After breaking even on their season-long 10-game road trip, the O’s return to Camden Yards, now back in a first-place tie.
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles’ 10-game road trip ended on a down note yesterday with the O’s letting a late lead slip away in a 2-1 loss in Tampa Bay. Albert Suárez pitched an absolute gem, setting a career high with 6.2 innings of shutout ball, but the Birds offense failed to show up, managing nothing more than an Anthony Santander solo homer. And with the Orioles’ top two late-inning relievers unavailable, the backup crew predictably imploded, as Cionel Pérez and Craig Kimbrel each allowed a run to doom the Orioles’ chances of a sweep. Check out Mark Brown’s recap of the disappointing series finale.
The Orioles wrapped up their 10-game road trip through Cleveland, Toronto, and Tampa Bay — their longest trip of the season — with a 5-5 record. One series win, one series loss, and one split. Could have been better, but could have been worse, too. The Orioles began the trip a half game ahead of the Yankees and ended it in a tie. No ground was gained but very little was lost.
After an off day today, the O’s will finally get to play at Camden Yards for the first time in August, starting a six-game homestand tomorrow against the Nationals and Red Sox. They can ill afford to lose too many this week, considering that the Yankees’ next six games are against the historically horrendous White Sox and the sub-.500 Tigers.
The Orioles have some work to do. Their offense remains frustratingly erratic, capable of putting plenty of runs on the board one day and then getting dominated by a pitcher with a 5.00+ ERA the next. Coby Mayo is having a rough go of it, now 0-for-15 in his MLB career after striking out twice more in yesterday’s game. And their bullpen needs a couple other relievers to step up and join the (mostly) reliable Yennier Cano and Seranthony Dominguez as late-inning options.
Games like yesterday’s don’t make it feel like the Orioles are one of MLB’s elite teams, and yet they entered the day with the best record in baseball and are now just percentage points behind the Phillies for that honor. For all the flaws the O’s may have, so does every other team. Unlike some past seasons, there’s no one dominant superteam that’s running roughshod through the league. The possibility still exists for the Orioles to become that team, as they looked for much of the first half, but injuries have taken their toll.
Forty-three games remain on the Orioles’ 2024 regular season schedule, and just about every one of them will be important. Buckle up.
Links
Decision to remove Suárez from game proves to be turning point in Orioles loss – The Baltimore Banner
Andy Kostka delves into Brandon Hyde’s fateful decision to take out Suárez, and Hyde offers a not particularly strong reasoning for doing so.
Fuller on Holliday’s improvement: “Wisdom comes through experience” – School of Roch
The Orioles’ co-hitting coach offers his assessment of what’s led to Jackson Holliday’s massive improvement. Sometimes you need to fail before you can learn how to succeed. …Or so I’ve heard. I myself have never actually failed at anything.
Jackson Holliday Has Delivered a Welcome Jolt | FanGraphs Baseball
And now for a more stats-based analysis of Holliday’s improvement, here’s Jay Jaffe. In short: he’s being more aggressive and he’s hitting the ball hard. That’ll work.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Four ex-Orioles were born on this day: infielders Chris Owings (33) and Bobby Bonner (68), right-hander Jhan Mariñez (36), and outfielder Lew Ford (48). The baseball lifer Ford was still playing independent ball as recently as last season for the Long Island Ducks, 11 years after his MLB career ended with the Orioles in 2012.
On this date in 2015, the Orioles were on the wrong end of a no-hitter thrown by Mariners righty Hisashi Iwakuma. The 34-year-old stymied an O’s lineup that included such luminaries as Ryan Flaherty, Gerardo Parra, Caleb Joseph, and David Lough, holding the Birds to nothing but three walks while striking out seven. The no-hitter was the only complete game of Iwakuma’s 150-game MLB career.
And on this day in 2019, the O’s continued to be tormented by Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres, who hit three home runs in a doubleheader to give him 13 against the Orioles that year. That set a new MLB single-season record for the most dingers by a player against a single team in the divisional era. His five multi-homer games against the Orioles were also a single-season record.
Random Orioles game of the day
On Aug. 12, 2016, the Orioles began an interleague series in San Francisco with a 5-2 win. The O’s took an early lead on homers by Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis off Giants starter Matt Cain, and Dylan Bundy allowed just one run in 5.2 innings for the Birds. Four O’s relievers finished things off, with Zack Britton striking out two of the three hitters he faced to improve to a perfect 36-for-36 in save attempts. It was Britton’s 40th consecutive appearance without allowing an earned run. He was pretty good, you guys!