvin had allowed just 18 runs in his first 10 starts this season.

The Orioles’ pitchers led the American League in hitting batters with 26 to start the night, but four of the Rangers’ batters were hit, two by Irvin and two by reliever Dillon Tate in the seventh inning, tying the O’s record for most hits in a game, last set on Sept. 23, 2019 in Toronto.

Heaney was the winning pitcher after allowing two runs in seven innings and is now 3-9 with a 4.04 ERA. He struck out 10 without a walk after only 14 O’s batters struck out in the first three games of the series.

The Orioles have lined up just one starter for the upcoming series with the Mariners. Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (9-3, 3.72 ERA) will face right-hander George Kirby (7-5, 3.35 ERA) on Tuesday. The O’s have yet to announce their starters for Wednesday and Thursday. Right-hander Corbin Burnes is expected to return from the paternity list soon and right-hander Dean Kremer could return from the injured list after making three rehab starts at Triple-A.

After the game, manager Brandon Hyde said Ryan Mountcastle did not play because he was feeling unwell.

Hyde on Irvin’s trip: “I thought he had trouble with his control. I thought he got in the zone and they took good hits from him. On a night where we were really short in the bullpen, tonight whoever was available threw. It would have been nice if he had given us a little more, but I think he was able to hold his own. He just didn’t have his best stuff.”

Hyde on Heaney: “We’ve seen Andrew quite a bit. Really sneaky fastball, thought he was in a good mood tonight. Really good fastball control with the slider and the changeup. I thought he was really sharp, I haven’t seen him that sharp in a long time. I thought he was excellent tonight.”

Hyde with 18-12 in a difficult phase: “I was disappointed, but I thought we played great. We had a little problem there, about five days we didn’t play our best baseball and we came up against some really good starters. But going into the month, we knew it was going to be tough and we had to go full throttle. But the way our guys fought through this month, I’m really proud of that.”

Irvin felt that some progress had been made in making adjustments: “Actually, more positive than negative. I know the stats don’t show that. The adjustment I had to make was to get out of the zone more. I felt like I did that. But you know, there were consequences, I walked two guys, hit two guys. Not my strength as far as pitching goes. But there were things I was able to take from that and showed some good pitches.

“There was weak contact. Had a double play that could have been made. These things just happen. They can blow up when things aren’t going well.”

Irvin on his attempt to improve: “I’m not trying to turn away from what happened by any means. I’m trying to find an adjustment, an adjustment to what I did well at the beginning of the season. It’s there, it’s close. Not far off.”

Henderson on the Home Run Derby: “Yeah, that’s definitely something I saw as a kid. It just seemed pretty cool to have that opportunity. Pretty special. I’m looking forward to it.”

Henderson on seeking advice from Adley Rutschman: “Yeah, I’ll see what he can do. I saw they changed the format this year, so that’ll be interesting. But yeah, I’ll question him a bit.”

Henderson 18-12 since May 31: “It was a tough time. Of course it didn’t end the way we wanted, but I think we did really well under the circumstances. A bad day. Yes, I felt we put ourselves in a good position for the second half.”

The Orioles finished June 17-12.

They are currently 15-20 on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Kjerstad has a batting average of .438/.550/.938 (7 of 16) since being recalled on June 24.