A whisker. An eyelash. The tiniest antenna on the tiniest fly. That’s the margin of difference that cost the Orioles their best chance to beat the Mariners in tonight’s series opener. A potential O’s comeback bid was ruined by an ABS-overturned call — and later, some baserunning stupidity — as the Birds fell to Seattle, 6-3.
Let’s set the scene. It was the bottom of the seventh inning and the Orioles trailed, 5-2, but they were primed to rally their way back into the game. Against recklessly wild
reliever Matt Brash, the O’s had already scored one run on a wild pitch, and they’d loaded the bases with just one out for Pete Alonso. One good swing could cut the Orioles’ deficit further. One great swing could give the Orioles the lead for themselves.
Brash had no command. He’d already thrown two pitches near the head of Taylor Ward, the second of which plunked him. He’d walked Gunnar Henderson. And he proceeded to fall behind Alonso 3-0, putting the O’s slugger in control of the at-bat. You couldn’t ask for a better run-scoring situation. Even the Orioles couldn’t blow this, right?
Yeah, uh…funny story. Alonso inexplicably hacked at a 3-0 pitch (which might have been in the strike zone, but that’s not the point, Pete) and fouled it off, then swung through a fastball for strike two. Then came the pivotal 3-2 pitch, a heater up. Alonso held off, plate ump Gabe Morales called ball four, and the O’s appeared to have a run-scoring, bases-loaded walk.
But: hold everything. Catcher Jhonny Pereda tapped his helmet for a challenge. As the ABS graphic popped up on the scoreboard, the Camden Yards crowd watched in horror as the teensiest, weensiest sliver of the animated ball, no bigger than Abraham Lincoln’s eye on the head of a penny, clipped the very top of the strike zone. The call was reversed. A bases-loaded walk had become a rally-crushing strikeout. Alonso, who had already made his way to first base, crumpled to his knees in disbelief.
Brutal. Just brutal. I’m as big a fan of anyone as the ABS system, but boy did it haunt the Orioles there. I guess you could argue that the pitch was too close to take, but it sure looked like a ball to me in real time, and to Alonso too. With the air totally deflated from the stadium, the O’s didn’t score, as Colton Cowser grounded out to leave ‘em loaded. The Mariners, against all odds, maintained their three-run lead.
Sadly, that wasn’t the only tremendously stupid way in which the Orioles squandered a late-inning rally. The very next inning — now down 6-2 after the M’s scored against Albert Suárez in the eighth — the O’s again had something cooking against reliever Eduard Bazardo. They began the inning with a single and a Jackson Holliday walk, and with one out, Blaze Alexander scorched an RBI single to left to make it a 6-3 game. Once again, the Orioles brought the tying run to the plate, and pinch-hitter Samuel Basallo strolled up to bat, bringing the Camden Yards crowd back to life.
On a 2-1 pitch, Basallo connected for a deep shot to center. He dropped the bat, certain he’d just delivered a game-tying homer. He had not. Julio Rodríguez tracked it down in front of the warning track. Still, the ball was plenty deep enough for Holliday to tag up from third base. As Holliday headed to the plate, Alexander foolishly tried to tag from first and advance to second. Rodríguez delivered an on-target throw and Ryan Bliss slapped the tag on Alexander. Double play, horrible baserunning, but hey, at least the O’s got one run out of it. …Right?
Yeah, uh…funny story about that, too. The Mariners requested a challenge, claiming that Alexander was tagged out before Holliday crossed home plate. And lo and behold, the replay proved them right. The run was wiped off the board, the would-be sac fly was just an inning-ending double play, and the Orioles, as Willy Wonka would say, get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.
And lose they did, as the O’s went quietly in the ninth against struggling Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, who entered the day only nine for 14 in save opportunities but had no problem against a demoralized Birds team. A 6-3 loss went into the books as truly one of the dumbest of the year.
Other dumb things happened, too. Fill-in starter Trey Gibson, called up from Triple-A Norfolk earlier in the day when Chris Bassitt landed on the injured list, held the Mariners lineup in check for four scoreless innings, but they started to hit him hard in the fifth. They smacked three singles and a sac fly to tie the game at one (after the O’s had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on a sac fly of their own).
With two on and two out, manager Craig Albernaz made a fateful pitching change. Taking out Gibson wasn’t the problem; the rookie didn’t seem to be fooling hitters and hadn’t struck out anyone all game. But Albernaz’s choice to replace him was a head-scratcher. He went with Anthony Nunez, who has a 7.98 ERA since the start of May and has suffered several recent blowups in high-leverage situations. This is the guy you’re going to trust in a critical spot, in a tie game, with multiple runners on base, against the heart of the M’s lineup? How about Andrew Kittredge? Tyler Wells? I’d even accept Rico Garcia, even if it was only the fifth inning.
Nunez wasn’t the guy to go to, and he immediately showed why, walking Rodríguez to load the bases and then serving up a backbreaking grand slam to Josh Naylor. On one swing, the Mariners took a 5-1 lead. Sigh.
The game felt like it was over at that point. It wasn’t, exactly. The Orioles had plenty of chances to come back. But as we’ve seen, they all went horribly wrong.
