The Orioles continued to shake off the post trade deadline doldrums tonight with another win over the Angels. We all know the saying of pitching, defense, and three-run homers. Well tonight it was pitching (excellent), defense (not embarrassing) and three home runs. The end result, a 5-3 victory and the series with win one game to go.
Even with five runs scored, for most of this game the Orioles’ offense felt lackluster. But just as they did last night, they clustered their few hits together early
and relied on a pinch-hit homer late.
Through three innings, the Orioles had just one baserunner, a first-inning single by Gunnar Henderson. But in the fourth, they struck. After Henderson worked a one-out walk, Tyler O’Neill stepped to the plate against the lefty starter Reid Detmers. O’Neill has taken a lot of heat from Orioles fans, for good reason. But he’s been very good since the beginning of July. And what he did at the plate in this at-bat was a thing of beauty. He took a 3-1 fastball deep into the night. It landed 426 feet away in the left field seats.
The next batter, Coby Mayo, did even better. He jumped on a curveball and sent it to the same part of the ballpark. It landed 436 feet away. That’s bragging rights!
Those three runs were all the Orioles would need, though they did add some insurance later to take the edge off. Trevor Rogers had another very strong game, especially early on.
Through five innings, he allowed just one hit and it was a total fluke. In the second, Travis D’Arnaud hit a ground ball almost exactly to where Jackson Holliday was positioned up the middle. But before the ball got to his glove, it hit square on the corner of second base and ricocheted past him. Rotten luck. But Rogers didn’t let it sway him. He retired the 10 batters with ease.
With the Orioles up 3-0 in the sixth, Jose Siri led off. As Ben McDonald and Kevin Brown joked about activating the Siri on people’s iPhones, Ben said “Hey Siri, what’s the score?” just as the Siri at the plate took Rogers yard. Not my favorite bit they’ve done. But Rogers got the next three batters to end the inning and keep the Orioles lead at two runs.
Detmers exited after that inning and relief pitcher Shaun Anderson pitched two innings with just a single allowed to Mayo. The way Rogers was cruising, things didn’t feel too dire, but that went away in a hurry in the seventh.
Rogers started the inning and allowed just his third hit of the night, a single by Nolan Schanuel. Craig Albernaz opted to pull Rogers from the game at that point. He was at 93 pitches and I think if the lead had been bigger he might have been given at least another batter. Instead, new Oriole Alex Hoppe came in to make his Orioles debut.
If you’re not familiar with Hoppe, he is a 27-year-old rookie who appeared in 24 games out of Seattle’s bullpen with a 5.79 ERA. He gives up a fair number of hits and walks more guys than you want to see out of the bullpen. Anyway, the first thing he did as an Oriole was throw a wild pitch to allow Schanuel to get into scoring position. After a lineout and a groundout, Schanuel was on third. He scored on a single, the run added to Rogers’s ledger.
Hoppe was replaced by Rico Garcia, who got the final out. But the Orioles’ lead was cut to just one run. The book was closed on Trevor Roger with a line of 6+ IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 9 K. Another good start. His nine strikeouts is a season high for him.
Jackson Holliday walked to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning, but was unable to score. He made the final out getting caught stealing with leadoff guy Christian Franklin at the plate. Speaking of the rookie, I’m fine with letting the guy get time to see how he does. But maybe pull the plug on him batting leadoff, ok? At least until he has more than zero Major League hits.
The idea of the Orioles bullpen getting through two more innings without allowing a run made me pretty nervous. But the eighth inning was very good to the Orioles. Yennier Cano looked great and went three-up, three-down. He did make a boneheaded mistake challenging a pitch that was so far out of the strike zone that the graphics people didn’t have a measurement to put up. But aside from that, well done Yennier.
The bottom half of the inning got off to a tough start, but ended well. Pinch-hitter Dylan Beavers struck out, as did Pete Alonso. Alonso took an 0-for-4 with two strikeouts tonight. Angels pitcher José Fermin threw way inside to Henderson. Given how shiny he was, I’m gonna say the ball slipped out of his sweaty, sweaty hand. Gunnar contorted out of the way but the ball caught his jersey for the HBP.
O’Neill was scheduled to bat next, but Albernaz opted for Leody Taveras instead. I was not impressed by this move. O’Neill struggles against lefties, but he’s been hot. And Taveras struggles against everyone. Lately, “struggles” is probably a generous way to put it. But Taveras came through with a home run! It wasn’t quite as majestic as those hit by O’Neill and Mayo. It bounced off the groundskeepers shed in right field. But they all count the same on the scoreboard. Two huge insurance runs made the score 5-2. You win this one, Alby.
Andrew Kittredge came in to pitch the ninth, which is a lot less stressful when it isn’t a one-run game. The Angels went quietly to end the game. Orioles win, 5-3! Strong pitching and three home runs were the winning formula. They go for the sweep tomorrow at 12:35 with Brandon Young on the mound.
