Getting only five hits is a hard way to win a game.
The slump that plagued the Orioles in their series against the Astros has followed them back home to Baltimore for at least one game. The team began a short homestand with a matchup against the AL Central-leading Guardians with a sad showing, picking up just five hits and two walks while striking out 13 times on the way to a 3-2 loss.
This was the kind of game where if you tuned in late, the Orioles were already losing. I know this because I turned it on eight minutes after it started only to discover that there was one run already in, two men on base, and Cade Povich had yet to record an out against the Guardians. Yeah, it was that kind of party. Povich rallied from there, striking out the next two batters before getting a flyout to end his first inning. It took 31 pitches to get there. This could have been worse.
The Orioles had a rapid answer to this early deficit. Gunnar Henderson continued his on-base streak by jumping on a curveball from Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee. This went down for an easy double, getting a runner in scoring position right away. In reaching base for a 31st consecutive game, Henderson (as noted by stats guru Sarah Langs) set a combined Browns/Orioles franchise record for a player age 22 or younger. Sure, sounds great.
More importantly for the 2024 team’s fortunes, Ryan O’Hearn ambushed the first pitch he saw to rip a single back up the middle to easily drive in Henderson. O’Hearn eventually made it to third base with two outs when the freshly-returned Heston Kjerstad did a little first pitch ambush of his own, a double into right field. This was a double mostly because of Kjerstad’s aggressive baserunning, not because O’Hearn should have scored from first on the play with two outs.
Unfortunately, Jordan Westburg got them no farther. He struck out for the first of three times. It was an 0-4 night for the infielder, who also stranded a pair of runners on base as he made the third out of the third inning too.
Back-to-back one-out doubles by Gabriel Arias and Bo Naylor – the 8 and 9 hitters, both of whom have stunk at the plate this year – put the Guardians back on top in the top of the second inning. Povich rallied again as the lineup turned over, so good for him for keeping things from spiraling, but the damage was done.
The Orioles were able to even things up a second time with a manufactured run off of Bibee in the third inning. Adley Rutschman started the party with a one-out double, and got himself to third base with a good read as O’Hearn hit a line drive that bounced off the tip of the glove of first baseman Josh Naylor (yes, the Naylors are brothers; no word on whether they have any connection to the Old Court-to-Reisterstown Road cut through in Pikesville.)
Naylor lost sight of the ball as it fell to the ground, allowing O’Hearn to reach. This was scored an error on Naylor, honestly kind of a harsh ruling by the scorer. The league has been known to correct such injustices on appeal. In any case, this gave the Orioles men on first and third with one out. Anthony Santander hit a fly ball deep enough to easily score Rutschman. Although Kjerstad again swung at the first pitch and again got a base hit, the O’s couldn’t make anything else happen with two outs. Westburg grounded out to end the inning.
Through the fourth and fifth innings, the score held there. Povich got a little help in holding the line from his defense. Cleveland’s out-of-nowhere rookie Daniel Schneeman responded to the MASN booth making jokes about how they want his name to be Schneebly, like Jack Black’s character in School of Rock, by blasting a ball to deep center field. Cedric Mullins was caught flat-footed as the ball bounced off a high part of the fence and back onto the warning track. Santander had to get over there and pick it up and fire it back in. Schneeman had himself the second triple of his young MLB career.
The next batter, Arias, hit a high fly ball to a reasonable depth to Santander out in right field. The key was that it went way up there, giving Santander time to get into position with momentum carrying him towards home plate. Since it was a deep fly ball, Schneeman ran home. Santander took a crow hop and fired a laser to catcher James McCann, whose tag beat the sliding Schneeman to the plate.
Statcast numbers master Mike Petriello chimed in that this is the third-deepest from which an outfielder has thrown out a runner at home this season. It was really a great throw. This preserved a 2-2 tie, at least for a couple more innings.
After his 31-pitch first, the fact that Povich made it into the sixth inning at all is its own little victory. It did not turn out to be the kind of victory that helps the Orioles into the win column, though. José Ramírez led off the sixth inning by launching a fly ball into the O’s bullpen. On the list of guys where it hurts to give up a home run to them, Ramírez is pretty far down the list. He’s been a great hitter for the last nine seasons. But, y’know, this turned out to be the decisive run in the game and that still sucks.
Povich was lifted after giving up a two-out single. His final line was three earned runs over 5.2 innings, with seven hits and one walk to five strikeouts. Many nights, that will be good enough to get the Orioles a lead into the late innings. This just wasn’t one of them. Kjerstad’s two-out hit in the third inning was the last hit an Orioles batter got in Monday’s game.
Bibee didn’t allow another hit for the rest of his six innings and three Cleveland relievers added a hitless inning apiece. Brief hopes that maybe the Orioles would be able to muster a comeback against a lesser ninth inning reliever with Emmanuel Clase on the shelf due to heavy use over the weekend amounted to nothing. Scott Barlow’s 3.77 ERA went down to 3.66 as he struck out all three Orioles he saw.
The season isn’t over because the Orioles have lost four straight games now and are now two games back of the Yankees. They had two separate four-game losing streaks a year ago and still won 101 games and the AL East.
There’s no denying that it’s a rough patch for the offense. They’ve scored four runs over their last three games. It feels extra hopeless because of the recent starting pitching performance; Povich’s outing wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good enough to dispel that gloom.
Of no relevance to the outcome of the game, here’s a fan making an impressive bare-handed grab of a foul ball, which went viral enough that the main MLB Twitter account recorded it:
Right place, right time for this @Orioles fan. pic.twitter.com/C9Au0VZ6m5
— MLB (@MLB) June 24, 2024
MASN’s Rob Long found his way up to this fan later in the game, who was there with his wife and young daughter. He said he’s gone to hundreds of games and never gotten a foul ball before this. At least some Orioles fan made a nice memory at the stadium on Monday night.
The Orioles will have to try again to stop the losing tomorrow. Theoretically, they should be helped by the fact that they’re going up against a Guardians starter with an ERA over 5 in lefty Logan Allen. Despite this ERA, Allen has an 8-3 record for the season, so nothing is guaranteed. Cole Irvin is set to start the 6:35 game for the O’s.