WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jackson Holliday knew what was coming. He was geared up for a fastball. He had just fouled off a 102.5 mph offering from right-hander Mason Miller with two outs and the bases loaded.

And then Miller, the Athletics’ supreme closer who should be the most coveted reliever in baseball if he’s available at the trade deadline, reached back.

Swing. Miss.

The radar read 103.1 mph. And that’s not even the fastest pitch Miller has thrown this season.

The opportunity with the bases loaded in the eighth inning was one of several for the Orioles to catch up to the Athletics. But, when Miller entered to inherit three runners with one out, the faucet dripped dry. First up came Heston Kjerstad, to whom Miller threw three sliders that dove down and in against the pinch hitter. Kjerstad swung through all three.

Holliday saw Miller’s fastball. He saw it well. He whiffed on the first one, which crackled in at a lowly 101.5 mph. Holliday fouled off a slider and an even faster fastball. But that last heater? High and inside? Whizzing at a breakneck 103.1 mph?

Lethal.

“He obviously throws a very fast fastball,” Holliday deadpanned.

Miller hasn’t been as dominant as last season, when he struck out 104 batters in 65 innings with a 2.49 ERA. He entered Friday’s game with a 5.23 ERA. But the fireballer shut down Baltimore’s last and best chance to tie the game, and he returned to seal the Athletics’ 5-4 win against the Orioles at Sutter Health Park on Friday.

“I looked up on the board, and I think it said nine left on base maybe at the end, and I immediately subtracted the three from the eighth inning because I’m not so sure it counts against that guy,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Really impressive.”

Baltimore (25-37), which rattled off a six-game winning streak before Friday, fell on this side of the final score for more reasons than Miller. Right-hander Dean Kremer posted a shaky start, and the Orioles missed a few opportunities on offense.

If this is the worst it gets for the starting rotation, the Orioles will take it. The performance from Kremer was still a step back for a starting staff that has turned its season around in recent weeks.

The five runs off Kremer marked just the second time since May 24 that an Orioles starter allowed three earned runs or more. That stretch played the largest role in why Baltimore nine wins in its last 11 games entering Friday’s contest.

Kremer had a lead to work with when Dylan Carlson, returning to the Sacramento area in which he grew up, hit a two-run homer in the second. Holliday scored on a sacrifice fly in the third, and his 430-foot solo homer in the fifth briefly tied the game before Brent Rooker’s RBI single off Kremer reestablished the Athletics’ edge.

But there was some hard luck for Kremer, too. In the third, when he allowed four runs in what Mansolino described as “a little bit of a blowup inning,” a two-strike splitter well below the strike zone to rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson turned into a two-run single.

“He’s hitting like .370 on the season, pretty much all singles,” Kremer said. “He beat me there. I thought I made a pretty good pitch there, and he beat me.”

This might have all been different had Denzel Clarke not made one of the best catches likely to be seen at either a major or minor league ballpark. The Athletics center fielder sprinted down a deep line drive from Jorge Mateo in the left-center gap, caught it and then slammed hard into the fence.

The catch saved at least two runs, and Mateo was well beyond second base when he realized Clarke had held on to the ball for the third out of the fourth inning.

“There’s not a lot of guys that make that play,” Mansolino said. “That’s a play that, I don’t know if he’ll ever make that play again, to be honest with you. That’s a dynamite play. It’s incredible. It was a game-changing play.”

Two innings later, with Clarke out of the game due to a shoulder contusion, first baseman Coby Mayo put the Orioles in position to score again. His first major league extra-base hit landed over the head of Seth Brown in center for a double. But right-hander Grant Holman struck out Carlson and Mateo to end the frame, stranding runners at second and third.

In hindsight, it’s questionable that Mansolino didn’t pinch-hit for Mateo with two in scoring position and two outs. Gunnar Henderson, a like-for-like change, was on the bench. Mansolino said before the game Henderson had the day off because he’s “trying not to run guys into the ground. I know these six games are bracketed by two off days, but I do think it’s important ... to get some of these kids a day.”

Instead, Henderson was used in the eighth inning after Colton Cowser’s double. Even then, Mansolino would have preferred not to play Henderson. (“We were trying to get him a full day off,” he said.) Henderson worked a one-out walk, and Carlson loaded the bases with another walk.

But Miller entered and slammed the door shut with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it velocity. And the Orioles missed it.

This article has been updated.