BALTIMORE–What happened? A little more than two hours before the Orioles’ 12:05 p.m. game against the New York Mets, the team made what could be the first of many trades this month, sending relief pitcher Bryan Baker, who leads the team with 42 appearances, to the Tampa Bay Rays for a competitive balance pick, the 37th overall in Sunday’s draft.
For executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias, the deal was too good to pass up, even though it’s still three weeks until the July 31st trade deadline.
“I think there’s a lot of transactions in this business and it’s not always linear and you look at Detroit last year, they basically traded away some major league players and their play continued to improve when they made the playoffs,” Elias said before the Orioles defeated the Mets, 3-1, behind a strong start by Charlie Morton and an eight-inning, pinch-hit home run by Gunnar Henderson.
“This is a team that’s moving in the right direction and we still have a lot of time left before the deadline, but this was a trade with the draft coming up in a couple days that we had to make a decision on. Didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity. We’re hopeful we can use the pick wisely, bring a lot of value back, and Bryan’s going to a good place.”
The Orioles will have the largest draft pool in history, about $19 million and seven picks in the top 100 on Sunday: Numbers 19, 30 and 31 in the first round, 37, 58, 69 and 93.
“We’re not playing exactly the way that we wanted or capable of,” Elias said. “We’ve had some losses in the last couple of weeks that could have easily gone the other way. It would have been nice to have had those. We put ourselves in the position where we’re on the razor’s edge in a lot of those games.
“The hole that we dug in the standings at the beginning has just put us in a tough spot. We want to win as many games as possible going into the All-Star break and going into the deadline, but as opportunities come along prior to the trade deadline, the job of the front office is to weigh them. We wish that the team was in a better spot in the standings. I’ve talked about it. There’s a lot of reasons for it, a lot of responsibility to go around, but we’ve got to look at the present moment and opportunities as they come, and that’s what we did this morning.”
Baker, who was on his way to Boston to meet the Rays, was surprised by the move, particularly since he still has three years of club control remaining.
“I’m going to miss it over here, for sure. I’m always excited for the opportunity to throw a baseball,” Baker said.
What happened in Game 1? Henderson’s two-run, pinch-hit home run in the eighth lifted the Orioles to a 3-1 win over the Mets in the first game of a split doubleheader on Thursday.
In the first game of the series on Tuesday night, Baker allowed four runs in the eighth, and the Mets came from behind to win, 7-6, in 10 innings.
“It’s good, especially with what happened the other night,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said.
“I think I probably had a pretty bad attitude there after the first four or five innings, just kind of watching how our offense was performing there for a little bit … We kind of all had bad attitudes, the coaches there for a few innings and probably so did the whole dugout as a whole, jokingly of course. But it’s nice to struggle for a little bit in the game, and Gunnar comes off the bench and pinch-hits a homer and just to feel the energy and eruption in the dugout and change some of our unfortunate bad attitudes there for a few innings.”
Many in the Camden Yards crowd of 25,262 came to receive their Orioles’ captain hats on Yacht Rock Day. Because of Wednesday night’s rainout, the Orioles moved up their start time by an hour and the second game is set for 5:05 p.m. to allow the Mets ample time to fly to Kansas City afterward.
The Orioles got just five singles in seven-plus innings against New York starter David Peterson.
Colton Cowser led off the eighth with a single, and Henderson, who didn’t start against the left-handed Peterson, hit his 11th home run against Ryne Stanek (2-5) for a 2-1 lead.
“Obviously, not trying to do too much in that situation,” Henderson said. “The emotions can get high and you can try to match the intensity of the situation. But I felt like I did a good job of going up there and just kind of seeing what he was trying to do, and I got a good swing on the ball.”
Ramón Laureano’s sacrifice fly scored Ryan O’Hearn to put the Orioles (41-50) ahead, 3-1.
Morton allowed one run on four hits in six innings. Grant Wolfram (1-0), the 27th man for the doubleheader, pitched two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and striking out four.
“I think Bake was a big part of the bullpen,” Morton said. “I think he did a lot of special things here, for the organization and himself, right? He showed what he was capable of. He got to a place where he felt good about where he was at, and he showed who he was and what he could do, and as a friend and as a teammate, that’s what we all want for each other.
“Personally, I really want what’s best for the players and the guys. And I know he’s going to have a good opportunity there in Tampa. They have a really good team. I know the guys down there. I know their manager and pitching coach really well, and I’m hopeful, and I know, that he landed in a good spot.” So, as a friend and a teammate, that’s what I’m focused on. It doesn’t a job. It’s just, one of our guys got traded.”
Félix Bautista recorded his 18th save with a spotless ninth.
The Mets (53-40) scored in the fifth when Tyrone Taylor’s double drove in Brett Baty.
What does it mean? The Orioles won under difficult circumstances after learning Baker was traded. They’ll try for their first doubleheader sweep since June 25th, 2016.
What’s the stat of the 1st game? The Orioles are now 2-40 when trailing after seven innings.
What’s the word? “I would view it as us acting on a one-off opportunity. It’s not a player that we were shopping or anything like that. The opportunity came, we had a motivated partner, we had a deadline coming up with the draft, and we thought it was a really good return and we said yes.”-Elias on the rationale for the trade.
What’s next? Tomoyuki Sugano (6-5, 4.44) will start the second game of the doubleheader at 5:05 p.m against Brandon Waddell (0-0, 3.10).
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