Franco breaks up no-hit bid in 8th as Orioles lose to Astros; Pitchers checked by umpires for foreign substances

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• Sceroler, 14+ era, & why is he still here, might not be a popular statement but Tate out of the bullpen has let 4 runs score on hits WHILE lowering his era to about 4.00, isn’t his job to shut down offenses out of the pen, realize he’s not allowing runs on HIS hits, but if I had runners on I wouldn’t want to see him coming in or following me into the game, realize he was hurt, maybe he still is...go O’s...

  • Sceroler and Lakins I mentioned the other day would not be on any other teams roster. Lopez and Harvey would not start for any other team. Mikes rebuild with retreads and rule 5 is ugly

• Another game more crappy defense. Once again akin didn’t pitch terrible but the defense didn’t help him. Franco didn’t cut the ball off and allowed a runner to advance. Maybe akin gets a double play and is out of the inning. Are there really no better options then Lakins in triple a. I rather see a guy like Evan Phillips who has legit stuff maybe figure it out. I see people bashing Screoler but last night all his runs were unearned due to bad defense.

  • I see It's been touched upon already but seeing Lakins Sr(why the Sr btw?) and Scelorar in there is head scratching. Why/how does Lakins always wiggle his way back after a demotion? Quality arms are awful at AAA. Every team seems to bring these Domican/Venezuelan hurlers in who are lights out but these re-tread overweight pitchers(are Akins/ Lakins the same guy?) from Norfolk. My God. The International talent can't come fast enough for me.

    • Like I said Lakins is just as bad as some of the others. I rather see Phillips or Cody Carroll can get the job done.

  • Again, we just got outplayed. We run into a good club, and we are silenced yet again. Odorizzi has a great track record, but hasn’t quite been himself this year. He was on last night, in the rain, mind you.
    You know; that old “good pitching silences good hitting” adage.
    If we had some decent fundamentally sound defense, maybe we’d be more competitive. The lack of it has become expected. When our offense and defense does click, we see an exciting team. I know things will improve, but the same old sloppiness Is causing us to beat ourselves.
    And tonight it’s a 7-2 Greinke.
    We’ll see whether the TSA, er, I mean umpire glove/hat inspections help reduce the pitching advantage.

    • There the better team obviously. But I think if we limited our miscues our pitchers would do better and keep us in the game. That inning got away from Akin after Franco didn’t cut the ball off. I know it’s not an error but it creates different situations. Let’s say Franco cuts that ball of maybe Akin can get a double play. Scroeler had an error made behind him. I didn’t see that error as I wasn’t watching but it’s things like that make us a far worse team. Thing is it’s always the same guys making the errors. We does Hyde or even Elias start to hold these guys accountable for there screwups?

• Jeepers....I wonder what the team ERA would be this year without the aid of foreign substances?

  • Watch how you talk about foreigners...go O’s...

    • :)

  • I thought the same thing Boog. Teams like Bpst,NYY,LAD,Houst will go unscathed while Balt,etc will suffer and be punished. Fry showed signs Sat of having difficulty weaning off. Of course there's no proof to that but ya never know. Akin last night was struggling with his grip. HBP counts will sharply rise now leading to "another" investigation. MLB shouldve left it alone--so we had a few too many no,-hitters.

    • Wanna fix this particular problem? I've said it many times here before, call the strikezone as it's written in the rule book. Allow the high strike and things will balance themselves out.

      • The best thing MLB can do is let the computer call balls and strikes. Humans are incapable and have been for over 100 years. The technology is there......USE IT! Also the "bullpen" is non existant. There is no one out there that can make another MLB pen.

  • Orial, there’s a bigger picture here. We’re on a pace for a record number of hit by pitches because of the velocity. Do you want to see Trey Mancini get hit again?

    The game is out of whack, too many strikeouts and walks.

    This is an attempt to make the game more watchable because it’s become too pitcher/centric.

    Good pitchers will adapt. Bad pitchers won’t.

  • Rich, how was this dealt with in the past? Pitchers in the past threw hard, too. I have no clue about how many batters were being hit “back in the day”, but aside from lowering the mound to create a more “balanced” game, what was done at that point to even out the statistics?

    Plus, if part of the equation is to reduce amounts of HBP, why decrease the grip on the ball by enforcing such inspections? Doesn’t better grip = better control?

    Is the rosin bag no longer effective enough grip?

    I’m not playing devils advocate or being intentionally obtuse, I’d really like to know.

  • Marty, there is more emphasis on speed now. Pitchers who thrived on cunning in the past, like Greg Maddux, would be shunned now.

    More speed equals less control, more wild pitches, more hit batters.

    Besides lowering the mound in 1969, four teams were added, diluting pitching. And yes, the strike zone was altered.

    Pitchers believe other substances are superior to the rosin bag.

  • Interesting. Thanks Rich

• First, checking O's pitchers for cheating is just adding insult to injury. To Rich's point about the game being out of whack because of so few balls in play because of increased walks, strikeouts, hit batters, and --dare I say?-- home runs. My own hobby horse here is the strike zone. I don't know if it was accurate, but as a child I learned that the strike zone was from the knees to the shoulders. The knee standard doesn't seem to have changed, but the shoulders became the armpits became the letters became the belt, as I recall things. A full strike zone --where the ball is reasonably hittable-- does not require the pitcher to rocket the ball through a keyhole. He can be effective by moving the ball and changing speeds. If the batter has to cover a larger area, he can't just swing madly along a single plane, where "It's a home run or nothing on Home Run Derby." It may as well be tee ball, with Lucy pulling the ball off the tee half the time. How long has it been since we've heard talk of "covering the plate" or "defending the strike zone"? It may seem that a full strike zone is just a boon to pitchers, something we do not want; I think batters will adjust, control and maybe cut down on their swings, and put more balls in play. Maybe even a return to the bottle bat.

  • Hear hear !! (or is is here here?) Either way ... spot on Will'M.

  • Batters aren’t being paid to hit singles. In fact, some teams prefer walks to singles because more pitches are thrown.

    I believed for a long time that hitters would adapt and limit the use of the shift. They haven’t because they’re paid to drive the ball.

    Saturday’s game with the Orioles hitting six home runs and scoring seven runs was the antithesis of what good baseball is.

    I would like to think your solution would work, but because young players are consumed with the long ball, too, I don’t see it changing. I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.

    • Rich, I agree that it's frustrating to watch so many players who refuse to hit to the opposite field and/or bunt against the shift ... certainly one of the most egregious cases has been our own Chris Davis ... over three seasons from 2017 - 2019, while batting a woeful .188, Davis stubbornly refused to try to hit/bunt against the shift.

    • Hey Rich - "Batters aren’t being paid to hit singles." and "they’re paid to drive the ball" - Well maybe that's the issue right there. Maybe they should be for the first quote and not so much for the second! And change the "On Base Percentage" to the real term here! Homers are technically counted here as hits when the destination is really Home "Plate" which technically isn't a "base". Base (no pun intended) "being paid" with the real deal "On Base" percentage with minus the homers for this statistic and you'll see things gradually change.

      And what willmiranda stated regarding the "strike zone" being lowered to the "belt" buckle so hitters are protected from being beamed in the head/shoulder area - which is a good thing but pitchers had a shrunken strike zone which wasn't fair to them. So make Home Plate bigger and move the batters box further away from home plate So, when Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine pitched those outside balls called strikes well now they are legit, And as far as hitters are concerned use a longer bat to protect the strike zone instead of standing and leaning over the plate and it won't be the issue any more. No more crowding the plate because hitters are further away and strikes are called from the belt to the knees. Way less hit by pitches - good for the hitter. No more delays because of it with bench clearing issues - good for the game. And pitchers have a bigger strike zone because it's wider - and good for them also! Everyone wins a little.

      And one last thing after all that - use the automated strike zone to call balls and strikes. No more trigger happy umps just waiting to throw hitters out and costing suspensions which also costs players $$. Has anyone noticed - no more long arguments by managers and umpires, eventually getting managers tossed which costs them $$ since the replay came into play on the use of it. There's a reason for that! No more perfect games being missed because a 1st base umpire blew the call calling the hitter/runner safe when he was out and then apologizing the next day in tears. And have every home plate umpire carry a tablet or notebook regarding the strike zone so when a player might question a pitch called a strike - they can show it now because it's right there in black and white so no more arguments! Balls in the box or touching the box borders are a strike. Period. Levels the playing field where home teams or the better teams seem to get all the calls. No more Roberto "Robby" Alomar blowups either because an ump calls a strike in the other batters box BS! And no more this umpire has this strike zone and that umpire has that BS!

  • Rules haven’t changed regarding foreign substances on the ball, now they decide to enforce it, ok, so let’s also enforce the strike zone as it’s defined, if the umps don’t want to call it get rid of them, pretty sure they could find some that are competent...go O’s...

  • Follow the money. I’m accepting the fact that the money is apparently in the home run, not hitting ‘em where they ain’t (unless that’s in the bleachers), going opposite field, bunting or intentionally beating the shift.
    It’s in the 100 mph fastball, not the crafty hit -your -spot off speed type pitcher.
    Comply or die, I suppose.
    In the meantime, I’ll tune in to watch my birds!

• The picture leading off today's article of Austin Hays quizzically looking at his bat has me wondering what's up with the all the players obsession of having to smell thier bats after foul balls? I know it's all about the 'burn' and all, but really? I find it kind of ooogy, in a Mary Katerine Gallagher kind of way.

• Sceroler DFA'd Jannis contract selected...

  • Mickey Jannis being added to the roster is HUGE news. The 'process' is swinging into high gear. Optimistic fans should soon be saying to us pessimists "we told you so." I, for one, would not demean MJ's resume. He's 33, 12 years laboring in the low minors, the equivalent of about one full season of AAA ball over this period, and ZERO MLB experience. Maybe his low ERA at Norfolk this year means he has finally found his groove. If not, he should fit right in with our rickety pitching staff, and a return to the old Oriole Way will be further delayed.

  • At 33 he effects our young age avg...oh nooo...go O’s...