On Tuesday night, the Orioles dropped their fourth game in a row as they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-6.
With the loss, Baltimore has lost three straight series; however, they are still tied for first place in the American League East with the Tampa Bay Rays at 29-21. Once again, the Orioles got a shaky start from a pitcher – this time, Jake Arrieta – and much like Tommy Hunter, the previous night, he struggled.
Overall, Arrieta got hit hard by the Jays, particularly in the third and fifth innings. He gave up seven runs – six earned – on six hits in only 4 1/3 innings pitched. I would consider Arrieta one of the more talented pitchers on the roster, and he’s got “good stuff”; however, none of that matters if you can’t make your pitches to put guys away. His record is now 2-6 on the year.
He was not keeping the ball low in the zone, and a team like Toronto who likes to swing at the ball and kill it did just that on Tuesday. I’m sure Arrieta will get every chance to succeed, but if the Orioles are to contend, they will need a lot more than Wei-Yin Chen and Jason Hammel out there.
Arrieta, Tommy Hunter (if he comes back), Brian Matusz, and all the other young pitchers will need to do their part and execute. I think the game is 80 to 90 percent pitching, and if Baltimore can’t do it on the mound, it won’t matter how many runs they score.
If there was any good news from Tuesday night, it’s got to be Adam Jones. Although the rest of the team seems to be struggling, he’s still red hot and stretched his hitting streak to 20 games. He hit two homers – a solo shot in the second, and a two-run shot in the ninth. Jones now has 16 homers on the season.
Chris Davis also homered on the night, smacking a two-run homer (his 9th on the season) in the sixth inning.
Toronto starting pitcher Ricky Romero – who got the win – gave up four runs in six innings; however, the Orioles scored twice in the ninth inning as Jones homered, but they could not complete the comeback.
As well, Matt Wieters earned his first career ejection, as he was arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning with home plate umpire Doug Eddings.
Eddings calls were terrible – as noted in the post-game show on MASN – however, as a player, you cannot argue with umpires. Once you do that you’re tossed; however, Wieters had a strong point about Eddings’ game-calling.
Robert Andino also had issues with him, as Eddings blew a check swing call early in the game; overall, on the night, the Orioles didn’t execute at the plate, the starting pitching was not very good and that contributed to their loss.
