LOS ANGELES — Corbin Burnes could do little else but shake his head and smirk when Shohei Ohtani flicked his bat at a pitch on the outer edge of the strike zone and still lifted it for a pull-side home run.
It’s Ohtani, a generational — perhaps multigenerational — talent. Sometimes he’ll win.
But, two innings later, the shake of the head from Burnes as he watched Dodger Stadium erupt around him for Teoscar Hernández’s three-run homer involved no smirk. It was entirely avoidable. It was a missed location — a hanging curveball in a two-strike, two-out situation — that is so unlike Burnes when the right-hander is at his best.
In August, Burnes has been far from his best, and it continued in a 6-4 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. Burnes was charged with only one earned run, but there were avoidable moments, both from Burnes and from a defense that produced three errors behind him.
“Burnes, you’re not going to be really good for six months straight,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “You’re going to go through ups and downs individually. Burnes, I thought he threw the ball well tonight, gave up one earned run. Had a couple of tough starts before that that kind of unraveled on him. Offensively, we’re kind of up and down offensively. It would be nice to kind of get going offensively to help some things out.”
Burnes has allowed 28 runs this month, the most of any calendar month in his career. The 21 earned runs against him are tied for the most between March and April 2019. And the last time an Orioles pitcher allowed 28 or more runs in a month was 2021, when Spenser Watkins and Matt Harvey did it.
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This was a sharp departure from the Burnes of earlier this season. He didn’t allow five runs or more in any of his first 22 starts in Baltimore, and in August he’s allowed five runs or more in four of his five outings.
When Baltimore needed its ace most, with injuries piling up left, right and center, Burnes didn’t pitch like one.
Still, Burnes felt Wednesday was a step in the right direction. He forced 19 swings and misses, and his cutter (which induced 10 whiffs) was much improved from earlier in the month. Burnes allowed just five hits and walked none, showing his command was better.
“So, really, the two pitches on the home run balls tonight are kind of what changed that game,” Burnes said. “For the most part, I thought I threw the ball pretty well. A lot of weak contact outside of the two mistakes.”
In his previous two starts, Burnes allowed 10 hits and eight hits. By comparison, his performance in Los Angeles was far better. But a similarity remained between Wednesday and his other shaky starts this month.
“I guess they are related in a way that there’s one big inning every time, which we did a good job of kind of avoiding throughout most of the year,” Burnes said. “Outside of those one big innings every time, they’re pretty good outings. So just have to find a way to minimize and not leave balls up in the zone.”
The errors behind him were as much the problem Wednesday as the hanging curveball to Hernández. With three, the Orioles tied their season high. The first, from former Gold Glove winner Ramón Urías at third base, allowed Kiké Hernández to reach base. And Burnes didn’t shut the door. He allowed consecutive singles to Ohtani and Mookie Betts to bring home the first unearned run.
And, with two outs and two strikes, in a situation when Burnes could have limited the damage, the hanging curveball leaped off Teoscar Hernández’s bat at 113.3 mph.
Baltimore had mounted a surge against right-hander Walker Buehler in the second inning, when Urías continued his recent success with a two-run double. Catcher James McCann plated Urías with a single.
That lead evaporated, however, and the offense hasn’t been functioning at a high enough level of late to overcome self-inflicted mistakes. Wednesday was just the second time in the past seven games Baltimore scored more than three runs.
And, while the Orioles got one run back in the fifth through Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI double, the Dodgers scored their fifth unearned run on the back of more sloppy play. Ohtani, who reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and advanced to third when McCann bobbled the ball near the backstop. With two outs, shortstop Gunnar Henderson couldn’t scoop a backhander, allowing Ohtani to score.
“We didn’t play our cleanest defensively,” Hyde said. “We had some chances to get out of the innings, but we’re not scoring a ton of runs either, helping our guys out.”
In stumbling to the Dodgers, the Orioles missed a chance to edge closer to the New York Yankees, who lost a second straight game to the Washington Nationals. Baltimore remains one game back of the American League East lead.
The Orioles are very much within striking distance. They just haven’t been consistent of late, and it starts with their stars.
