It was not a fun night to watch Orioles baseball.
The vortex of suck that has surrounded the Orioles offense of late took things another step farther tonight. Not only did they not score a run, they didn’t even have a base runner until the eighth inning. They wasted an excellent night by Zach Eflin, who gave up the game’s only run in the 1-0 loss.
The Tigers, led by bulk relief pitcher Brant Hurter, looked in route to throwing the first combined perfect game in Major League history. Call me a traditionalist, but the phrases “perfect game” and “bulk reliever” should not be used in the same sentence. Thankfully it won’t be again because the Orioles were not perfecto’d thanks to an eighth-inning walk by Adley Rutschman. And they were not no-hit thanks to a triple from Gunnar Henderson with two outs in the ninth. But it still felt really awful.
It is just so dire out there right now for Orioles hitters. How do you have an entire rotation’s worth of pitchers on the injured list but your main issue is that you cannot seem to score any runs? In their eight games since September 3rd, when they scored nine runs against the White Sox, the Orioles have scored a total of 15 runs. Fifteen runs in eight games? Not great. And honestly, nine runs against the White Sox is only like four runs in real baseball.
After opener Beau Brieske retired the first four batters of the game, the Tigers turned to rookie Brant Hurter. Hurter has been pretty good in a non-traditional role through seven games this year. He usually comes in to pitch in the second or third inning and goes about five innings.
Tonight he did about that, pitching 5.2 innings. But he set a career high in strikeouts with eight and did not allow a hit. He didn’t even allow a base runner until his final batter of the night. The Orioles just could not make heads or tails of him and looked as bad at the plate as I’ve seen them.
Zach Eflin continued his fantastic run with the Orioles tonight. He wasn’t perfect. He allowed a decent amount of traffic and struck out only three. But he was more than good enough to win with just a single run allowed in 6.2 innings. It’s hard to ask for more than that.
That single run came in the very first inning. With one out, Eflin threw a first-pitch curveball that landed in the bottom center of the strike zone. Kerry Carpenter did not miss. He walloped the ball to deep right field where it landed 414 later for a home run. It was no doubter.
Eflin followed the homer with five up, five down before issuing a leadoff walk in the third. That and a single put runners on the corners with one out for Carpenter, but Eflin got the best of him with a strikeout. A soft comebacker and he was out of the inning.
Two more runners reached in the fourth but thanks to a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play (with help from manager’s challenge), Eflin once again escaped damage. After the fourth inning, though, things got much quieter for him. He followed a two-out single by Spencer Torkelson with nine retired in a row.
That took him to two outs in the sixth inning. Wenceel Pérez singled through the right side on Eflin’s 100th pitch and Brandon Hyde removed his starter in favor of Gregory Soto. On Soto’s third pitch to Trey Sweeney, Pérez took off. Adley Rutschman nabbed him down at second, his second caught stealing of the game. Inning over.
Eflin’s final pitching line: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 K. He deserved better.
In the top of the eighth inning, Rutschman did us all a solid to ensure that MLB would go at least one more day without a combined perfect game. Hurter and Rutschman engaged in a long, eight-pitch at-bat that ended with ball four. He fouled off balls outside of the strike zone on both 2-1 and 3-2 counts, but finally took ball four. Thanks, Adley.
Soto remained in the game for the eighth and got two quick outs before Parker Meadows smacked a ball down the first base line. If Ryan Mountcastle was playing first base, the inning would have been over. But Emmanuel gave it the old olé and it skipped down the line and rattled in the corner. Anthony Santander chased it down and Meadows ended up on third base.
Matt Bowman relieved Soto with all of just waiting to see if the Orioles would get no-hit. He really dragged it out by walking the first batter he saw but struck out Matt Vierling to end the inning.
After Beau Brieske pitched 1.1 no-hit innings, Brant Hurter threw 5.2 no-hit innings, and former Oriole farmhand Brenan Hanifee added another no-hit inning, it came down to Tyler Holton for the ninth inning. Rivera flew out to right field and pinch-hitter Coby Mayo put together an impressive but unsuccessful nine-pitch at bat that ended in a strikeout.
That brought up Gunnar Henderson, who said not today. He smacked a triple down the right field line to break up the no-no and put himself just one base away from tying the game. I allowed myself a little woop at the hit. But before much happiness could take over, Anthony Santander struck out to end the game.
Losing 1-0 is always rough. But the Orioles knew how to make it even worse than usual by being perfecto’d through seven innings and no-hit through 8.2. They are now just two games ahead of the Royals at the top of the wild card race. I don’t care for that.
The Orioles look to even the series tomorrow with Corbin Burnes on the mound. Game time is 6:10. Consider me not optimistic.