Following trade, Brewers' DL Hall 'super excited' to face Orioles

DL Hall will return to Camden Yards on Saturday for the visiting Milwaukee Brewers when they play the middle contest of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.

Hall (0-1, 4.82 ERA) joined fellow prospect Joey Ortiz in being sent from the Orioles to the Brewers in a Feb. 1 trade for former National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes.

The 25-year-old Hall will start Saturday for the Brewers, while Burnes will go Sunday for the Orioles.

"It's already been in my head for seven days," Hall, a left-hander, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I'm not really nervous, but it's jittery, it's excitement. I'm super excited for it, just to be able to go out there and do it.

"It's going to be awesome."

Hall, Baltimore's first-round pick out of high school in 2017, made his major league debut in 2022 as a starter. Last season, he made 18 appearances, all in relief, finishing 3-0 with a 3.26 ERA.

In two starts this season for Milwaukee, Hall has allowed five runs over 9 1/3 innings, including three in 5 1/3 innings of a 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners last Saturday.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (0-0, 2.19 ERA) will make his third start of the season for the Orioles. He allowed one unearned run on five hits with six strikeouts in seven innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. The unearned run came as a result of an errant throw he made to second base.

"Dean was great, except for that throw to second," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "He was really, really good, and love to see that splitter coming along the way it has. He had command of all his pitches."

Ortiz, 25, celebrated his return to Baltimore on Friday with three hits, two RBIs and a run in Milwaukee's 11-1 win. Willy Adames homered among his three hits, and Freddy Peralta struck out 11 over six strong innings. Gary Sanchez and William Contreras also homered for Milwaukee, which has won three straight games.

But Brewers star Christian Yelich left the game in the middle of the second inning with lower back discomfort that started when he was running the bases. He singled in the top of the first, raising his batting average to .333.

"Pretty frustrating," Yelich said. "Kind of running and feel it grab. Hopefully I stopped before I got it bad. Usually I'll get it and it will grab pretty good and I'll know that I'm done for. Hopefully this one was before that happened. I felt it right on the verge of doing it while running on Willy's pop up on the first."

Yelich said he expects to be out of the lineup Saturday and Sunday.

Baltimore batters managed only five hits in six innings against Peralta.

Colton Cowser was a bright spot on a bleak night for Baltimore. He hit his third homer in two days and doubled. He was 6-for-13 with five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs in the Orioles' three-game sweep at Boston.

"Using the whole field, line-drive approach, taking what's kind of given to him," Hyde said. "He's really swinging the bat well."

Orioles top prospect Jackson Holliday is still looking for his first hit after striking out three times and falling to 0-for-11 since he was called up.

--Field Level Media