Jun 27, 2021; Buffalo, New York, CAN; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jorge Lopez (48) leaves the game during the fifth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Sahlen Field. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
Shortstop Freddy Galvis was placed on the injured list before the game. His strained right quadriceps muscle will sideline him for at least a month, perhaps two. Centerfielder Cedric Mullins and first baseman Trey Mancini weren’t in the starting lineup. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde started a lineup that included three players recalled before the game — second baseman Domingo Leyba, shortstop Ramón Urias and centerfielder Ryan McKenna.
With this patchwork lineup, the Orioles were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and lost for the third time in four games to the Toronto Blue Jays at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, 5-2.
The loss was the Orioles’ 16th in their past 18 games. They’ve lost five straight series and are now 30 games under .500 at 24-54.
Jorge López (2-10) allowed five runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Ryan Mountcastle’s first-inning home run against Ross Stripling (3-4) gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.
It was Mountcastle’s seventh home run in June. At the beginning of the month, his average was .226. It’s now .264.
“It’s been a little rough patch here,” Mountcastle said in an understatement. “It feels good, trying to get some good pitches to hit, and I’m pretty good with that.”
Toronto (40-36) tied it at 1 in the second when Teoscar Hernández scored on Randal Grichuk’s double play.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who homered in the first three games of the series, hit a two-run double to put the Blue Jays ahead 3-1 in the third.
Urías hit an RBI double in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Orioles could have had more. Austin Wynns grounded out to first, and McKenna had an infield single. Anthony Santander was called out on strikes, and Mountcastle grounded into a force play.
Cavan Biggio’s two-run double in the bottom of the fifth gave Toronto a 5-2 lead.
“Only giving up five runs with the way the wind was, blowing straight out to left field, you expect this would be more of a high-scoring game,” Hyde said.
“Every day is a hard day to pitch,” López said. “Today, you’ve got a lot of wind. Today, I was taking more time on every pitch.”
Hyde complained about the strike zone of home plate umpire Bruck Dreckman, believing it cost López.
“That hurt him,” Hyde said. “He did his best to keep us in it, trying to push some of our starters to go a little deeper because we need to survive this. Our bullpen guys helped out. He just couldn’t quite get through five today.”
In the sixth, DJ Stewart and Austin Hays began the inning with singles. Hays’ single hit off the left-field wall, but he was unable to make it to second. Patrick Murphy replaced Stripling, who worked five-plus innings, allowing two runs on six hits.
Leyba struck out and Maikel Franco hit into a double play.
In the seventh, Wynns and McKenna singled with one out. Both runners moved up on Santander’s grounder to third. Mountcastle walked to load the bases and, with left-hander Tim Mayza on the mound, Mancini pinch-hit for Stewart. He tapped the ball back to Mayza to end the inning.
“We didn’t get the big hit today,” Hyde said, something he has had to say often. “I thought we took some good at-bats … We did have opportunities. We didn’t cash in.”
Anthony Castro struck out Hays, Leyba and Franco in the eighth. Jordan Romano pitched a spotless ninth for his sixth save. Mullins pinch hit for Wynns, and he popped out for the second out in the ninth.
Dillon Tate pitched the seventh and eighth and retired all six batters he faced, striking out five. It was the Orioles’ most impressive performance of the day.
“A lot of really bad swings,” Hyde said. “Worked ahead in the count. His pitches were down in the strike zone.”
Notes: Mickey Jannis, the knuckleball pitcher who was designated for assignment on Friday, has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk. … The Orioles begin a three-game series in Houston on Monday night. Thomas Eshelman (0-1, 7.27 ERA) will face Zack Greinke (8-2, 3.56). The Orioles haven’t decided on a pitcher for Tuesday night. Houston has scheduled José Urquidy (6-3, 3.32). On Wednesday, Matt Harvey (3-9, 7.54) will face Luis Garcia (6-4, 2.83).
Mullins an All-Star finalist: Cedric Mullins finished seventh in voting among American League outfielders in the first phase of voting for the All-Star Game. The first nine outfielders advance to the second phase of voting, which begins Monday at noon and runs until Thursday at 4 p.m.
Trey Mancini, who will participate in the home run derby on July 12th at Denver’s Coors Field, was sixth in voting for first basemen, and Freddy Galvis finished 10th among shortstops.
Minor Matters: Leftfielder Seth Mejias-Brean hit a three-run home run to lead Triple-A Norfolk to a 4-2 win over Gwinnett.
Evan Phillips (1-0), Shawn Armstrong, Manny Barreda and Dusten Knight combined to 4 1/3 shutout innings in relief, allowing two hits.
Third baseman Patrick Dorrian had three hits, drove in three runs on a two-run homer and a double to lead Double-A Bowie over New Hampshire, 8-2
Dorrian has 10 home runs. Designated hitter Toby Welk also homered. Shortstop Cadyn Grenier and leftfielder Robert Neustron each had two hits.
Ofelky Peralta (4-0) allowed a run on two hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Gunnar Henderson continues to look for his first hit with High-A Aberdeen. Since his promotion from Delmarva on Tuesday, Henderson who played third in the IronBirds’ 8-4 loss to Rome is 0-for-14.
Jake Prizina started and allowed just an unearned run on three hits in five innings. Jonathan Pendergast (0-1) allowed three runs in the eighth inning.
Rightfielder Cristopher Cespedes homered, designated hitter Ryne Ogren and shortstop Jean Carmona drove in two to lead Low-A Delmarva past Fredericksburg, 8-3
Zach Peek allowed one run on three hits in four innings, striking out five. Houston Roth (2-1) pitched the final four innings, giving up a run on two hits.
The Orioles’ two teams in the new Complex League, which was formerly known as the Gulf Coast League, begin play on Monday. Both are based at the Ed Smith Stadium complex in Sarasota. The affiliated teams are off on Monday.
Call for questions: I’ll be answering Orioles questions later this week. Please leave your questions in the comments below or email them: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.
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View Comments
Spot on about the ump costing Lopez, he was god awful...go O’s...
Ump didn't hurt Lopez in the fifth inning, if anything the ump helped Lopez with a questionable called 3rd strike for the 2nd out. Think Hyde should have gone to Wells a batter or two earlier, hindsight and all that, yup guilty. Lopez was up to 93 pitches after Hernandez's double, I know, I know, all pitchers should be able to throw 120+ pitches every fourth day without any reduction in performance as a game goes on because yeah well Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer did it darn it...When the umps are bad, it always just effects our team, I know, I know...
3rd inning was pathetic, did you even watch the game? If you did got nothing more to say, no analytics were needed to see how bad he was...not shocked though...go O’s...
We all have to admit, the most consistant people on the field are the plate umpires. They are consistantly awful. It's just not today's game but every game in every stadium. Do these guys ever watch the replay of the games to see how horrible the home plate unpiring is? The sadist thing is that MLB won't do anything about it.
MLB really needs someone critically evaluating them, lifetimers should have earned their spot every year, sick of the good old boys club in just about everything, I don’t care if they’re black, white, male, female, the best people for the jobs should have them, period...go O’s...
Ray, the umpires have a very strong union, and it’s extremely rare that one is fired. You can complain about them, but that’s the way it is. That's why I don't complain about bad umpiring because I know there isn't much that can be done about it.
Gary Thorne had a great point. He used to always say every crew had someone who’s better behind the plate than anyone else. Why not just pay that person more and let him be home plate umpire full time? I almost can’t watch a game when Angel Hernandez is behind home plate. I used to feel the same way about Eric Gregg back in the day, and don’t get me started on Steve Palermo. I felt terrible for him upon hearing he was shot trying to intervene during an altercation in Texas but man I used to think he’d do anything he could to see Weaver’s O’s lose.
Unions are good & bad, keeping sub-par people employed is pathetic, then I guess no one will complain anymore about the umps...lmao...go O’s...
I watched the game and definitely did notice an ever changing strike zone, particularly outside pitches. He seemed to be calling pitches on the outside strikes, actually. Lopez was getting good at picking up on that, and he was painting the outside edge, getting strike calls.
The ump was doing the same thing to the Jays.
Just keep it consistently inconsistent.
That’s all I ask.
Ok here we go the “new kids on the block” trades will happen soon, will have a whole new infield in a couple weeks. Let’s stay positive with our very young team. Stop whining bout umps and start cheering for the little things in each game that the kids have done. Go orioles
I agree that the ump was very inconsistent. I am a little shy when it comes to being to critical of the umps. One thing that hasn’t changed with baseball is the umps. They had some bad ones forever, part of the game! Be careful, MLB will want to change that next!! They are not perfect for sure. MLB has introduced so many things to the game over the past decade. It surely hasn’t helped game attendance or fan base. It America’s past time for a reason. I do miss the days of the mangers coming out and kicking the dirt on the umps!!
Diamondguy, I love that you said you miss the days of managers coming out and kicking dirt on the umps. Here I was thinking I was the only one that felt that way. To me that was as much a part of the game as pitching, hitting and fielding. As strange as this sounds, there was a certain charm to that. But alas, as with everything else in our changing society, you can’t OFFEND anyone anymore and I suppose the suits in MLB were being told what is and what is not too offensive. Bunch of wusses.
Kicking dirt....Priceless!
Where is Weaver, When you need him. He would have made these Umpires Cringe. Can you imagine, what he would have done, last night and speaking of changes, This placing someone on 2nd, in extra innings, Sucks!!! This is Major League Baseball, not Tee Ball! What We need, is a New Baseball Commissioner, among other things. They Have to Bring Baseball Back, WHEN it WAS a GAME!
Well done PC!!! I totally agree
Agree! Also he was the best dirt kicker ever in MLB. Agree also on "2nd base" ..........rediculous!
Let me change the subject for a second. Nice to see Mountcastle recognizing pitches and starting to work out base on balls BUT in the 7th when he did just that and being probably the best hitter right now it sure would have been nice to see him drive the ball with runners on 2nd,3rd. Needless to say they were left stranded. Ironic how we want them to be more selective when a "big" hit is what's really needed. I know,I know I'm nit-pickin again. How can we get game to game consistency out of Lopez?--the million dollar question.
I agree, Orial, that it would be nice to see Mounty drive the ball and drive in some runs in that situation. But only if he gets a good pitch to hit. Extending outside the strike zone to get a hit is a low percentage tactic for almost all hitters, and I don't think that he is one of the exceptions or quite accomplished enough yet to do it on occasion. Plus, the next hitter wasn't a slouch. I'm glad, as you are, to see the man show plate discipline, get on base, and keep the rally going. Besides, I think that's what Ted Williams would have done.
Weaver managing in this day and age? I would be all for it,but there’s no doubt he’d immediately offend everyone from fans to reporters to players, coaches, fans etc.
The first time he filleted a player, they would wilt and possibly never recover, and he would be shunned and regarded as a primitive.
I manage millennials in a blue collar industry and the approach has changed immeasurably over the last 20 years.
One must be sensitive and accommodating.
Not Weaver’s strong points.
Lopez = 2 and 10 5.85 ERA and IS STILL IN THE ROTATION! Elias give us a break
Best starter they have next to Means, they’re not going to play ANY of their projected good youngens, Mikey has a plan, just not sure what it is...lol...go O’s...