The Orioles fortunes hung on two pitches from Jeremy Guthrie today. Guthrie surrendered a season-worst seven runs in five innings, thus matching his shortest outing of the year as well. Six of the seven runs came off of a pair of three-run homers. In the second inning Guthrie coughed one up to Evan Longoria, his first of the year. the tape-measure blast soared over the left-field fence and put the Birds in an early 4-0 hole. Later in the fifth inning BJ Upton came up, again with two outs, and hit a 385 ft drive into the seats just to the left of the out-of-town scoreboard, making it a 7-0 game.
That was pretty much all the Rays would need. They got another run, with two out, off Jeremy Accardo o make it an 8-0 laugher by the seventh. Ever scrappy the Orioles were able to scratch out something in the seventh. Mark Reynolds lead off the inning with his second walk of the day, Robert Andino followed in suit with another walk. The badly slumping Brian Roberts flied out, but Nick Markakis was able to collect his third hit of the day a hard-hit single up the middle and off the hand of Rays pitcher Juan Cruz. If Cruz had let the ball go through it may have been a double play ball (but it looked like it had the energy to make it through from where I was). Regardless, Markakis plated Reynolds and the Orioles ensured that they would not be shut out this day.
In the bottom of the ninth the Orioles would scrape together something that resembled an offense again. Andino led off and was followed by Fox, who came in to catch in the top of the ninth. Lineup juggling by Showalter had him batting in Roberts’ spot. Fox would make good on his opportunity and he roped a double off the top of the left field wall. With two on in scoring position and no one out Markakis came to the plate and scored Andino on a sacrifice fly to left. After a Lee strike out Guerrero came up with two out and walked. Pie, who replaced Scott in the ninth, however struck out to end the game. Orioles lose again 8-2.
The Orioles had another pathetic day at the plate. Markakis’ three hits accounted for three of the teams’ four by the eighth inning. But do not get me wrong, they did not make Rays’ starter Jeremy Hellickson look “good”. Hellickson walked five in as many innings, the Rays staff would walk ten Orioles before the day was done, and the Orioles had runners in scoring position in three of his five innings of work but, as usual, we unable to capitalize on their chances. The Orioles had 14 plate appearances with runners in scoring position today. They recorded one single, two RBI, two walks and a sacrifice fly. They only scored twice and left 12 men on base.
And that is really the story of the game. The Rays recorded 14 hits, but they really only needed two to put the Orioles away today and hand them their third straight loss.
The Orioles will try to salvage a win in this series tomorrow when Brad Bergesen will go up against Wade Davis. The Orioles would also like to not lose too much ground on the Rays in the standings. Yes I know its early but I, as a fan could learn to live with losing one game to them in the AL East as opposed to dropping three.
Final Thoughts:
– Sam Fuld. While his batting average is dropping like a stone, he is still a slick fielder. He robbed Andino of runs in the fourth and stole a two-run homer from Wieters in the eighth.
– Even though the game quickly became a runaway the Rays used five pitchers, blowing through one-inning relievers.
-It is encouraging to see Markakis have a 3-4 day. He has raised his batting average 30 points since April 30. Unfortunately that is coming at a time when Brian Roberts is slumping – badly. He is batting .152 over the last two weeks and he has an OBP of .216 over that same time-frame.
-Jake Fox came in to catch the top of the ninth and once again showed why he is not a catcher. Watching him try to call a game is embarrassing. This experiment will most certainly not last long. His double off the top of the wall in the ninth not withstanding, he is not worth carrying on a roster if he can not be a viable guy on the field. When JJ comes back you can keep him if you want, but you have to dump Izturis and bring up a real backup catcher.
– Today’s loss was only the second time in team history that they drew 10 walks or more and failed to score more than two runs.
Oh well at least it is a beautiful day in Baltimore.
