Well, let’s start with the good feelings. There was a sentimental feeling percolating around the Yard well before tonight’s game, with a team Hall of Fame induction ceremony that saw former O’s slugger Chris Davis, 1983 World Series Champion Storm Davis, and late scout Jim Russo all get their green jackets. Both Storm and Chris were in attendance, along with lots of their former teammates, including, to give short pre-game remarks and stop by the MASN booth to chat about their favorite memories.
It was cool to learn that Storm Davis actually served as a mentor to a young Ben McDonald, then a rookie pitcher, now a MASN analyst, but I was especially sentimental about Davis’s reminiscences, which covered the especially sweet 2012-16 years, when the O’s led the AL in wins. Dishing about some of his favorite memories, Davis named several that brought up memories. There was his 2013 home opener grand slam:
This unreal broken-bat home run off lefty Tony Watson.
And, my favorite, the ludicrously improbable homer he hit off ambidextrous sinker-baller Pat Venditte, a tentative one-handed half-swing that somehow made it into the stands. Davis described it earlier this week: “The home run vs Pat Venditte where I literally ass out, one handed, I heard he tore up the video room on the visitor side after that… I’m like, I don’t know either dude. Like I don’t know what I’m doing.” Amazing!
Look, Chris Davis had his share of troubles on the field, especially toward the end of his career, but he is a beloved part of Birdland history, a fact that seemed confirmed by how many former O’s made it out to honor him.
OK, but that’s the extent of the sentimentality here, because there was a game to play, and for O’s fans, not a lot of sweet memories will be left from this one. This is because Philadelphia’s Christopher Sánchez is a true artist on the mound. The left-hander came into tonight with the NL’s fifth best ERA and a wicked 50-inning scoreless streak earlier this season, and tonight, you saw why it was deserved. Sánchez has one of the best sinkers in the game, and so it was again. He also has a changeup several miles slower but with the same path out of the hand. It wreaked havoc. Sánchez drew 9 swings and misses on 15 changeups tonight (60%), finishing with 11 strikeouts in just six innings.
Then again, for most of the game the score was 1-0, and O’s starter Shane Baz was really good, too: he threw 6 1/3 innings and only allowed one run. More on Baz in a sec.
The Birds had a few chances against Sánchez, believe it or not—even if they had to do it by free pass, and not by hard contact. In the fourth inning, Sánchez did something he hadn’t all season and walked three hitters in a row—Gunnar Henderson, Tyler O’Neill, Christian Encarnación-Strand. This brought up Leody Taveras with the bases juiced and two outs. Could he… ?? Alas, he could not. It was not a good at-bat. Taveras swung aggressively through the early pitches, and stared at a fairly routine pitch down the middle for Strike 3.
They gritted a second rally chance into existence in the sixth, but if you’ve been paying attention to the final score you know how that went. Taylor Ward worked a walk, and chugged his way to third base on a Tyler O’Neill dribbler the other way—nice hustle, Ward! CES had a chance to drive him in from third, but he walked, the second time Sánchez had loaded the bases with two outs. Sánchez looked mighty distracted, way overthrowing the ball twice to CES before walking him.
So, not much to report on offense. Now, despite what the badness of the score indicates, Orioles pitching was excellent until a bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning. O’s right hander Shane Baz went toe-to-toe with Sánchez, basically, continuing to look like a solid investment for this team and a great option in this rotation. Baz had dazzling spin on his changeup and knuckle curve, plenty of movement on his sinker, and even better velocity than usual—which is saying something! Baz allowed some loud contact, but no more than two hits out of the first fourteen batters.
Regrettably, he got the loss in this game, with one run surrendered in the fifth inning. With a man on second via walk, Baz allowed a two-out single to Bryan de la Cruz. Not a cheapie, it was a bad, middle-of-the-zone fastball, and De la Cruz responded appropriately. This was pretty much Baz’s only bad pitch of the night.
In the sixth, Baz allowed a leadoff single to Bryce Harper, but then retired the side on a groundout, popout, and—oh, a super nice play by new-guy catcher Jake Rogers, acquired last week from Detroit, who caught Alec Bohm wandering off of first and fired down to Pete Alonso, who tagged him out.
Baz came one strike short of completing seven, but Philly second baseman Bryson Stott was a huge pain in the neck, seeing 14 pitches before cuing an opposite-way single. It took Baz out of there, but doesn’t dampen what was a great outing by the starter: 6 1/3 innings, 1 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 1 BB.
What was not great was the Grant Wolfram + Andrew Kittredge tandem in the eighth, which coughed up four runs by virtue of three combined walks and three hits. Wolfram looked wild, and Kittredge hittable. The inning felt like forever, and a 1-0 pitcher’s duel became a 5-0 blowout, deflating the stadium.
At the time of this writing, the Twins lost and the Guardians are in a 12-7 hole, so the Orioles haven’t actually given up ground in the Wild Card race. Despite this stupid result, the hunt for the playoffs goes on. Tomorrow, Kyle Bradish v. Zack Wheeler. Let’s hope the bullpen is more rested by then.
