It’s just one of those things, I guess. The Orioles are playing some of their best ball of the season. The offense has been hot lately. They’ve been dispatching competitive teams, and moving up in the Wild Card chase. And so of course they’d travel to the thin air of Denver, where they’d face the worst team in baseball, and a 28-year-old starter with just 30 career starts and a negative bWAR for most of them, and do basically nothing at the plate.
It’s true, against Colorado’s Tanner Gordon, the Birds
managed only one run on three hits over five innings, only spared from total futility by a run-scoring double from Samuel Basallo. We’d played five at that point when the skies opened up, at around 10 pm, and we got stuck in an hour forty-five minute delay. It was a long, weird game. Once the rain cleared, and despite getting outhit 8-4, the Birds pulled out a much-needed win and returned to .500 for the first time since April 30, while also gaining a half-game in the wild card race, now standing just a half-game back of Cleveland. They did it with style, too: centerfielder Colton Cowser made the catch of his life with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, stealing a home run and an otherwise-certain Colorado win.
Let’s beam back to the game’s antediluvian prehistory for a second. The Orioles came out with an aggressive approach, which, facing an inexperienced, strike-throwing pitcher like Gordon, makes some sense. But Gordon is also an offspeed guy, and the danger of selling out on the first pitch against someone like that is you end up just making bad contact. Like when Gunnar Henderson his a 55-mph squibber early in the first. He, and the rest of the Orioles’ hitters, looked very annoyed to make Tanner Gordon work so little early on. (I shared the sentiment.)
Then, after three innings of futility against Tanner Gordon, the Orioles were about two feet away from a 2-1 lead (and a de facto win, if the powers that be had decided to call the game due to rain after five). The fourth inning saw the mood of offensive futility lift as soon as Dylan Beavers got one of Gordon’s first bad changeups—a cement mixer, as Ben McDonald likes to say—and doubled. It should have lasted a little longer: Samuel Basallo connected on a changeup of his own, driving it 409 feet and off the center-field wall, just short of a home run in that part of Coors Field. Beavers, caught off guard, had to dig for home, but he made it, tying the game at one. But O’s hitters went down in order after that.
As for our guy, Cade Povich, meanwhile, has long been known for his Jekyll-and-Hyde tendencies. He either looks hittable—like when he leaves up fastballs, a couple of which sustained hard contact in the first and second innings—or swing-and-miss-worthy—as when he struck out catcher Hunter Goodman on a gigantic curveball.
But overall he did fine: five innings, five hits allowed, one run, three walks, four strikeouts. The fourth inning was trouble for him: he allowed a leadoff double to Hunter Goodman (on a hittable heater), then walked first baseman TJ Rumfield on four pitches. Then, he racked up two quick outs—a strikeout, then a stellar play from his shortstop, as Gunnar ranged to his right and threw off-balance to nab Mickey Moniak. But he left up a hittable fastball, and outfielder Jordan Beck singled to make it 1-0 Colorado. Disappointing, frankly. Povich walked the next guy on four pitches to load the bases. It was an ugly moment, but he got a butt-saving flyout to end the inning.
And that was there things stood when the rain set in.
When, two hours later, after the rain had cleared (and while you were already in bed while I recapped this thing), the Rockies had sent out one Mark Manfredi to the mound to face the top of the order. A recent call-up from Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate (the Albuquerque Isotopes—mentioned purely because of the great physics-themed name), Manfredi navigated through the sixth intact.
But he may have stayed in a bit too long, because in the seventh inning, he walked both Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. His replacement, Nick Frasso, immediately walked Blaze Alexander, and we had ourselves a one-out, bases-loaded deal. Then, shenanigans: Colton Cowser grounded into a double play to end the inning. Or did he! The Orioles astutely challenged, and got the call overturned. Now Coby Mayo had actually crossed the plate, and it was 2-1 Orioles.
The O’s’ litigiousness paid off in other ways. An inning before, they’d challenged a play on Grant Wolfram’s watch, a strike-‘em-out/throw-‘em-out where Basallo would get credit for the caught stealing. That helped extend Wolfram’s longevity, as the righty ended up giving them a second clean inning.
The O’s could have attacked again in the top of the eighth, but they got a Gunnar Henderson single and then slunk back lamely to the dugout.
That left two innings left to cover before we could all go to bed for a win. Alex Hoppe took custody of the eighth. Immediately former Oriole Connor Norby burned him with a single. Hoppe got a flyout. But he walked TJ Rumfield to put the winning run on.
That earned Hoppe the axe, and saw Rico Garcia take over instead. Garcia has had his struggles, but he is so good in that mopman role. He got Willi Castro swinging on three pitches, and drew a flyball out on just two pitches more. Huge outing by Garcia.
After the O’s went down like meek little lambs in the top of the ninth, only three outs remained. Andrew Kittredge took over, the tension palpable (assuming you were still awake). Colorado pinch-hit Cole Carrigg, who flew out on one pitch. But Troy Johnston, also swinging at the first pitch, doubled, putting the tying run in scoring position. Colorado, playing this one aggressively, came out with another pinch-hitter (Zac Veen). Kittredge responded with several sinkers and a diving slider—and got the result he (we) wanted: a swinging strikeout. Centerfielder Jake McCarthy came up, the Rockies’ last chance: he, too, had gotten notes to be aggressive, and on most nights, what he did next would have hit a two-run, walkoff homer. Tonight, however, the ball flew all of 425 feet—and right into the glove of a leaping, felonious Colton Cowser. It was absolutely the catch of Cowser’s life to date, and not something I expected from the Milkman, if I’m being honest with you. Check if out for yourself. Game over. O’s win.
With Cleveland having the day off today, the Orioles are now back at .500 and a mere half-game out of a wild card spot. It wasn’t always pretty today, but it was a win. And it certainly ended with a bang—or, rather, didn’t, thanks to a gigantic Cowser.
So, who is your Most Birdland Player? Samuel Basallo, with his double, walk, RBI and near-homer? Coby Mayo, who is clobbering the ball day-in, day-out still? Grant Wolfram, for two clean innings after a two-hour rain delay? Rico Garcia, for cleaning up Hoppe’s mess? Or is it the Milkman himself, snatching Colorado’s win away with one huge leap?
