Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde didn’t conceal his rooting pursuits after watching the Tampa Bay Rays rally for a day victory towards the Los Angeles Angels.
“We just came up a little short,” Hyde quipped, as if he or his gamers had any position to play within the Angels blowing a late result in the group chasing Baltimore within the American League East.
Come Thursday evening, Hyde might have described his precise group’s final result the identical approach. The Orioles got here to life within the eighth inning to even their collection opener with the Cleveland Guardians, solely to give up three runs within the subsequent half inning in a 5-2 loss. Paired with the Rays’ victory, Baltimore’s lead within the division race fell to 1 1/2 video games, with the membership’s magic quantity remaining at seven.
The loss continued an uncomfortable pattern for the Orioles (95-58) because the postseason approaches. In 20 September video games, they’ve gone undefeated within the 12 contests they’ve scored at the very least 5 runs, scoring three or fewer of their different eight video games and shedding every. Baltimore hasn’t gained with fewer than 4 runs since Aug. 12.
All three runs within the sport’s decisive body belonged to Cionel Pérez, who hadn’t allowed an earned run over his previous 23 appearances however hit the primary batter he confronted earlier than permitting a stroll and a single to load the bases. Jacob Webb entered and walked in run. Then, after the Orioles acquired a drive out on the plate, Bo Naylor blooped a ball to proper subject, with it falling for a success as second baseman Adam Frazier’s try at an over-the-shoulder catch along with his again to the infield was unsuccessful. Frazier needed to vary 105 ft to make the catch and lined the gap, whereas proper fielder Aaron Hicks, who missed the previous two video games with a hamstring cramp, wanted to go 113 ft to his left however managed to jog solely 94.
Runners superior one base every on the flub, with a run-scoring groundout following. After one other stroll from Webb, Hyde referred to as on his third reliever of the inning and fifth of the sport, with José Ramírez flying out to the warning monitor off Mike Baumann to finish the inning. Since Baltimore clinched a playoff Sunday, its bullpen has surrendered 12 earned runs over 13 1/3 innings throughout 4 video games.
“We’re in a tough stretch, and a lot of these guys have thrown, and a lot of these guys have thrown more than they’ve ever before,” Hyde stated. “Cionel has been absolutely excellent for us this whole second half, just been lights out, and just for me, he just had an off night, and that possibly could have been fatigue or whatever. Webby sucked it up. We were just trying to get through that inning somehow maybe just giving up one, and three balls not hit very hard. Unfortunately, they scored three runs there. But just the way our games have been the last week, our guys have had a lot of appearances, and so I give them a ton of credit for getting out there and trying to get big outs for us.”
Baltimore acquired its first two runners on within the ninth towards Guardians nearer Emmanuel Clase however was unable to capitalize, as Gunnar Henderson flew out to left subject to finish the sport.
For a lot of the evening, it appeared the 2 runs Cleveland (73-81) plated in rookie starter Grayson Rodriguez’s fifth inning can be the distinction within the sport, just for the Orioles to even it with their very own pair three innings later. Pinch-hitter Heston Kjerstad continued his robust begin to his main league profession with a single, and after Ramón Urías pinch-ran, Adley Rutschman and Ryan O’Hearn doubled round an RBI groundout from Anthony Santander.
The Orioles in any other case did nothing with their scoring probabilities. Right-hander Hunter Gaddis, making his first main league look since late August, retired Baltimore’s first eight hitters earlier than Jordan Westburg drew a 13-pitch stroll. Henderson labored one other free move earlier than Rutschman singled off Gaddis’ proper leg for the Orioles’ first hit, however Santander flew out to depart the bases loaded. A one-out double from Rutschman within the sixth additionally went to waste.
“Disappointed in our at-bats, honestly, early in the game,” Hyde stated. “I just thought we made some quick outs, and we normally don’t. We didn’t really work the count very well. It became a bullpen game, which is not easy, and they have a good bullpen. So give our guys credit for coming back and scoring two there and bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning off a guy that’s got great stuff. But we didn’t do anything early offensively to kind of help us out.”
The story was comparable for the Guardians early. They put a number of runners on in three of Rodriguez’s 5 innings. A double play acquired Rodriguez out of a first-and-third, no-out jam within the second, and he stranded a pair of two-out runners within the third. But after hanging out the facet within the fourth, Rodriguez issued a leadoff stroll within the fifth, and a pair of one-out singles from Steven Kwan and Ramírez plated a run. Kwan then scored on Josh Naylor’s sacrifice fly.
Cleveland fouled off 37 of Rodriguez’s pitches Thursday, the second-most foul balls an Orioles pitcher has allowed in an outing since pitch monitoring started in 2008. More than half the 73 strikes Rodriguez threw have been batted away, driving up his pitch depend in an in any other case efficient outing.
“Just not attacking like I wanted to,” Rodriguez stated. “Obviously, wasn’t very efficient. Some walks there, a lot of foul balls. Really just need to do a better job of being in the strike zone and attacking the hitters.”
In 12 begins since returning to the Orioles’ rotation out of the All-Star break, the 23-year-old has a 2.66 ERA. He had a 7.35 ERA in his first 10 main league begins to immediate a demotion to Triple-A.
“Definitely in a better mental space than I was the first time I was up here,” Rodriguez stated. “This second go-round really just feels more like baseball.”
Orioles at Guardians
Friday, 7:10 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com