ARLINGTON, Texas—Wins have been few and far between for the Baltimore Orioles. Most have been enjoyable for first-year manager Brandon Hyde, but the fun was taken out of Tuesday night’s 12-11 win over the Texas Rangers.
The Orioles entered the ninth inning with a 12-5 lead. They managed to give up six runs and only a fine play by one of their offensive heroes, catcher Pedro Severino, allowed them to escape.
With two outs, Orioles reliever Mychal Givens struck Elvis Andrus, but the ball skidded to the backstop. Only Severino’s strong throw to first nabbed Andrus and finally ended the torturous game with the tying run about to score.
There was not a single 1-2-3 inning for either team. The Orioles committed four errors and used six relievers in a game their starter, Dylan Bundy, pitched into the sixth inning.
“Obviously, we didn’t close out the game the way you’d like to close it out, and I am going to try to stay positive,” Hyde said. “We did a lot of good things offensively. I thought Dylan Bundy threw the ball well in a tough park to pitch and a pretty good lineup that’s playing well right now.
“So, I’m focusing on those things. The other stuff we’ve just got to get a lot better. We made some uncharacteristic defensive mistakes and you’re trying to give the bullpen guys some confidence and tonight wasn’t the best night from our ‘pen.”
The Orioles equaled their season high for runs scored, and they equaled their worst inning with the six-run ninth. Texas scored a run in the seventh and another in the eighth before the scary ninth.
“When you give up eight runs? How many runs did we give up in the last three innings?” Hyde said. “You’d like to see that number a little lower. I just want to see guys take advantage of their opportunity. A lot of these guys have been moved around to other organizations and I want to see them grasp it and grab onto it and have major league careers.
“That’s the roster we have is guys that have been in other places and now they’re getting an opportunity, and I just want to see them hold onto it and have success.”
The Orioles’ offense principally came from players to whom Hyde was referring. Dwight Smith Jr., who was acquired in March for international signing bonus money, had six RBIs on a three-run home run and a three-run double.
Severino, picked up on waivers from Washington near the end of spring training, had three home runs, becoming the first catcher in Orioles history to hit three in a game. Hanser Alberto, who was twice picked up on waivers, had four hits.
“It’s amazing. The offense did a great job, helping the pitchers,” Severino said. “You know, all that happened the last inning—a normal game. A normal game happened. We tried to win that game right there. It was frustration right there, with [six] runs in the last inning, but we never give up. We had had to work to win it.”
In addition to Severino’s three home runs and Smith’s three-run blast, Keon Broxton homered to lead off the fourth, his third home run. The five homers were a season-high for the Orioles.
After Richie Martin’s error to start the ninth, Josh Lucas walked Nomar Mazara and Hunter Pence to load the bases with none out.
Richard Bleier allowed a two-run double to Asdrubal Cabrera and a run-scoring single. Logan Forsythe doubled for two runs, and with one out, Shin-Soo Choo singled off Bleier’s glove to allow Forsythe to score.
Mychal Givens restored to the closer’s role, struck out DeShields and then Andrus to pick up his fifth save.
Bundy’s night: Bundy allowed three runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings to get his third win of the season. He walked two and struck out four and gave up a home run to Texas leadoff hitter Choo, the 30th leadoff home run of his career.
“They’re a tough lineup,” Bundy said. “Overall, I felt my stuff was probably some of the better stuff-wise I had. Now, the command wasn’t very good tonight. It was a kind of a battle from the get-go with runners on base pretty much every inning.”
Nunez leaves: Renato Nunez left the game for a pinch-hitter in the sixth.
“His leg’s bothering him a little bit, so I took him out of the game knowing that I want him for tomorrow,” Hyde said.
Nunez has 15 home runs, and had eight in his previous 12 games.
Trumbo at Triple-A: In his first game at Triple-A, Mark Trumbo was 0-for-3 with a strikeout for Norfolk. He played first base. Trumbo is scheduled to be with the Tides this week and then be re-evaluated next week.
Trumbo is on a rehab assignment to make sure that his surgically repaired right knee is fit for major league duty.
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Lucas & Bleier looked very shaky, Bleier hasn't been himself all year, I realize he's coming off surgery, hats off to Severino offensively, the last out looked like another of his defensive lapses, his quote "you all know what happened the last inning, a normal game", not for a major league team, error to lead off the inning, walks, Givens looked better.....we'll take the win, ......love the O's.....:)
Indeed.
It's much too early to give a full evaluation but, to my totally-untrained-blood-shot eyes, Bleier does not look like the same pitcher he was before the injury. I hope I'm wrong.
On an extremely weird night, Lucas was the weirdest. Pitchers having control problems is nothing new but, he wasn't even close. As the Brits would say, Severino was definitely the "Man of the Match" both behind and at the plate.
I think it’s time for Phillips and Scott again they can’t be worse then Blier and Lucas. Rich how much longer will the O’s stick with Davis. Mountcastle is tearing the ball every night in Norfolk and Davis is just blocking him and Mancini at first. I know you like Davis as a person even though some of his comments to the press are on cloud nine but let’s be honest here he is finished as a player and I’m sure Elias knows this.
Watch out now BHoff! Making a few too many of your proposed moves could cost us 3 or 4 losses over the remaining course of the year. Remember .... every loss counts when you're battling Miami & KC for draft postiion.
Bruce, Tanner Scott has been pitching somewhat better for Norfolk. His ERA is down to 4.61, but he's walked eight batters in 13 2/3 innings. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back up just because the Orioles' relievers have been so spotty. Phillips seems like he's always the next man up. I don't think he's eligible to be recalled for another day, barring injury to another player, because he hasn't been in Norfolk the required 10 days.
The Davis question is one that would have to be resolved not only by Mike Elias, but by ownership. There are lots of problems with this team, but after watching last night's game, I would put the Davis issue far down the priority list. They did score 12 runs.
Lucas had one bad game. Why are we proposing to shuttle him out? If that’s the leash you’re giving everyone could be gone. Lucas is behind Straily, Hess, Bleier, and Castro for me to get sent out....
Looks like some tough decisions coming down the line.Obviously no real need for Trumbo and Davis is just not recovering from his 2year (at least) lapse.Trumbo has another year doesn’t he Rich? You may be able to dump him later in season but unless he shows some decent form there will be little return. Though ridding themselves of the contract would be good enough.Going to be hard though and probably will have to pay part of it.Becoming disappointed with Martin as he is bobbling and throwing the ball wildly more times than he should as his glove is supposedly the reason he is on the team. Actually a lot of miscues from guys like Villar a lot more than should be happening. There is no answer that I see for the relief Corp from all the guys I have seen them bring up so far. Got to find some better talent and surprised very little drafting of pitchers though it has been said not much talent available this year.
Tony, Trumbo will be a free agent after this season.
As I've said, this was going to be a challenging year, and what you've seen shouldn't surprise you. Next year may not be much better, but by 2021, there should be some signs of progress.
By 2021, you should see some of the pitchers drafted in the previous three years start to come to the majors. Not only was this year a pitcher-poor draft year, but the Orioles have few prospects as catchers, middle infielders and center fielders. That's why they drafted them instead of pitchers.
UNBELIEVABLE! It was like watching a pick-up sand lot game (of which I played my share of). I just shake my head listening to Hyde explaining the game... “We made some uncharacteristic defensive mistakes... “ coming from his lips is like a pre recorded message, night after night (some days, too). It’s almost like a mantra. And on the pitching side... “That’s the roster we have is guys that have been in other places...” and it’s the reason is that they failed where they were. All the O’s have done by picking them up is to perpetuate the inevitable... more failure. When I go down the list of “prospects” the O’s got last year with the “dump” I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief. I wrote at the end of last season that I believed we got “taken” and I believe it more now. All the “hype” about Mullins being the O’s future has certainly been put to rest as he continues to fade into the background at Norfolk. And... DJ Stewart has proved to be no better than the much criticized Rickard.
I don’t think it’s fair to criticize DJ after 61 MLB at-bats over the course of 2 seasons.
It’s certainly not fair to say he’s done after an early struggle. We can’t be so reactionary as fans. Stewart very well might not be anything he was our #15 prospect. Hate to break it to you guys but our system isn’t very deep and the odds of him being an above average starter were always not that great. We can’t make that determination yet though. We’ll see after some time.
When do "uncharacteristic defensive mistakes" become characteristic? We must be close to that line. Personally, I'm very happy with the win. I went to bed around the sixth inning and had a good night's sleep. I'm also really happy Bundy got a W. He deserves a better record than he has. That's just my feeling, so I'm not prepared to argue it, except to say that he's had injuries and bad luck but carries on like a trouper. He no longer can be dominant, but can still be effective with a good team. As for Davis and Trumbo, I think they've found their niche on the IL, where they're not taking up roster spots. If they insist on coming back, maybe they could have a collision in practice. Or maybe Elias could go outside the box and hire Tonya Harding as a consultant.
Ha! Interesting suggestion.
Richie Martin can't get a pass on this one. Both of his errors seemed to rattle the pitchers(Kline,Lucas). These pitchers are young and deserve a little extra help for their psyche not an IF that plays nervous.
I hope Keon Broxton keeps hitting and maybe even cuts down his K rate. The Phillies lost mccutchen for the year and will be looking for a CF. Hopefully if Broxton shows something he’s the target and we get something more valuable than the 500K of slot money. Have to credit Elias for the small pickups he’s made. He picked up Smith Jr, Severino, Broxton, and Alberto for essentially nothing. None of them are studs obviously but acquiring ML talent for nothing is something.
You mention Andrew McCutchen, one player the Phillies might be interested in is Adam Jones. Adam no longer has no-trade protection and can’t veto a trade.
Didn’t he veto a trade there last yr? Probably not well liked by Philly, heck they boo Harper....lol
Yes he did veto a trade last year-because he could. He doesn’t have that power anymore. If Arizona trades him he would have to go or forfeit his salary for this year. I looked at his contract on spotrac, he gets a 250,000 bonus if traded. I don’t think his vetoing of the trade last year had anything to do with hostility toward Philadelphia, he just figured that his time in Baltimore was up and just wanted to finish the last 2 months in Baltimore.
Jones hasn’t logged an inning in Centerfield for the diamondbacks this year. I don’t think a competitive team is playing him there anymore. Broxton obviously has his flaws but he is a true CF.
And as for Jones vetoing the deal last year that was because
1.) he had the ability to do so with 10-5 rights
2.) The Phils wanted to platoon him and he wasn’t interested in doing that in a FA year.
Obviously he couldn’t make that call this year but I doubt they have interest in him as a CF. Perhaps as a bench bat they would have some interest as they did acquire Bruce for that role and he is now starting. They could possibly have him and jones split time out there though I think it’s more likelihood they look for a real CF.
The Phillies called up their 2017 1st rd pick Adam Haseley to play CF at least until Herrerra’s situation is resolved. I don’t know if the Phillies would have any interest in Jones or that the Diamondbacks are looking to move him, just brought it up because of the irony of his vetoing the trade last year. If the Orioles are willing to give away Broxton to the Phillies-like the Mets did to the Orioles, Phillies would take a shot at him , but I don’t see any real trade value. Broxton is doing just fine as a stopgap until Austin Hays is ready
Oh yeah I’m certainly not advocating for a give away. The Mets traded 3 prospects for him this offseason so he had some value. If he’s hitting well it’s not hard to believe we could get something interesting back
I totally understand he earned the right to veto, I’m saying the people in Philly would probably boo him because of it, I don’t think Jones had bad feelings toward Philly, just that they may now because of that, like I said, they boo Harper, kinda like New York fans, what have you done for me lately...lol
You are right about Broxton. The Mets traded 3 players- their 4th round pick last year, a 27 year old journeyman pitcher and an 18 yr old. Seems odd that they would just give him away so early in the season. Mets are always a hard team to figure out. Have to compete with the other team in New York. As for the possibility that Adam would get booed in Philadelphia, everyone gets booed in Philadelphia-even Santa Claus