SAN FRANCISCO — These games don’t matter? Don’t tell Justin Verlander that.
The 42-year-old Giants hurler on Sunday started the 550th game of his illustrious career, and he wasn’t going to let his pitch count end his day. Verlander was approaching 120 pitches — a total rarely seen for pitchers these days unless they’re throwing a no-hitter — in the fifth inning against the Orioles.
Verlander wanted the win, though, and remained in the game to face Gunnar Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle with two runners on base. He struck both out for his ninth and 10th punchouts of the afternoon, and the future Hall of Famer walked off the mound to a standing ovation.
The Orioles and Giants are both out of playoff contention. In that way, the result of Sunday’s matinee was meaningless. But Verlander didn’t treat it as such, striking out 10 in five innings for the 265th win of his career. The Orioles, with players far less established and much younger than Verlander, barely put up a fight in a 13-2 loss, yet another in sloppy fashion.
Baltimore’s bats had 10 hits but were shut out through eight innings. However, it was the Orioles’ defense that turned a normal game into an embarrassing loss, the club’s second in three games after doing the same Friday. They made three errors, but that’s a generous tally. In total, they made at least five defensive miscues that ruined Tomoyuki Sugano’s outing and then transformed the game into a blowout that ended with an Orioles position player pitching.
“I think it’s a guy [Verlander] that took what we gave him, which was offspeed and spin and changeups and the whole deal,” Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I think with a lot of young hitters, they’ve got to kind of learn and recognize when pitchers are pitching a certain way. And instead of trying to kind of force a square peg through the round hole, take what the pitcher gives you.”
The series loss is Baltimore’s third straight. The Orioles (61-76) are 2-9 in their past 11 games.
Sugano was far from his best self, allowing a solo homer to Rafael Devers (his 28th of the season) in the first and and two more runs in the third on a Devers single and a Willy Adames sacrifice fly. But Sugano’s fourth inning was derailed by perhaps the Orioles’ most ignominious display of defense since the rebuild.
The leadoff batter reached base on a slow grounder that reached the outfield because neither shortstop Luis Vázquez nor second baseman Jackson Holliday went for the ball. Luis Matos then reached on an infield single between Holliday and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. A soft grounder to Jeremiah Jackson at third base that would have been a routine play for Jordan Westburg then turned into an infield single for Christian Koss and an error on Jackson after his errant throw to first got past Mountcastle. Sugano then allowed a routine fly ball to left field, but outfielder Daniel Johnson fell down en route to the ball, which landed and gave Drew Gilbert a lucky two-run triple. Sugano was charged with 10 hits and seven earned runs despite his defense’s sabotage, raising his ERA to 4.41 on the season.
“There are obviously games that the defense has my back, but today wasn’t so much the case,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai.
The sixth inning was almost as bad with fielding errors from both Jackson and Vázquez, which caused all three runs against reliever Corbin Martin to score.
“It is disappointing and it’s frustrating,” Mansolino said. “I think for me as I’m watching this on a day when we have a chance to win the series against a team that’s been playing good baseball, you see some of the guys make mistakes, the initial reaction is to be frustrated. But then, for me, I look at the guys making the mistakes and it’s guys who are kind of fighting for their careers in a lot of ways, you know? And they’re trying to prove that they’re major league players and they’re not Triple-A guys. So my emotions go from frustration to more empathetic, I guess, for those guys because they don’t want that to happen. Because that affects them as much as it does the team in the moment.
“I just try to put myself in the players’ shoes and understand how difficult the game is and how it feels in the scenarios that they’re in for their careers when they make those mistakes. And I think when you kind of take that outlook on it, your feelings and your emotions do change a little bit.”
Catcher Alex Jackson took the mound in the eighth and received a chorus of boos from Giants fans as he lobbed the ball — one as slow as 35.4 mph — toward the plate and walked the first two batters. San Francisco (68-69) tacked on three more runs to increase its lead to 13-0. In the ninth, Holliday and designated hitter Henderson both smacked RBI hits to prevent what would’ve been the Orioles’ 15th shutout this season.
Postgame analysis
After Friday’s sloppy loss, which featured three errors in one inning, Mansolino said the Orioles aren’t “the only ones” in MLB who let a bad game turn worse with self-inflicted wounds. Mountcastle said nights like Friday’s 15-8 loss are “bound to happen” across a grueling 162-game season.
It only took two days for it to happen again. Sunday’s loss was one of the worst of the season, which is certainly saying something for a ballclub that has lost 24-2 on Easter, 19-5 at Fenway Park and 12-8 after leading by eight runs.
Of course, both Mansolino and Mountcastle are right. The Orioles aren’t the only team that this happens to, especially when most of Sunday’s blunders were committed by players that weren’t on this team a month ago. And weird things do happen during a long MLB campaign.
The problem is that a performance like Sunday’s is no longer surprising, and it won’t be either if it happens again Monday.
What they’re saying
Mansolino on why he remains optimistic about the Orioles’ future:
“We’ve got Kyle Bradish going tomorrow. We have some good things happening. This last week has been rough. I don’t think we can take this last week and indict the team’s future on that. I think I’m probably more going to look at what’s happened over the last couple months. Now, some of the main pieces that played so well for us over the last couple months, they’re on the injured list right now: Jordan Westburg and Adley Rutschman.
“The big leagues are hard and the schedule’s hard, and it’s a huge opportunity for a lot of guys. I’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in these guys that they’ll kind of bounce back and play a better game tomorrow.”
By the numbers
Verlander is the oldest active MLB player at 42 years, 192 days. The right-hander was drafted No. 2 overall by the Detroit Tigers in June 2004.
In June 2004, Samuel Basallo was two months away from being born. Holliday was 6 months old. Dylan Beavers and Henderson were nearly 3 years old. Sugano, who at 35 is the Orioles’ oldest player, was only 14 years old when Verlander joined professional baseball. Nine years later, Sugano joined Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the season Verlander made the sixth of his nine All-Star Game appearances.
On deck
The Orioles will get to see a couple of old friends Monday in San Diego. Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano on Monday will play against the Orioles for the first time since they were traded to the Padres at the deadline. Kyle Bradish will take the ball Monday and hope to repeat the dominance he put on display in his season debut Tuesday.
Around the horn
• Tyler Wells is a “good bet” to start Tuesday against the Padres, Mansolino said. Albert Suárez is expected to join the roster Monday when rosters expand from 26 to 28.
• It’s unclear, Mansolino said, which position player will be called up to join the club Monday. It was originally assumed to be Jorge Mateo, but Mansolino said the Orioles are still “checking boxes” on his minor league rehabilitation assignment. It could take “a couple more days” before Mateo rejoins the Orioles.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
