It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Mostly the worst.
When your baseball team scores eight runs in a single inning, you don’t expect to be miserable so quickly in the same game. But that’s what happened to the Orioles tonight. They exploded for eight runs in the second inning, knocking the Rays’ starter out after he had recorded just four outs in the game.
But starter Trevor Rogers was terrible, as were the relief pitchers. And, outside of the second inning, so was the offense. The end result was a 12-8 loss in which the Rays scored 12 unanswered runs and the Orioles failed to record a hit after the second inning. Embarrassing.
The top of the second was about as fun as it gets for an Orioles fan this season. Rays’ starter Taj Bradley just did not have it. Ryan O’Hearn walked, and Gary Sánchez singled ahead of Colton Cowser. Cowser came into tonight with just two hits in his last five games, one of which was a home run. He added to his tally with another homer, his fifth of the year. 3-0 Orioles.
Bradley struck out Coby Mayo, but his relief was short-lived because Cedric Mullins smoked a ball to right field for his 12th home run of the season. Three batters later, Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg were on base for Gunnar Henderson. Henderson hit a soft single to center, which knocked in Holliday. The throw was cut off and it looked like Westburg got caught between second and third. But he evaded the throw to third base with a great slide. It was a great play by Westy.
That meant two runners on for Ramón Laureano, who continued his hot hitting with the team’s second three-run homer of the innin. That made the score 8-0 and, for a moment, baseball was fun again.
Remember when I said the top of the second was as fun as it gets for an Orioles fan this season? Well, the rest of the game, starting almost immediately, was about as miserable as it gets for an Orioles fan this season.
Trevor Rogers didn’t give up any runs in the bottom half of the second, but he was about as bad as you can be without giving up runs. A single, two walks, and 35 pitches were a miserable thing to witness after the glory of the top of the inning. But it got worse.
Rogers’s troubles continued immediately in the third inning. He walked the first batter and faced five batters, four of whom reached and three of whom scored. Then he was pulled. Scott Blewett got the final two out of the inning. Final line for Rogers: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 4 K.
8-3 is still a comfortable score. Unfortunately, the relief pitchers were also bad. Blewett gave up a run on three hits in the fourth inning, and Yennier Cano was terrible in the fifth inning as the Rays tied the game.
Cano actually got two of the first three batters out. José Caballero walked, stole second, and went to third on an embarrassingly bad throw by Sánchez. Then number nine hitter Taylor Walls hit a ball to right field that Laureano made a terrible attempt on at the wall. I don’t know what is up with right field at Steinbrenner Field but it seemed like weird stuff was happening out there tonight. Walls ended up with a triple as Caballero scored.
Yandy Díaz singled in another run, then Brandon Lowe had the death blow with a two-run homer to tie the game. Cano was relieved by Seranthony Domínguez, who got the final out. Domínguez pitched the following inning and actually didn’t give up any runs, but it wasn’t really on account of anything he did. He allowed two hits and two of his three outs came on the basepaths. Laureano made a great throw to nab a runner at the plate. Sánchez ended the inning throwing out Caballero on a pitch out.
I’ll be honest, after those two defensive plays, I had some hope. Things had been awful but the game was still tied. It was dumb of me to have hope. I know that now.
Andrew Kittredge started the seventh inning and struck out the first two batters. Would this be the first Oriole to pitch a clean inning? No. No it would not. A cheap hit to the right side by Díaz kept the inning going. Then Kittredge walked a guy, followed by an RBI single that gave the Rays their ninth run of the game. Batters kept coming to the plate, runs kept scoring. By the time Kittredge got the third out, the score was 12-8 Rays.
Where was the Orioles’ offense in all this? Nowhere. After their eight-run outburst, they decided to take the rest of the night off. After the Laureano homer that made the score 8-0, the Orioles did not have another hit. They sent 24 batters to the plate and the only one who reached was Colton Cowser in the sixth. He was hit by a pitch.
What a terrible, horrible, no-good night. Shout out to Bryan Baker, whose 1-2-3 eighth inning was the only clean inning of the night for the Orioles.