The Orioles took the series by winning three games out of four. But the one loss was pretty pathetic.
Going into this series, I think you’d find most Orioles fans would have been satisfied at winning three out of four games. It’s very difficult to sweep a four-game series, and while the Texas Rangers have been down this year, they aren’t a bad team. Yes, back on Thursday morning I would have been very happy with three out of four.
I still think that three out of four is good and this was a successful series. But when the Orioles started with three straight wins I started to feel the sweep. So that makes it a little disappointing. Overall in today’s game, I think it comes down to one of my favorite Adam Jones-isms: sometimes you suck, man. It happens.
Now, that doesn’t mean I am not worried about the state of the starting rotation. Cole Irvin’s clunker was his third straight and had him finish June with an ERA of 6.30 across six starts. It’s hardly a novel idea that the Orioles need to trade for a starter, but I wonder if it will be possible for Mike Elias to do it even sooner than is typical as we approach the trade deadline, because it’s hard to imagine another month without another pitcher.
Irvin just did not have it from the get-go today. He only faced three batters in the first inning but two of the outs required strong defensive plays, one each by Austin Hays and Jordan Westburg.
The Rangers did get on the board in the second inning when Irvin plunked Adolis García and then allowed a homer to Derek Hill. It was Hill’s second home run of the season. His first came earlier in the series.
Irvin had a disastrous third inning even without allowing a run. He hit his second batter of the game, walked a batter, and threw a wild pitch. Woof. And it only got worse in the fourth. Wyatt Langford smoked a ball to left field that would have been a home run in 22 ballparks. Hays looked like he might get it but was unable to bring it in and Langford landed on third base.
Three straight batters reached after that, resulting in two more runs and a 4-1 lead by the Rangers. When Josh Smith singled in the fifth run, that was all she wrote for Irvin. Brandon Hyde opted to bring in Nick Vespi, who retired the first batter he saw for the third out.
The Orioles got one run back in the fourth inning on a Heston Kjerstad double. I like that kid. He can stay. He knocked in Hays, who had been hit by a pitch. Ryan O’Hearn was also on base but he couldn’t score. O’Hearn, getting a surprise start against a lefty, had three hits!
What followed for the Orioles as far as pitching was the use of relief pitchers that are mostly for use in garbage time only. The Orioles were down by four runs which is a lot but not blowout. But Hyde has a tired bullpen and west coast road trip coming up, so garbage time pitchers it was.
Vespi came back out for the fifth inning and it was hard to watch. He almost gave up back-to-back-to-back doubles to García, Langford, and Nathaniel Lowe, but Lowe got thrown out at second so it only counted as a single. Two runs scored as a result of those three batters and Hill followed with his second home run of the game, third of the season (all against the Orioles). Vespi allowed two more baserunners in the inning but no more runs. Rough night for Nick Vespi.
Dillon Tate replaced Vespi and he was refreshingly successful. In his two innings pitched, he gave up just one hit, which was a single to Langford. If you’re keeping track, at this point Langford had tripled, doubled, and singled. Regardless, very nice job by Tate.
With the Orioles down by six runs going into the eighth inning, there was nothing more to do than let Matt Krook pitch. Krook is only here until Corbin Burnes returns from paternity leave, and for good reason. He’s not good.
In his defense, the first batter he faced reached on an error by the normally very reliable Jordan Westburg. But not in his defense, he did walk the next batter and give up a three-run homer to his third batter. That batter was Wyatt Langford and it allowed him to complete the cycle. Langford is a 22-year-old rookie so that’s kind of cool for him. Not very cool for the Orioles.
Krook retired the next three batters and turned the ball over to Keegan Akin for the ninth. Akin worked around a two-out single for a successful inning.
I haven’t mentioned much about the offense in this recap and here’s why: it was awful. Andrew Heaney and his lifetime ERA of 4.46 almost completely shut down one of the best offenses in baseball. He struck out 10 batters and only allowed five hits in seven innings.
I chalk this up to the sometimes you suck doctrine. Case in point: Gunnar Henderson struck out four times. Four! It was a first in his young career. All seven hits in the game were by three batters! O’Hearn singled thrice, Hays singled and doubled, and Kjerstad singled and doubled. The rest of the team went 0-for-24! No walks even. That is not the Orioles offense.
Orioles lose, 11-2. They have an off day tomorrow as they travel to the west coast. On Tuesday they being a series with the Seattle Mariners. Enjoy the off-day, everyone.