WASHINGTON—The Orioles could blame their 11th loss in 13 games on a baserunning mistake. They could attribute it to the fifth-inning struggles of starter Jorge López, or they could look at their flailing offense. That’s probably where they should start.
In the last two games, the Orioles have been outhit, 30-6. They didn’t score on Friday night until shortstop Freddy Galvis hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth, which is when they doubled their hit total from two to four.
By then, the Washington Nationals led by four and the 4-2 final before 14,369 at Nationals Park was deceptively close.
Before the game began, Oriole fans delivered a strong “O” during the national anthem. Once the game began, though, Stephen Strasburg, pitching for the first time since April 13th, silenced the fans and the Oriole bats.
Strasburg allowed only a second-inning single to rightfielder Anthony Santander in 5 1/3 scoreless innings, though he walked four.
López nearly matched Strasburg (1-1), finishing with eight strikeouts. He had two outs in the fifth before the Nationals (18-23) produced four consecutive hits and scored two runs. López has pitched effectively into the fifth in eight of his nine starts but has given up as many runs as he has recorded outs, 13, in that inning for a 27.00 ERA.
“As a pitcher, you just want to go as far as you can,” López said.
The Orioles (17-27) had a chance to score in the fifth when Strasburg walked Galvis to lead off the inning and catcher Chance Sisco with two outs. Since the designated hitter isn’t used in National League parks, López batted, though manager Brandon Hyde had Ryan Mountcastle and DJ Stewart available to pinch-hit.
“Not much of a decision the way our bullpen was tonight,” Hyde said. After a five-out start from Matt Harvey on Tuesday and just three innings from Dean Kremer on Thursday, the Orioles’ bullpen was exhausted.
“He’s got four shutout innings,” Hyde said. “I know he’s had trouble in the middle part of the game. I’m trying to push him there. We didn’t have many innings from the bullpen tonight. He needed to go back out.”
López allowed two runs on seven hits in five innings.
“I thought he had really good stuff in the fifth. I wanted him to go back out for the sixth,” Hyde said. “I thought the pitch selection was questionable.
“He gave up two runs in five innings to the Washington Nationals. He kept us in the game. We just didn’t score.”
Tyler Wells allowed a run in two innings, and Shawn Armstrong a run in the eighth.
Trailing 2-0 in the sixth, Austin Hays walked against Strasburg, and he was replaced by Kyle Finnegan, who allowed a double to right by Trey Mancini.
Juan Soto’s throw overshot second baseman Josh Harrison, and Hays, who was given the stop sign by third base coach Tony Mansolino, decided to try to score.
First baseman Josh Bell quickly retrieved the ball, threw home, and Hays was out.
“Initially I did not see Bell, so when I saw the ball go over the cutoff guy’s head, it looked like it was rolling through the infield,” Hays said. “That was my initial read, so I took off to score, thinking that was a loose ball. I was about halfway down the line when I saw Bell field it, and I realized it was a bad read at that point.
“That was a judgment call on my part, and obviously we’ve got Santander coming up. We would have had runners on second and third, and that’s our big power guy in the lineup. I wish I could have that one back, but it’s a bad initial read.”
Santander, who went 1-for-4 in his first game since April 20th, struck out to end the sixth. He’d missed more than a month because of a sprained left ankle.
After Wells allowed a run in the sixth on Soto’s RBI single, the Orioles trailed, 3-0.
Wander Suero and Daniel Hudson retired the Orioles quickly in the seventh and eighth, and Armstrong gave up an RBI single to Bell in the bottom of the eighth. Bell had three hits.
The Orioles trailed, 4-0, heading to the ninth. Hays led off with a fly to center. Mancini doubled and, after Santander grounded to third, Galvis hit his sixth home run of the season.
“It’s really challenging,” Hyde said. “We didn’t score until the ninth.”
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jeez, this season is really getting ugly. Losing 11 out of 13. it could be a long summer.
Can the Orioles please learn how to complete doubleplays! Geez they are the most inept. ml. Team to be able to do so
Damn did Means really have to pitch that no-hitter? O's haven't been the same since. Can't argue Hyde's not pinch-hitting for Lopez or even Hays' for his scoring attempt. Hyde knows the bullpen is shot and Lopez was spot on. That's Hays' style. Should he have held up?--probably,but the team was desperate for runs(can't depend on the "next guy up"). Watching the young International stars in the TB/Tor game and the young Dominican/PR call-ups explode in the Mets/Mia game has me yearning for the day the O's will have that "flair"( can I say that?)on their team. Amazing how Franco has become a light hitting defensive whiz at 3B. Who woulda figured? Looking forward to Zimmerman today. Come on Bruce-we need that shot in the arm. Where/when does Mountcastle play this weekend? Better yet--who sits?
When we get good pitching we don’t hit and when we hit we don’t pitch. How much longer are they gonna run out Armstrong and Lakins. Which one of them are getting dfa when Harvey comes back.
How long till galvis and Franco get traded? Although we prob couldn’t give Franco away at this point. What’s going on with Mountcastle? He seems lost at the plate this year so far. Hopefully heat up at some point. Who else will be on the trading blocs? Santander? Severino? Mancini? Gulp.
Once we dump Means and Mancini for 132 teenagers, The Plan will really be working. Think 2525!
Hey fellas ... buck up ... remember all those really smart guys around here that really understand the game tell us that "it's a process". Just wait until '23! But in the mean time, make sure you buy those $10 beers.
It is a process… no one had them contending this year. They were picked to finish dead last in the American League. The farm system is stronger than its ever been as it’s ranked as high as 5th according to some. The beers are $8-10 in the minors too. So you can buy them there if you want to see the baby birds.
Oooooohhh...,,I see ..... it's a process. Thanks for clearing that up. So just accept being the biggest losers in the league?
Now let me explain my perspective, being the senile old fart that I am. I'm sorry, but I wasn't raised during, and I didn't play when everybody got a trophy no matter how big a loser they were. There is absolutely no reason to totally ignore the mother club just to build for the future. That's also a process. It's called trying your best while also building for the future! The current management's "process" stinks to high heaven. It's without dignity, scruples or pride.
And no, the farm system isn't the strongest it's ever been. The O's used to win Pennants and Series while they had THE best system in the league.
Last I checked the commissioner only hands out one trophy at the end of the season. And I guess you know better than all the baseball experts that rank the farm systems, my apologies.
No my bad ... I'm sorry. Y'all have your way of thinking about the rebuild, and I should simply respect that. I really, really think there's a generational divide when it comes to accepting the process that Elias has laid out.
Again, my apologies, I shouldn't have come across so personal. You've been nothing but respectful since showing up here this year.
To paraphrase a line from Crash Davis, "I've been known to occasionally howl at the moon."
Boog that is my one biggest fear-- that in 2023(maybe even 2024) we'll still be saying--"but it's a rebuild,trust the process".
How many 10 dollar beers have you bought ?
When I make a game, it's usually a couple or three.
Well played BRR. Always enjoy the back and forth. We all want the best for the birds. Just hope Elias can get us there.
BS: He probably can--if we all live long enough and the Birds are not sold to a group who doesn't like Elias.
As I have noted before, operating as the "smartest guy in the room" is not sustainable, with or without a process. Dan Duquette found that out and so will Elias.
What do you want Elias to do? You want him to call up every top prospect and rush them to the big league? That’s why we are in a rebuild. We did that for way to long. You want him to go out and sign every thirty million dollar player at every position.
No, don't buy every thirty million dollar player. But a couple of 3 or 6 million dollar pitchers wouldn't hurt. It's called the price of doing business in the major leagues.
To answer your question, I'd like Elias to at least TRY to win a few games this year and not worry about his draft position.
I think we’d all like to see the orioles win. As far as signing pitchers why do that we have several prospects in Kremer and Zimmerman. We tried to sign mid tier pitchers like Andrew Cashner and Yovani Gallardo and how did that turn out. Gallardo was so bad we had to eat his contract for Seth Smith.
Yes I think we'd all like to see the Orioles win...all except Elias anyway. He doesn't seem to give a damn. Unfortunately, he's the only one that really counts.
Cashner and Gallardo ... At least they tried with those guys.
Prospects .... True, I have hope for Kremer and Zimmerman, but it takes more than 5 to form a starting staff. And guys like Aiken & Lowther? I think if they had any real possibilities, we'd have seen them brought up much sooner than they were. As far as signing a couple ...I'm not even talking mid tier. Just a couple of serviceable low end would suffice. Something better than Lopez, Aiken, Lowther and now even Matt Harvey is starting to look like the pitcher nobody wanted before the season started. I wonder what Bartolo Colon is doing these days?
Hays is a terrible base runner. He ran through a stop sign. (try it in a car, terrible things DO happen). Hyde should fine him! Hyde is weak. My beloved O’s are struggling and we all suffer.
He's no Manny Machado for sure ...
We have hit a rough stretch, but we are assisting this by playing poorly, ignoring coaches and taking unnecessary chances; what was the pay off Hayes scores so what we are still behind. He gets thrown out and the opportunity for a big inning was taken away.
I clearly seen the coach giving the stop sign, the excuse of “I saw the over throw” is weak we have aThird Base coach who sees the field. I know that I am old school but back in the day Frank the Judge Robinson would have fined Hayes.
The bullpen is over worked but as one of the commentator’s said if your bullpen is over worked with a 14 man staff you have problems. Seems almost like we have taken a step back this year.
We aren’t a good team yet but we need to play smart sound baseball
I agree that we are not playing smart fundamental baseball. That falls on Hyde and the coaching staff. How many times have we noticed bad base running mistakes and Hyde always has an excuse for the player making the mistake. Tough team to watch this year.
Brandish to AAA and Baumann to AA. Wouldn’t be surprised to see both on Os by September.
Rich, is Chris Holt still on personal leave. Seems the pitching has deteriorated since he has been gone.
Yes, Phil, Holt remains on personal leave.
If I remember it took from 1954 to 1964 before the Orioles got close to competitive. Yes the Orioles have the no 5 system in baseball and that is with a positively atrocious triple a team . Come on folks everybody wants to win but it takes time look at Rutchman he is trying to jump from college to AA ball I don’t care who you are going from college breaking balls to almost major league ready breaking balls is one heck of a jump . For 10 years they’ve sent money down the toilet for guys like Jimenez, Gallardo, Cobb that’s a total of about 80 million for about 20 wins total. Everybody in Baltimore screamed sign Davis . Well they did and he dropped off faster than the computers said he would .
So far of all the guys struggling Akin is the most predictable Means and Zimmerman work at their craft year round going to places like DriveLine to improve mechanics and velocity. Akin by his own admission goes home to Michigan he should be riding the busses till he gets the fact in the modern game it’s 12 months a year and that goes for the entire roster . Free agents you can’t control but draft choices making minimum oh yeah your working your ass off or you ain’t sniffing the minors and THAT is what Elias needs to stay on top of .
There used to be an expression called “taking one for the team”, meaning a pitcher went out to the mound before his first pitch was even thrown knowing he was gonna pitch at least 7 innings. Did I miss something, is that against the rules of MLB now? It might have short term pain but sometimes the guys can actually learn something by being left out there and taking some lumps. It may even help in the long run. It will certainly help the bullpen.
You are correct, this could be incorporated especially those games we lose control of early.
Or the long reliever knows he will be out there until the 7th or 8th….Pitching has struggled since Coach Holt took off, hope he is back soon
Ben McDonald says all the time to let the pitchers work through their troubles.
What could Genius1 get in return for a package of Lopez and Armstrong.
Some Cheetos
That probably is better then they counted on so they should grab it.
30 comments & a lot of bitch, moaning & complaining, I’m with ALL of you, I’m getting older & a WS is looking further away every day, honestly & I am quite sure people will LTAO when I say I’m sick of it, I like reading people of the same thought process, again peanut gallery laughter, it’s just old, we’ll lose fans, my wife & I were gonna go to B-More & catch a couple games, not sure we will, may look at some minor league stuff, since that’s what Mikey is interested in, peace out...go O’s...
As you might expect from a newbie around here, I have nothing compelling to say on this topic of losing, except that losing begats losing, and griping always comes easy in life. I get it.
We all have our solutions for improving the team and our scape goats to blame things on. It’s a place to share opinions. Check.
A bit of winning will go a long way in terms of infusing some enthusiasm around this joint.
It was Churchill who said “When you’re going through hell - keep going”.
Stiff upper lip, mates.
Funny you say that. My cousin and I go to games every year, we actually used to have a 13 game season tix plan, but we’ve decided we’d rather go to Bowie and watch the Baysox. So next Sunday, the 30th we’re headed to Bowie for the first time ever. I admit I love the atmosphere of minor league ball tho so I usually go to a couple Hbg. Senators games but I have no desire to go to OPACY right now.
Gruber, I live in Camp Hill Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. Send me an email if you know when you’re coming for a game, maybe we’ll meet up there. In the subject line, say “Orioles fan in Harrisburg”, so I know I should not delete the email. I get a lot of spam junk. There are other people who have chatted here who might come along. -MLB. oriole9826@aol.com
I get it, I’d always heard Churchill said “When you’re going through hell, go like you own the place”, thx Iceterus & go O’s...
mlbbirdfan, it truly is a small world. I live in Shiremanstown, you know, the town that’s so tiny we share our zip code with Camp Hill. I definitely planned on going to the island to see Hbg. play Bowie until I saw that it’s the final home series of the season and in September. I’m assuming by then the guys I want to see play, Rutschman and hopefully Hall, might be with the big club. I’ll definitely keep you in mind if that time rolls around and they’re still playing for Bowie.
Gruber: Harrisburg at Bowie May 25-30. I cannot make it, but thought it might interest you.
In going on the 30th.
Gruber, will you see Rodriguez or Hall? I hope so!
Looking ahead, I wonder what, if anything, will be left for us to complain about by the time we hit the 100 loss mark. Can't see how we will have an above .500 team until 2024 and a bona fide first place contender until 2025. As of yesterday, the Norfolk affiliate was tied for the worst record in the AAA-east league of 20 teams. The promising talent at AA and A should need at least three more years of experience to become polished major leaguers. Even 2025 becomes problematic if the team brain trust decides to trade Mr. Means in coming weeks. Who would want to swear that ownership will be willing to pay for the big bucks contract that would seem to be awaiting him when he becomes a free agent next year? For those of you who insist on being short-term optimists, you can cling to what Rich quoted Elias as saying a few days ago: he recognizes there are some holes to fill on the roster. So he promised to keep his eye on other teams' rejects via the waiver wire and DFA'd players. He said he would also consider trades (Means, Mancini, etc.?). That's why he earns the big bucks.
Steve, Means won’t be a free agent until after the 2024 season.
My bad. Isn't he eligible for salary arbitration after this year? If so, doesn't that prospect instill fear in an ultra-thrifty ownership/management enamored with teenage minor leaguers with low salaries?
Yes, he's eligible for arbitration. It's awfully hard to find starters as good as Means, and I think they know that.
Rich: Who is "they"? Other teams? Or do you mean the O's ownership/GM? If so, are you confident that they care so much about winning now, that they will give Means the big salary boost needed to retain him? Do you think that concern for adverse fan reaction would make them reject the notion of trading him to a contender for the inevitable platter of cheap farmhands? I, for one, think they are unlikely to be able to resist an "attractive" offer.
Steve, Means is now a legitimate No. 1 pitcher. In order to trade at the deadline or during the winter, a team would have to overwhelm them with high-level prospects, major league ready, and there aren’t many teams that have such assets.
The Orioles have an asset who’s under team control for 3 1/2 years, and teams kill for pitchers like Means.
This isn’t Dylan Bundy, a decent pitcher with two years of team control, but now one of the best in baseball, and he’ll still be relatively cheap for 2022.
Vegas was right the O's are the worst team in Baseball- no reason to go to Camden Yards.It's like Elias is stealing our money
All started when resting Means ruined the bullpen
Plutko looking like Plutko...go O’s...
So far tonight we have more hits than the previous two games
I always said analytics won’t help players and coaches that have no talent.
At least they didn't quit tonight.
BRR, There was no point in quitting. Elias had rented out the team bus until 11 o'clock to a graduation celebration. Gotta make money where you can.
The total salary combined for the Orioles entire 14 man pitching staff is a paltry $9 million ... 12 of the 14 pitchers are at, or only a few thousand dollars above, the MLB minimum salary ... you get what you pay for (usually).
While most MLB fans are eating out at nice steakhouses or (my fav) really good Italian restaurants, and others are still eating at Friendly’s or Perkins or Cracker Barrel, we O’s fans are eating fast food and using coupons.
that's what I meant by saying Elias is taking fans money, while he fails to pay for even mediocre major League talent! Iglesias is better than mediocre and didn't have a outrageous salary arbitration amount.Too expensive for Elias. .Iglesias would of helped these O's alot
a good proportion of present O's fans me included will be dead before the O's are good again
You do realize Elias doesn’t own the team. He is merely the General Manager. The money for salaries do not come out of his pocket. He can only spend what ownership allows him to spend
ClayDal, of course you are correct that Elias does not own the team but as I was reminded this week when he took over he was given carte blanche to make up the roster. I believe it would’ve been his decision to trade Iglesias. I’m also sure it would’ve been his decision to non tender Alberto a contract. Listen, I want him to succeed, hell, we all do I’m sure, but it just seems to me that he’s too worried about the minors at the expense of fielding any semblance of a respectable team in Baltimore right now. Look no further than the White Sox for a team that has turned things around completely in the time frame that is not different from the O’s.
It was also Elias’s decision to sign Iglesias. And pick up his option. If they didn’t want to pay Iglesias they wouldn’t have picked up his option or sign him in the first place. They traded him because he was a pending free agent and they got what they thought was a fair package from the Angels. Galvis vs Iglesias is basically a draw. As for Alberto, he wasn’t worth 2.5 million in arbitration. He’s only hitting.241 for KC. With no walks.
That .241 was sub .200 a few weeks back. He's starting to hit.
Galvis for some reason is unable to turn simple double plays almost none fromthe first base side of the infield and Iglesias is a MUCH better hitter than Galvis is look atlifetime stats. Dispite having way more traffic on bases than most teams Orioles dead last in Dps.
So thank you for proving my point that Elias is the one deciding who’s on the roster of this really, really bad team. I say again tho, I do want him to be successful, but this “process” is far too painful for many of us to watch.
Clay, when he resigned Iglesias it was to trade, he had zero intention of keeping him, wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that conversation didn’t come up during the process...go O’s...