BALTIMORE—Orioles manager Brandon Hyde wasn’t pleased with the Orioles’ performance on Sunday. The normally sunny skipper put his displeasure bluntly.
“We just got really flat,” Hyde said. “I just thought we got beat today.”
The Orioles lost to the San Francisco Giants, 8-1, and Hyde’s team played worse as the game went on.
The Orioles gave up two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth. Evan Longoria, who tortured the Orioles when he was with Tampa Bay, homered with one out in the fourth against starter Gabriel Ynoa.
Ynoa walked Brandon Belt, and then balked on a pickoff move, sending him to second. Kevin Pillar punched a double down the right field line for a run.
Stephen Vogt led off the fifth with a walk. Second baseman Stevie Wilkerson couldn’t handle Steven Duggar’s grounder for an error. Joe Panik flied to right. DJ Stewart unwisely elected to throw to third, allowing both runners to move up.
Both runners scored on Longoria’s two-out double, and the Orioles trailed, 4-1.
Last month, the Orioles threw to the wrong base a number of times.
“Today we decided to try to throw out a guy at third from deep right field and not have the double play in order,” Hyde said. “Something we have to stay on them and drill into their heads. Hopefully, with some experience, we’ll get better at it.”
Ynoa pitched five innings, allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits.
Brandon Crawford homered against Branden Kline in the sixth and off Dan Straily in the eighth.
Giants starter Jeff Samardzija, whose only previous appearance at Oriole Park in a long career came for the April 2015 “fanless” game, shut down the Orioles, allowing Trey Mancini’s first-inning home run and little else.
Samardzija allowed a run on three hits in six innings, striking out six and walking none.
The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh against Reyes Moronta, but Keon Broxton was called out on strikes to end the inning.
The Orioles have lost 19 of 24, haven’t won a series since April 22-24 nor consecutive games since May 6-8.
“After the first game the other day that was a win that you think maybe can give you some momentum,” Mancini said. “It really stinks to drop the last two games of that series after that.
“But we’re going to have to find ways to string some together, especially after a win like that to keep the momentum going. As an offense, we didn’t do as good of a job the last couple days as we had in the previous week or so, so we’ve got to figure some things out there.”
Offensive futility: The Orioles struck out 13 times. They’ve struck out 10 or more times in 24 games. Broxton struck out three times.
Since singling in his first three at-bats, Stewart is 0-for-16.
Davis ready to return? First baseman Chris Davis is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list on Tuesday. He’s been out because of an inflamed left hip.
“He’s hitting right now,” Hyde said. “If all checks out, he’ll probably play at Texas.”
With Renato Nunez hot, and the possibility of Mark Trumbo returning as well, there could be an interesting problem for the Orioles.
“I think we’re waiting to see how Mark is,” Hyde said. “I think we’re going to make those decisions when that gets a little bit closer.
“We have a lot of first base, DH types. It’s not an ideal situation. We’re going to figure that out when a decision for Mark gets closer.”
Wilkerson, Wynns back to Norfolk: After the game, Wilkerson and Austin Wynns were optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Wilkerson is hitting 235 with five home runs and 14 RBIs. Wynns is batting .233 with three RBIs in 15 games.
Davis is expected to be activated for Tuesday’s game, and catcher Chance Sisco could be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.
Sisco is batting .288 for the Tides with 10 home runs and 37 RBIs. He has a .381 on-base percentage. Sisco has thrown out six of 33 runners (18 percent) attempting to steal.
Trumbo to Norfolk: Trumbo will continue his rehab with Norfolk. He’ll join the Tides for their game in Durham on Tuesday and play with them through next weekend in Columbus.
Trumbo, who had surgery on his right knee in September, is 3-for-11 (.231) in three games with Double-A Bowie.
He said he’ll again play two consecutive games and then three in a row to test his knee.
“It’s been pretty good,” Trumbo said. “It’s kind of a new normal for what it feels like after any strenuous run activity. Trying to wrap my head around that the best I can and figure out how to make things work with where we’re at.”
He’ll be re-evaluated after the Orioles return from their trip to Texas and Houston.
Hyde back after one day: Hyde returned to the team after flying home to the Chicago suburbs to attend his daughter’s high school graduation.
“I might have had my phone on with the game on during the ceremony,” Hyde said. “I watched the majority of it except when they announced her name.”
Big series for Yastrzemski: Mike Yastrzemski was 4-for-11 this weekend with three RBIs and five runs scored. The longtime Orioles farmhand, who was traded by the Orioles for minor league pitcher Tyler Herb in March, played in Baltimore for the first time.
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I guess it’s mancini back to RF and we’ll see when Trumbo returns. I don’t see how we clear this mess up without cutting Davis or Trumbo unless we let Nunez play 3B... Let’s see how Sisco looks. I’m hoping he’s not another guy who looks like he belongs at 1B/DH himself. I wonder who is our backup CF at this point with Wilkerson down. I would imagine it’s D.J.
Their best player and prospect in the minors who hit three homers today is also a DH first baseman. I don’t expect much from Trumbo and Davis is a joke.
Another Great Move by the Orioles!!!!!
Good series for Yaz but before everyone hops on the bandwagon yelling at the O’s for getting rid of him we ought to wait a month or two before hitting the overreaction train. He doesn’t have much in his minor league career to support being an above average major leaguer and he certainly isn’t very young at 28. Lets go ahead and wait a little awhile there.
Good point, Jbig, but I do think even an average major leaguer might look good in orange and black. I'm not jumping on the O's for letting him go, but it does seem to me that our moves and deals are just treading water. Maybe I'm looking for a turnaround more than a rebuild, something more dynamic that shows we're making better decisions. We're always asked to be patient. There are two kinds of patience. One is passive, as when you're on line at the DMV or having a root canal. The other is active, moving ahead at a steady pace, making progress with every step. We've made steps, but are they forward? Did the Rule 5 draft do anything but take up three spots in the season-opening roster? And did the competitive Spring Training process result in the best 25-man squad? Is there any rhyme or reason to the pattern of using starters or relievers? What happened to the opener experiment? Maybe today's draft will be a turning point. I hope so. But I fear we won't be impressed and will immediately have our attention turned to the trade deadline. Good news is always in the future.
"Hey Stevie, nice work on learning a position you have never played before, which also happens to be one of the most difficult on the field, at the Major League level. You actually performed admirably at this extremely challenging task. As a thank you, we are sending you to ride a bus in Norfolk and giving your roster spot to a guy hitting .170."
Savage.
"Davis possible in Texas" Possible what? Will he strike out more then 22 times in 34 ABs? "Probability High"!
Stick a fork in him, Hyde, he's done. Please, let's stop trying to make fools of the fans. Nobody believes anything the O's mouthpieces (Hunter, Dempsey Davis Thorne, Palmer, Bordick etc. etc. etc.) say, you know, like how good these guys are doing. With 2, and at times, 3 starters and NO relief pitching and various minor leaguers sprinkled throughout the lineup , this couldn't be more boring. It's really not right to treat the fans that still attend the games this way.
Hyde says Davis is "hitting"? Since when.? I guess he means he is holding a bat while looking at pitches,. When Trumbo gets back they are probably going to play him every day in the hope that he starts hot and somebody will give up anything for him...at this point anything would be a return on another bad deal. Davis is just blocking people, in particular Mancini's development as a first baseman and Stewart's development period. This is quickly beginning to look like a train wreck rather than a rebuild. What is the actual plan here? If it includes putting Trumbo and Davis in the lineup on a regular basis, it's a bad plan.
Sisco might as well be given another chance, though with the draft today his clock is defintely ticking. He might very well be trade bait himself in another year.