DENVER—It’s been a horrible week for reliever Mychal Givens. For the third time in five games, Givens fell apart in the ninth inning, and the Orioles suffered another difficult loss.
Givens, who had walked home the winning run on Thursday against the Yankees, gave up a walkoff, two-run home run to Trevor Story, his second of the game, in the Colorado Rockies’ come-from-behind 8-6 victory over the Orioles.
The Orioles, who lost for the seventh straight time, led 5-1, and carried a 6-3 lead into the seventh after Branden Kline struck out the side in the sixth. Richard Bleier retired the first two batters in the seventh before allowing a single to Raimel Tapia.
Shawn Armstrong, who had an 0.93 ERA since joining the Orioles, allowed a two-run home run to Story to make it 6-5. Nolan Arenando, who homered in the first, followed with another homer, and it was 6-6.
In the ninth, Givens allowed a leadoff single to Ryan McMahon. With one out, Story homered to right for the game-winner.
Before this week, Givens had six straight scoreless outings, and his ERA was 2.75. He allowed five runs to the New York Yankees on Monday, and the ninth-inning run on Thursday. His ERA is 5.64.
Manager Brandon Hyde isn’t sure what the problem is.
“Maybe not locating like he was,” Hyde said. “His fastball’s velo’s good. His slider is sharp at times. I don’t see any drop in stuff-wise. [Thursday] he was erratic after the two strikeouts and tonight it was like he [wasn’t] able to locate. I saw some arm-side misses, so obviously I have to give him some time off.
“Paul Fry, I’ve got to give time off. Because we’re in all these games and it’s … I just want to take care of these guys because we’re not getting blown out. We’re in a lot of baseball games. You try to use your guys when you’re in games, and we just haven’t done it the past couple of games.”
Hyde isn’t sure where he can turn with his bullpen.
“It’s concerning,” he said. “I don’t want to overuse guys, and I don’t want to abuse guys. We have an eight-man ‘pen … We’re just throwing a lot of pitches, every single night, and we’re having a tough time putting people away. We’re having a tough time getting early contact outs. It seems like we’re just not getting guys out in a timely fashion where they can go back out the next inning. It’s just a little bit of a rough patch, for sure, for our bullpen.”
The Orioles are in a stretch in which they’re playing nine consecutive games against teams with records below .500. Their last three losses have been by one or two runs.
“I would hope that they want to be in those situations,” Hyde said. “I think they do want to be in those types of games and those types of situations.
“We’re in a lot of really close games, which is awesome. It’s a lot of fun. And I hope that we continue to play that way. I would love to see us start extending leads a little bit more and being able to give our bullpen a breather. I’d love to see our starters go a little deeper. But I don’t know. I’ve got to start taking care of some of these guys.”
Means’ night: Starter John Means had an eventful interleague debut. Means pitched five innings and had two productive at-bats.
The Orioles hadn’t played in Coors Field since 2004, and their pitchers were looking forward to hitting.
Means, who allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings, batted twice, executing a sacrifice bunt in the second, and drawing walk in the fourth.
After Jonathan Villar doubled, Means made it to third. Stevie Wilkerson grounded to second, and Villar broke for third, not realizing Means was still there. As Villar was chased back, Means broke for home, and was easily tagged out.
Means said there was noting especially difficult about pitching in Coors Field.
“It’s a little different but baseball’s baseball,” Means said. “You get the swings and misses, you do well. If you don’t, then you don’t do well. I felt OK. I felt like I’m trying to figure some things out and there’s definitely stuff to build on.”
Broxton’s debut: On the first pitch he saw as an Oriole, Keon Broxton blasted a home run to left estimated at 474 feet. Broxton, who didn’t homer with the New York Mets, gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead in the third. He was called out on strikes in his next two at-bats before an infield single in the eighth.
It was Broxton’s first home run since Game 4 of last year’s National League Division Series, when he played at Coors Field for the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I was actually going to bunt right then,” Broxton said. “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arenado back. A couple seconds before the pitch came, I saw him creeping up, so I was like, Ah, I’m swinging. But walking up to the plate, I thought, ‘If I get a good pitch, I’m definitely going to let it loose.’ I haven’t seen a pitch in a while. I want to see where I’m at, and I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.”
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I know you won’t believe me but when Givens came in I turned off the TV and went to bed.
This is simply the woeful level of talent which Elias and Hyde inherited from the previous regime - they will need at least a couple of years to turn it around.
You can add bad baserunning to the list of woes the organization needs to correct.
Yes and Villar is culprit number one.
Villar also has 7 errors
And how about the 3rd base coach? Where were the running signals?
Ok let's see--they have,hopefully, a decent CF for a while now let's get a decent RFer(Wilkerson is scary). Oh and how about a C that can catch the ball. See and I didn't even have to mention the pitching staff.
I would much rather see Sisco than Severino, I’ll take the defensive inadequacies (not much difference) for the offensive bonuses....Givens just being Givens....been a crap shoot the last couple of yrs....
You guys are insane. Literally. Pedro Severino has thrown out 69% of basestealers and is hitting about 20% above league average. That’s not for catchers, that’s for all players. Getting upset about him is reactionary and not at all based in the facts. The fact of the matter is he’s been one of our most valuable players and Chance Sisco couldn’t throw out Chris Davis trying to swipe 2nd base.....He’s handling the majors worst pitching staff back there and he’s doing an alright job. Sisco is a AA level defensive catcher at this point. If he comes up here all it will do is expose that and have you wishing Sevy was back there. He isn’t our problem by any means..
I agree with you on this one. Sisco should be on this team starting
Being a catcher isn’t all about throwing out base stealers, how many passed balls has he had, how many ROUTINE pop ups has he missed and I’ll go back to what I said earlier, he can’t call a game, how many runs have scored or been put into scoring position because of his play....too many for me....my opinion, but the only one that matters to me....
First of all like I’ve said numerals times this team is a BETTER team without Davis in the lineup and Mancini at 1B. If your not going to release him because of the contract just let him keep his ass on the bench and bring him in as a late inning defensive replacement if we are ever up in late innings. Now it’s time for DJ to come up. A starting outfield of Smith, DJ and Keon at least is a outfield with real outfielders not infielders. Can Hanser play 3B I would put him there and let Wilkerson play second. Of course this is all irrelevant if we don’t have late innings pitchers who can pitch. A few weeks ago I suggested Givens for the Cubs suspended SS I forgot is name now I don’t think anyone will take him. Phillips pitching good at Norfolk time to bring him back up.
Bhoff: I agree with your starting lineup and outfield setup. Alberto has to stay in the lineup while he is hot and he should be at third. I like Martin at short (despite his bat) since he is a very good defensive shortstop and can help Alberto out given Alberto's limited range. Villar and Wilkerson can platoon at 2nd but it get awkward since both are better batting left than right. Nunez and C.D. can platoon at DH and keep Mancini at first.
Like you, I have zero solutions for the pitching staff. Write a name down on the score card and start praying.
I agree. I do think Sisco should be the starting catcher very soon. What do we do with Trumbo who apparently is soon to return
I thought it was a no-brainer to put Trumbo back at DH(being that Nunez had looked awful) . But now Nunez is hitting again. Who knows. I like Ruiz at 3rd but can understand everybody loving Alberto's bat. But boy his mental and physical errors are deadly.
I don’t see Trumbo coming back anytime soon. He suffered the same type injury as Pedroia and Pedroia still hasn’t come back. He is in the final year of his contract and frankly not a lot of trade value for a DH coming off serious surgery making 13 mil a year. The decent thing to do with Mark is make sure he is completely healed, eat the remainder of his contract, and let him pursue opportunities with another team. His return has no impact on the 2019 Orioles
Trumbo also plays right field. That’s probably where he’ll go if not 1st bade
Mason McCoy hitting 400 at Bowie after hitting same at Frederick. If this continues would like to see him go up to Norfolk and if he hits there bring him up in September. The kid has exceeded expectations everywhere he has played
Hyde certainly has a big task to perform.I get tired watching the same relievers come in everyday so I can imagine them actually having to pitch everyday.Not making any excuse though because Givens does not seem to have any idea where the ball is going.I believe Severino is catching himself right out of the lineup and probably back down with Sucre.Good arm but confused behind the plate.Could be Givens being way off the mark last nite but good catchers catch those balls.If Hyde has to rest those guys who the hell is going to pitch? It is an incredible situation when you are trying to give guys a chance making it in the bigs because trial and error up there is a recipe for disaster as we are all seeing.Do you stick with the guys or start a Norfolk (plus others) shuffle? That could be counter productive also but some kind of changes are necessary.Offensively I think the team is doing enough to win some games though they make many simple mistakes running bases.Not sure Broxton is going to help but if Hyde says he will be getting a long look then somebody will be staying in the minors for a while longer.i think sending Rickard down was a move that had to be made.Would be ok to have a Rickard on the bench on a solidified team but not the case in Baltimore.Enjoy the weekend everyone,but remember it was possible because many,many soldiers sacrificed their lives for our great nation.
The fact that we are now playing some losing teams is cold comfort. Losing teams get really jacked when they meet a truly awful team. It's their only chance to get some W's. BTW, does anybody know whether the "winning teams" we've been playing would be over .500 without playing the O's? One thing does irk me: opposing hitters who hit multiple home runs in games against us. With all the analytics, are there no scouting reports on these guys? End of rant.
Will, Cleveland is two over .500, and they won three of four from the Orioles last weekend, and Oakland is a game over .500, and they won three of four from the Orioles last month. But, those teams have played their fair share of losing teams, too.
Thanks for looking that up, Rich. My thought is that for some teams how they fare against he O's will determine whether they're winners or losers. That's big motivation for guys are who are trying to win even if they're not the most talented. In a way, their games against the O's are must-win games. I wonder if the Birds feel the same way. There are no breaks in the schedule for teams without dominant talent.
Giants just called up Mike Yastrzemski. On no not another Oriole that plays on another team but can’t play for us