Ryan O'Hearn drives in 3 runs as Orioles win for sixth time in seven games topping Mariners 4-1

SEATTLE (AP) — Ryan O’Hearn had a key two-out, two-run double and later added a solo home run, Dean Kremer threw five shutout innings in his first start since late May, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 on Wednesday night.

Baltimore won for the sixth time in seven games and continued Seattle’s recent side that has seen a 10-game lead in the AL West dwindle down to two. The Mariners lost for the 10th time in 13 games.

“Similar tune. Unfortunately we struggled to get much traction offensively at all and you can't have perfect pitching,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.

Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 21st save for Baltimore and 438th of his career moving him into fourth-place alone on the all-time saves list ahead of Francisco Rodriguez.

“Anytime you have the opportunity to be on this list and to surpass a guy that you got to spend time with and enjoyed their craft and what they did, it's really cool,” Kimbrel said.

O’Hearn, who finished second to Yordan Alvarez in All-Star Game voting as the AL designated hitter, delivered the big blow during a two-out rally in the third inning off Seattle starter Logan Gilbert.

O’Hearn’s drive to deep left-center field clipped off the glove of Julio Rodríguez as he tried to make a sliding catch on the warning track. Rodríguez was immediately angry with himself for not making the catch as Ramon Urias and Adley Rutschman scored. Anthony Santander followed with a single to score O’Hearn.

“I don't know how he almost got there. He started in the right-center gap but I'm glad he didn't come up with it,” O'Hearn said.

Two innings later, O’Hearn hit his 11th homer of the season on a cutter from Gilbert that stayed in the middle of the plate.

That turned out to be plenty of run support for Kremer, who made his first start since May 20 due to a triceps strain. Kremer (4-4) didn’t allow a hit until Ty France dribbled a single through the infield with one out in the fourth inning. Using his splitter significantly more than his average for the season, Kremer gave up two hits, struck out eight and allowed only one base runner to reach second.

“For him to go on a big league mound, on the road and go five scoreless innings, that was as sharp as he's been really all year for me,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

Cal Raleigh’s 15th homer of the season off Baltimore reliever Keegan Akin in the sixth inning ended the shutout. But the Mariners have scored more than three runs once in the last eight games.

Gilbert (5-5) had allowed two earned runs in his previous three starts combined, but his control was not sharp. Gilbert’s three walks matched the combined total for his eight previous starts dating to May 20.

“Against good teams, especially at this level, it really is a game of inches where it could have gone either way,” Gilbert said.

BULLPEN BOUND

Hyde said LHP Cole Irvin will move to the bullpen for now with the return of Kremer, rather than having six-man rotation. Irvin has started 14 games this season for the Orioles.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Orioles: LHP Nick Vespi was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Mariners: RHP Gregory Santos made it through is first rehab outing at Triple-A Tacoma without issue. The Mariners are hoping he will need only one or two more outings before rejoining the team.

UP NEXT

Orioles: RHP Corbin Burnes (9-3, 2.28) had 11 strikeouts in six innings in his first start against Seattle earlier this season.

Mariners: RHP Bryce Miller (6-7, 3.88) has lost two straight starts. Miller allowed two runs in five innings in his last start against Minnesota.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Baltimore Orioles starter Dean Kremer delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert delivers a pitch during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Baltimore Orioles' Ramon Urias, left, and Adley Rutschman celebrate after scoring runs during the third inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Baltimore Orioles starter Dean Kremer delivers a pitch during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Baltimore Orioles' Ryan O'Hearn hits a RBI-double during the third inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Baltimore Orioles' Ryan O'Hearn celebrates with Anthony Santander after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — To a defiant President Joe Biden, the 2024 election is up to the public — not the Democrats on Capitol Hill. But the chorus of Democratic voices calling for him to step aside is growing, from donors, strategists, lawmakers and their constituents who say he should bow out.

The party has not fallen in line behind him even after the events that were set up as part of a blitz to reset his imperiled campaign and show everyone he wasn’t too old to stay in the job or to do it another four years.

On Saturday, a fifth Democratic lawmaker said openly that Biden should not run again. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said that after what she saw and heard in the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump, and Biden’s “lack of a forceful response” afterward, he should step aside “and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward.”

Craig posted one of the Democrats’ key suburban wins in the 2018 midterms and could be a barometer for districts that were vital for Biden in 2020.

With the Democratic convention approaching and just four months to Election Day, neither camp in the party can much afford this internecine drama much longer. But it is bound to drag on until Biden steps aside or Democrats realize he won’t and learn to contain their concerns about the president’s chances against Trump.

There were signs party leaders realize the standoff needs to end. Some of the most senior lawmakers, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn, were now publicly working to bring the party back to the president. Pelosi and Clyburn had both raised pointed questions about Biden in the aftermath of the debate.

“Biden is who our country needs,” Clyburn said late Friday after Biden's interview with ABC aired.

On Saturday, Biden’s campaign said the president joined a biweekly meeting with all 10 of the campaign’s nation co-chairs to “discuss their shared commitment to winning the 2024 race.” Clyburn was among them.

But the silence from most other House Democrats on Saturday was notable, suggesting that lawmakers are not all being convinced by what they saw from the president. More House Democrats are likely to call for Biden to step aside when lawmakers return to Washington at the start of the week.

Biden had public schedule Saturday, as he and aides stepped back from the fervor over the past few days. But the president will head out campaigning again on Sunday in Philadelphia, intent on putting the debate behind him. And this coming week, the U.S. is hosting the NATO summit and the president is to hold a news conference.

Vice President Kamala Harris planned to campaign Saturday in New Orleans.

The president's ABC interview on Friday night — billed as an effort to get the campaign back on track — stirred carefully worded expressions of disappointment from the party's ranks, and worse from those who spoke anonymously. Ten days into the crisis moment of the Biden-Trump debate, Biden is dug in.

Even within the White House there were concerns the ABC interview wasn’t enough to turn the page.

Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez has been texting lawmakers and administration officials are encouraging them not to go public with their concerns about the race and the president’s electability, according to a Democrat granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

Democrats are wrestling over what they see and hear from the president but are not at all certain about a path forward. They were particularly concerned that Biden suggested that even if he were to be defeated in a rematch with Trump, he would know that he gave it his all. That seemed an insufficient response.

As Biden’s camp encourages House lawmakers to give the president the chance to show what he can do, one Democratic aide said the Friday interview didn't help and in fact made things worse. The aide expects more Democrats will likely be calling on Biden to step aside.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, without breaking with Biden at this point, are pulling together meetings with members in the next few days to discuss options. Many lawmakers are hearing from constituents at home and fielding questions. One senator was working to get others together to ask him to step aside.

Following the interview, a Democratic donor reported that many of the fellow donors he spoke with were furious, particularly because the president declined to acknowledge the effects his aging. Many of those donors are seeking a change in leadership at the top of the ticket, said the person, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Biden roundly swatted away calls Friday to step away from the race, telling telling voters at a Wisconsin rally, reporters outside Air Force One and ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he was not going anywhere.

“Completely ruling that out," he told reporters the rally.

Biden dismissed those who were calling for his ouster, instead saying he'd spoken with 20 lawmakers and they had all encouraged him to stay in the race.

Concern about Biden’s fitness for another four years has been persistent. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, fully 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats. His approval rating stands at 38%.

Biden has dismissed the polling, citing as evidence his 2020 surge to the nomination and win over Trump, after initially faltering, and the 2022 midterm elections, when polls suggested Republicans would sweep but didn’t, largely in part over the issue of abortion rights.

“I don’t buy that,” when he was reminded that he was behind in the polls. “I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me."

At times, Biden rambled during the interview, which ABC said aired in full and without edits. Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held Friday in Wisconsin. When reminded that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.

“Trump is a pathological liar,” Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the COVID pandemic and failing to create jobs. “You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?”

Republicans, though, are squarely behind their candidate, and support for Trump, who at 78 is three years younger than Biden, has been growing.

And that’s despite Trump’s 34 felony convictions in a hush money trial, that he was found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and that his businesses were found to have engaged in fraud.

Miller and Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saugatuck, Michigan, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wis., Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

President Joe Biden responds to questions from the traveling press as he arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden responds to questions from the traveling press as he arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden arrives at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, July 5, 2024, from a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)