Trevor Rogers dominated his former team, but the Birds’ bullpen collapsed and the offense was stymied by journeyman Janson Junk.
As blog boss Mark Brown often says, these Orioles never let you feel good about them for very long.
The Birds’ recent hot streak came to a screeching halt with one of their most pitiful losses of the year, a 6-0 fiasco against the Marlins. Despite a fantastic outing from Trevor Rogers versus his former team, the Orioles’ bullpen imploded in the late innings. The offense offered no help, letting a journeyman named Janson Junk pitch the most dominant start of his career, his last name a perfect descriptor of the Orioles’ hitting approach today.
Janson Junk? I mean, come on, guys. I get that he has a good ERA (3.12 entering the game) and doesn’t walk anybody, but he’s in the first percentile among pitchers in both average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. In other words, he gives up more hard contact than 99% of MLB pitchers. That’s a pitcher that a good offense should be able to do something with. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on whether the Orioles are, in fact, a good offense. After today’s pathetic showing, I’m leaning towards no.
The Orioles’ best scoring opportunity, as it turned out, came in the first inning. Gunnar Henderson lashed a two-out double and Ryan O’Hearn had one of those aforementioned hard hits, sizzling a 102.3 mph liner to right field. The ball was hit so sharply that right fielder Kyle Stowers fielded it immediately, but third base coach Buck Britton foolishly waved Henderson home anyway. Stowers threw him out with approximately a football field to spare. Bad send by Britton, but maybe he just had a feeling that the Orioles’ offense was about to have one of its trademark no-show performances and was hoping to make something happen.
From then on, it was a whole lot of nothing for the Birds’ lineup. For the next four innings, only two Orioles even reached base, both getting left stranded. After the second inning, they didn’t get their next hit until the sixth, when Henderson reached on a double that popped out of the left fielder’s glove. But O’Hearn flied out to end the inning.
Junk wasn’t exactly blowing hitters away, garnering only two strikeouts in the game, but the O’s were unable to make much quality contact against him. Nearly everything off their bats was a routine grounder or a can-of-corn fly ball. There was plenty of blame to go around, but particularly frustrating was Tyler O’Neill, whose four at-bats resulted in four lazy pop flies, including a foulout to the first baseman on a 3-0 pitch. Tell me again why we’re benching Coby Mayo for this guy?
Meanwhile, Trevor Rogers made his first start against the team with which he’d spent the first four years of his career. He certainly showed the Marlins what they were missing, continuing his recent stretch of dominance with another dazzling outing. While Rogers’s first inning was a 25-pitch slog, it wasn’t much fault of his own. He would’ve cruised through a 1-2-3 frame if not for O’Hearn dropping Henderson’s throw to first on a routine grounder. After the error, Rogers issued a walk before whiffing Eric Wagaman on a 95-mph heater to strand two runners, throwing 10 extra pitches in the process. (That will be important later.)
After that, Rogers cruised. He needed only 15 pitches to retire all six batters in the second and third innings and followed with a perfect fourth, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth before Dane Myers singled. Rogers’ sweeper was devastating. His fastball had good zip after his velocity was down in his previous start in Atlanta. He looked great. Is Trevor Rogers the Orioles’ ace? You decide.
The scoreless tie continued into the seventh, and Rogers continued to cruise by retiring the first two batters. But Myers got his (and the Marlins’) second hit, roping a single to left to bring up Stowers, the guy Rogers was traded for.
And out of the dugout, fatefully, popped Tony Mansalino to make a pitching change. Come on, man! Rogers was at 99 pitches, but he was still looking dominant. You can’t let him face one more hitter? Was Mansalino worried that the possibility of Stowers getting a game-winning hit off Rogers would bring great shame to the Orioles organization? One wonders if Rogers could have pitched longer if not for that first-inning error that cost him 10 pitches.
Whatever the case, he brought in Gregory Soto, which turned out exactly as you would’ve predicted. Soto plunked Stowers, then gave up an RBI single to Derek Hill, giving the Marlins a 1-0 lead. Sigh. Because MLB rules are cruel sometimes, the run was charged to Rogers, setting him up to be the losing pitcher (which he ultimately was). But Soto’s badness shouldn’t sour what was another excellent outing by Rogers (6.2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 8 K).
The O’s offense continued to flail, stranding a runner in the seventh against Junk, who pitched the longest outing of his career with seven scoreless innings. Janson Junk. Really. And the Orioles’ bullpen removed all doubt from the outcome by getting torched in the final two innings, with Seranthony Domínguez surrendering one in the eighth and Scott Blewett suffering a four-spot in a horrid ninth that featured Stowers hustling to score from second base on an infield hit.
Marlins relievers Ronny Henriquez and Anthony Bender completed the Marlins shutout with a scoreless inning each, bringing this one a merciful end. To summarize this Orioles game in one word: Junk.