If I had asked you this morning to name the only team in Major League Baseball that hadn’t yet been shut out this season, how many guesses would it have taken you to arrive at the Orioles? For me it would have been 30. This offense has had so many pitiful, uncompetitive performances this season that surely they’d been blanked at least a couple of times, right?
But somehow, no. Through their first 75 games of the year, the O’s had always put at least one run on the board. That streak ended today when
Bryan Woo and two Mariners relievers shut them out to cap a 3-0 Seattle win in the rubber game of the series.
When I tell you this O’s offense stunk tonight, hoo boy, I am not exaggerating. They struck out 11 times and had only six baserunners. In more than half their innings, they didn’t put anyone on base at all. And in the few occasions when they had ducks on the pond, they squandered each one, going 0-for-5 with men in scoring position. It was the second time in this three-game series that Orioles hitters essentially took the day off.
All you need to know about this paltry effort is that the top of the Orioles’ lineup was a combined 0-for-18 with eight strikeouts. Not going to win many games that way! The guys who have been the Birds’ best hitters this year — plus Gunnar Henderson, who inexplicably is still batting in the #2 spot, three months into his lost season — couldn’t get anything going, and the O’s were doomed to failure.
Bryan Woo, the same pitcher the Orioles bashed for seven runs just a week ago, was magnificent, working seven scoreless innings and fanning nine. He allowed only three hits, a Jackson Holliday double and singles by Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. Woo’s home/away splits are extreme — he entered the game with a 2.37 ERA in Seattle as opposed to 5.93 on the road — and the Orioles got a first-hand look at his brilliance at T-Mobile Park.
Meanwhile, poor Shane Baz delivered one of his best outings as an Oriole, going seven strong innings, but all it took was one bad inning to doom him to defeat. In this case it was his first one, as the Mariners ambushed him with a three-run rally to open the game. It all happened after Baz retired the first two batters of the inning, and in typical Orioles fashion, some lousy defense was involved. Josh Naylor roped a shot to right-center field and would’ve been content to stop at first with a single, but Taveras foolishly tried to field the ball with his bare hand instead of his glove, letting it roll past him to the wall. Naylor ended up at second on the error. Yeesh. The extra base didn’t matter because Baz walked the next batter anyway, but what was that, Leody?
Baz just could not find that final out. Cole Young laced a sharp double down the left-field line to plate Naylor, and Colt Emerson lined a single to right that brought home two more. Baz finally got out of the inning on an ABS-aided strike three to Mitch Garver, but the Orioles were quickly in a 3-0 hole. Little did they know that would be the final score eight innings later.
Baz made a great recovery after that rocky first, firing six straight scoreless innings. The Mariners threatened in the second by putting the first two runners on base, but Baz dispatched the next three batters, and he never faced another real jam after that. Emerson, on a two-out walk in the third, was the last batter to reach base. Baz mowed down the final 13 batters he faced, finishing his day on a stupendous note. Baz worked seven innings for the fourth time this year and delivered his sixth quality start. It’s the kind of outing that could earn a pitcher a victory if he had any kind of competent offense supporting him.
Sadly, he did not. The O’s offense continued to fail once the Mariners’ bullpen came in, stranding two runners on base in both the eighth and ninth. The eighth was particularly embarrassing, with the Orioles putting the first two batters of the inning on base to chase Woo from the game, only for Eduard Bazardo to retire Blaze Alexander, Holliday, and Taylor Ward in quick succession.
In the ninth, the Mariners turned to embattled closer Andrés Muñoz, who has struggled against every team that isn’t the Orioles. Muñoz walked Henderson and Samuel Basallo to bring the possible tying run to the plate with two down, but easily whiffed Taveras to finish the shutout. Muñoz is now 3-for-3 in save opportunities against the Orioles this year. He’s 9-for-14 against the rest of MLB.
There you have it. In a tidy 2 hours and 15 minutes, the Orioles limped away from a winnable series in Seattle by dropping two of three. Next up: the Dodgers. I’m not looking forward to it.
