BALTIMORE — Craig Kimbrel’s time with the Baltimore Orioles is over.

The Orioles designated their former closer for assignment Wednesday following the latest in a series of rough outings.

Kimbrel gave up six runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning of relief in Baltimore’s 10-0 home loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. Kimbrel has a 13.94 ERA in his last 11 appearances over the past month.

A nine-time All-Star, Kimbrel has pitched in 837 games and amassed a whopping 440 saves. But this season, his first with Baltimore, the right-hander has a 5.33 ERA with six blown saves.

The last of his 23 saves with the Orioles came on July 7. Not long after that, following several poor performances, Kimbrel desperately tried to regain the form that enabled him to pitch in the back end of the bullpen since breaking into the big leagues in 2010 with Atlanta.

It never happened.

“Tough day,” Manager Brandon Hyde said. “We have so much respect for Craig and his career. It’s never easy to say goodbye to someone who’s done a lot.”

The Orioles have lost 8 of 11 games to fall four back of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. In a corresponding roster move, they recalled right-hander Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk.

Orioles GM Mike Elias signed Kimbrel to a $13 million contract in December to fill the void left by Félix Bautista, who had 48 saves last year before going on the disabled list with an elbow injury. Bautista underwent Tommy John surgery, which kept him sidelined for the entire 2024 season.

Kimbrel’s 23 saves before the All-Star Game helped the defending AL East champions hit the break atop the division.

“Heck of a first half for us. Helped us win a ton of games,” Hyde said.

Kimbrel’s decline began with a blown save on July 14 against the Yankees. He got the win in that game despite allowing three runs in the ninth inning.

“The game here against New York, that was a struggle, and he never got rolling after that,” Hyde said.

Kimbrel blew a save on July 25 in Miami and took a loss the following day against San Diego. At that point, Hyde began using Kimbrel in no-pressure situations in the hope that the 36-year-old would regain the form that landed him in fifth place on the career saves list.

“I tried to give him low-leverage spots, and it seemed like when there were runners on base he had a tough time not allowing that run to score,” Hyde said.

Hyde knew of Kimbrel’s sensational past, but there were only a few glimpses of that pitcher recently.

“He’s a Hall of Famer to me,” Hyde said. “Craig has done some amazing things in his career. To be able to pitch in the innings he’s pitched, for that long with that type of pressure, there are only a handful of guys who have been able to do that.”

Seranthony Domínguez, obtained in a July trade with the Phillies, has taken over the closer’s role for Baltimore.

“When we got him in the trade, it wasn’t like the next day we were saying Seranthony is going to be the closer now,” Hyde said. “It was more of need at that point because Craig was struggling a little bit.”

METS: Rookie right-hander Christian Scott is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery next week and is expected to miss the entire 2025 season.

Scott hasn’t pitched since July 21 due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow but hoped to return this month to the Mets.

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

ATHLETICS 5, CUBS 3: Tyler Soderstrom homered and was 2 for 4 and Zack Gelof hit a double to take the lead in the eighth as visiting Oakland beat the Cubs, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to become the first major league team to earn a spot in the playoffs.

Chicago’s loss clinches a playoff berth for the Brewers, who won the National League Central division for the third time in four years.

DIAMONDBACKS 9, ROCKIES 4: Corbin Carroll hit two home runs for his third multihomer game of the year, Eduardo Rodriguez struck out a season-high 11 and Arizona won at Denver to avert a series sweep.

Randal Grichuk also homered and doubled, Christian Walker drove in a pair of runs with a single and a sacrifice fly, and Pavin Smith had a run-scoring double in the Diamondbacks’ three-run ninth inning.

The defending National League champion, Arizona (84-68) matched last year’s total for wins.

ANGELS 4, WHITE SOX 3: Eric Wagaman scored with one out in the 13th inning when Jordyn Adams’ grounder deflected off the glove of third baseman Miguel Vargas, and Los Angeles dealt visiting Chicago its 117th loss.

Instead of winning consecutive series for the first time in four months, the White Sox tied the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics for the third-most losses since 1900.
Chicago (36-117) needs to go 7-2 in its final nine games to avoid the post-1900 record of 120 losses by the 1962 expansion New York Mets.

The 2003 Detroit Tigers hold the American League mark with 119 losses.

PADRES 4, ASTROS 0: Dylan Cease pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning and Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Donovan Solano hit consecutive homers in the eighth as San Diego  won at home.

Machado homered twice for the Padres, who won 2 of 3 against the Astros and stayed two games ahead of Arizona for the first NL wild card. .

Cease (14-11), who threw his first career no-hitter on July 25 at Washington, took a one-hitter into the ninth before Mauricio Dubón beat out an infield single to shortstop. Cease struck out Jake Meyers but then shortstop Xander Bogaerts booted Jose Altuve’s grounder for an error that allowed Dubón to take third, and that was it for the right-hander after 103 pitches.

GIANTS 5, ORIOLES 3: Mike Yastrzemski homered on the game’s first pitch, Michael Conforto also hit a solo shot and San Francisco won at Baltimore .

Baltimore has lost 8 of 10.

BRAVES 7, REDS 1: Marcell Ozuna homered, Gio Urshela drove in three runs and Spencer Schwellenbach pitched six innings of one-run ball as Atlanta won at Cincinnati.