Keegan Akin debuts, catcher Bryan Holaday pitches in Orioles' streak-snapping 15-3 loss to Nationals
BALTIMORE — Even as they posted an unexpected record through what is almost the first third of the shortened season, the Orioles have held perhaps a more surprising distinction among American League teams: They were the only team that had yet to have a player make his major league debut.
That, like their six-game winning streak, came to an end in their 15-3 loss to the Washington Nationals on Friday. Left-hander Keegan Akin, the organization’s No. 9 prospect according to Baseball America, allowed three runs in three innings of relief, surrendering a home run to Asdrubal Cabrera in the seventh and exiting in the eighth with two in scoring position who both came around to score.
Akin sat in the Orioles’ bullpen for nearly a week after his call-up from the team’s secondary site before manager Brandon Hyde found a comfortable situation to deploy him in, offering him a clean inning and a five-run deficit. The first batter he faced, reigning National League Championship Series MVP Howie Kendrick, grounded out to short. Luis Garcia, also making his debut, struck out on a full-count slider a pitch before Carter Kieboom lined out to center on a fastball.
Akin, 25, spent all of last season with Triple-A Norfolk as he worked to depend less on a fastball that proved more effective than its low-90s velocity would indicate. He led the International League in strikeouts, but he issued walks at a rate of one every other inning. Those command issues and his absence from the 40-man roster kept him from a September cameo in 2019.
