Orioles’ offense is no match for Giants’ Snell in 10-0 loss as Kimbrel allows career-high 6 runs
BALTIMORE–What happened? There are only 11 games left in the Orioles’ regular season, not much time to get their offense ready for the postseason.
The Orioles have tried many ways to get their offense moving, switched batting orders, given slumping players games off, and, on Tuesday night, they even tried ditching their usual walk-up songs.
Nothing worked as they were dominated by San Francisco Giants left-hander Blake Snell, who allowed only one hit in six innings and struck out 12 in a 10-0 Orioles loss, their eighth in 11 games. They now trail the New York Yankees, who routed the Seattle Mariners, by four games in the American League East. They’re 2 1/2 games ahead of the Kansas City Royals for the first wild-card spot.
Albert Suárez gave up four runs in 3 1/3 innings, and the Orioles’ onetime closer, Craig Kimbrel, gave up a career-high six runs while recording just two outs in an ugly ninth.
Before the game, executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias offered positive injury updates on first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, infielders Ramón Urias and Jordan Westburg and reliever Danny Coulombe, all of whom he expects to play before the end of the regular season. He’s also hoping for the return of starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez.
Elias expressed confidence that his players would turn things around, but there was no sign of that on Tuesday night.
How tough was Snell? It was just four days ago that the Orioles were nearly no-hit by the Detroit Tigers, who used an opener. Only Gunnar Henderson’s two-out triple in the ninth saved them from that humiliation.
Snell, though, is the real deal. The left-hander threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on August 2nd, and had no-hit stuff again on Tuesday. Emmanuel Rivera had the only hit against him, a second-inning single. The Orioles had four hits against Giants relievers.
Henderson struck out three times against Snell and popped out in the ninth.
“It’s not fun going through it,” he said. “I mean, feel like we’ve been talking about it for a while. Just trying to figure out a way to get through it.”
Henderson insists the Orioles will get their bats going.
“Of course. We’ve done it pretty much the first three-quarters of the year, and then, just kind of this last little bit has been kind of weird,” he said.
“We’ve just kind of been out of sync, it seems like. I mean, obviously, we know we’ve done it. There are new faces, but they’re all really awesome players. It’s kind of weird not being able to get through it, but I mean, just got to keep pushing. It’s eventually going to go our way at some point.”
Manager Brandon Hyde didn’t think his players were intimidated by Snell.
“No, I didn’t sense that at all going into the game,” he said. “I thought the energy was great in our clubhouse, like it normally is. Thought our guys were prepared. We had a really good hitters’ meeting. We just faced one of the better pitchers in the game, and we didn’t swing the bats well against him. We had a tough time tonight.”
How poorly has Kimbrel pitched? Kimbrel had never allowed more than four runs in a game, and Hyde thought he had little choice but to keep him in a game that he entered with the Orioles trailing by four runs. Kimbrel last pitched in the Orioles’ 12-3 loss to Boston on September 9th.
“I think as the inning got along and got tired, I didn’t want to use anybody else,” Hyde said. “I was hoping he could just get out of the inning, and unfortunately, there was some fatigue there at the end. The velo started getting down a little bit.
“Normally, he’s not out there for that long. In that type of game, I just didn’t want to use anybody else at that point, so I had to get [Matt] Bowman up. That wasn’t his normal stuff there at the end.”
Do you like the new music? The Orioles had new walk-up songs. Henderson, who came to bat to Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape,” switched to “Magic Stick” by Lil’ Kim.
“Figured just change something up a little bit, get everybody in kind of a funny mood,” Henderson said. “They’re all obviously not our picked walk-up songs, but it’s just kind of a team-picked thing. Hopefully, they’ll be good for us down the road. Didn’t show tonight but, yeah, hopefully, it will be kind of a mood change.
“Obviously, long term, that’s not going to be my walk-up. But just doing it for the team. We’re trying to switch up the mood. Just trying to do anything we can to win.”
Hyde did find some humor in the music shakeup.
“I knew that they were going to try to mix some things up a little bit,” he said. “But I wasn’t thinking about it going into the game until I heard the Macarena, I think. So, yeah, and then Gunnar’s song was different. They’re just trying. They know they’re grinding, and they’re trying to snap out of it a little bit and trying to make an adjustment.”
Elias on club shortcomings: Elias said he’s been mystified by the team’s poor performance in the second half of the season in which they’re three games under .500, have stopped hitting, aren’t playing crisp defense and have a struggling bullpen.
“Trade deadline in particular and the offseason and everything going into it, I was very fixated on pitching, pitching depth, pitching improvements,” Elias said.
“Going into the deadline, our rotation was scuffling. As it has turned out, we’ve had pitching injuries, but they’ve come way more on the position-player side in very unexpected ways. That’s been unfortunate. It’s just another humbling reminder of how baseball keeps you on your toes and keeps you guessing.
“But the primary focus of mine has been bringing in pitchers, starting pitchers, help on that front. And it’s turned out here that’s not necessarily been the crisis we were expecting in the second half, and we’ve been paying for it.
“Ultimately, I put the roster together, I put the staff together, I put the personnel together. And results in this business, whether it’s this year or other years, it starts right here with me. But that’s been, I think, our focus this year, and the testing of our depth and a lot of depth we’ve lost is not something I anticipated in this degree in the second half on the position-player side.”
Elias on the team’s slump: Elias is hoping that the Orioles’ young core can recapture the spark he’s seen from them before.
“A lot of it is we’ve got people here that are experiencing a downturn — whether it’s themselves or the team — for the first time together in this group as this context,” he said. “A lot of the people doing so are young and inexperienced. A lot of the people are pressing to make up for other people’s absences or their own slumps.
“Baseball is not kind to you when you try harder sometimes. Players can talk about it better than I can. It’s a game that can backfire on you when you get out of yourself. It’s been a difficult period, but I think we’re all sick of it and we’re ready to get it behind us. I really believe that we’re going to rally here down the stretch, kind of get our identity back, and hopeful that we’re able to put together a really good appearance in the playoffs.
“We’ve got to get there first. We’re in a position right now to get there. Hopefully … it starts this series, this homestand, and we’ll take it from there. But this is a group that has accomplished a lot together, up until very recently, and it certainly hasn’t shaken my belief in any of them.”
What’s the word? “We’re fighting every night, and I think we’ve got some fun in store for us if we can just keep the focus on a night-to-night basis, get some of these guys back healthy, get people back to their approaches, and I think it’s starting to happen.”-Elias on the team’s performance
What does it mean? The Orioles hope for an offensive revival on Wednesday. If there’s no revival in the season’s final days, October may be a very short month for them.
What’s the stat of the day? 6. In Kimbrel’s 2012 season, he allowed seven earned runs in 62 2/3 innings, one more than he allowed in 2/3rd of an inning on Tuesday night.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? Triple-A Norfolk’s game with Nashville was rained out. The teams will play a doubleheader on Wednesday.
What’s next? Dean Kremer (7-9, 4.10) will face Haysen Birdsong (3-5, 4.74) on Wednesday night at 6:35.
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