With the club’s best hitters now playing elsewhere, a punchless Birds lineup failed to support Trevor Rogers’ complete-game masterpiece.
Welcome to the new era of Orioles baseball, friends. It’s gonna be rough.
In their first game since their trade-deadline frenzy that sent several key hitters to contending clubs, the Orioles failed to generate any offense in a blink-and-you-missed-it 1-0 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Birds’ hitting futility ruined a masterpiece by Trevor Rogers, who worked his first career complete game but took a hard-luck defeat thanks to a lone second-inning run.
I will say this: if the Orioles are going to lose a lot of games the rest of this season, let’s hope they always lose this quickly. Today’s contest was played in a crisp 1 hour and 49 minutes, the Orioles’ quickest nine-inning game since Sept. 3, 1988, a 1-hour, 45-minute game in Seattle. That was also a 1-0 Orioles loss.
In case you missed it, the Orioles have, uh, done a bit of roster reshuffling recently. The last time I recapped a game was July 23 in Cleveland. That was only nine days ago, and yet, more than half of the Orioles in that starting lineup are no longer with the team. Since then Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano, Ramón Urías, and Cedric Mullins were traded, and Jacob Stallings was DFA’d. The Orioles’ offense certainly missed their presence today. (Well, maybe not Stallings. But definitely the others.)
The rejiggered O’s lineup, which today featured Dylan Carlson in center field and Jeremiah Jackson making his MLB debut at DH, had no answer for Cubs starter Cade Horton. The rookie right-hander, coming off two straight scoreless starts, easily extended that streak to three with a dominant performance against the Birds.
In Horton’s five innings of work, only once did the O’s even get a runner into scoring position. That was in the first inning, when a somewhat shaky Horton walked both Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson. It was, as it turned out, the Orioles’ only real opportunity to do some damage. But a pair of harmless flyouts by Adley Rutschman and Tyler O’Neill squashed the threat.
From then on, Horton overpowered an O’s lineup that is now without its two OPS leaders, Laureano and O’Hearn, as well as the recently heating up Mullins. The only hits Horton allowed were a Holliday single in the third and Jackson’s first major league hit in the fifth, a hard shot that deflected off third baseman Matt Shaw. Nice moment for the new guy! Jackson, though, tried to steal second and was nailed by a mile. Getting thrown out on the bases in embarrassing fashion? Congratulations, Jeremiah, you are officially an Oriole.
It’s a shame, because Trevor Rogers pitched the game of his life today. On a competent team, he would have notched a well-earned victory, but unfortunately he’s stuck with the Orioles. Rogers went the distance for the first time in his career — and yes, it was only eight innings, since the Cubs didn’t have to bat in the bottom of the ninth — but a CG is a CG.
Rogers was simply brilliant. He needed to throw only 88 pitches in his eight masterful frames, and he retired 24 of the 28 batters he faced. His eight strikeouts tied a season high. He didn’t walk anyone. And at the end of the day he lowered his ERA to 1.44 in nine starts. Real talk: is Trevor Rogers the best pitcher in baseball? Discuss amongst yourselves.
Even the one run that Rogers allowed could have been prevented with some better defense. The first two hitters of the second inning, Carson Kelly and Pete Crow-Armstrong, both swatted deep blasts that hit off the fence. Kelly settled for a single and Crow-Armstrong a double. With one out, Ian Happ lofted a fly ball to O’Neill in medium right field. The not-particularly-fast Kelly tagged from third and O’Neill had a legitimate shot at cutting him down, but his throw sailed way up the third base line as Kelly scampered home safely. That could have been executed better, Tyler. Oh well, it’s not like that’s the one run that’s going to decide the game or anything, right? …Right?
Oh, wait. Turns out, one run will beat you when you don’t score any yourself. Even after Horton left the game, the Orioles fared no better against four Cubs relievers. That group included Andrew Kittredge, making his Cubs debut, whose previous appearance came as an Oriole just two days ago. Just like Seranthony Domínguez earlier this week, Kittredge began his tenure with his new club by shutting down the team that just traded him. He retired the Orioles 1-2-3, striking out O’Neill and Colton Cowser. That 17-year-old prospect the Orioles got for him better be worth it!
Down to their last out in the ninth, the Birds tried to make some noise when Rutschman roped a double off closer Daniel Palencia. O’Neill then smashed a blast to deep left that, off the bat, looked like a sure homer to me. But the Wrigley winds knocked it down and Happ hauled it in on the warning track, denying the O’s a dramatic comeback. Blergh.
The Orioles are back in the loss column. But at least they were snappy about it.