We all know by now that the Baltimore Orioles got killed by the Washington Nationals last night, 9-3.
After a lengthy rain delay, the game featured two starters that were in Double-A only about two weeks ago. One guy – Kevin Gausman – was making his second start in the majors for Baltimore; meanwhile, Nathan Karn for Washington was making his major league debut.
The game itself was not pretty to watch, as you got the feeling, “ok, at any point, no lead is safe”, based on what both teams were doing at the plate in the first half; however, for Gausman, the results were not good at all.
The 22-year-old only lasted four innings and gave up seven runs – all earned. He allowed three long balls and is now 0-2 with an 11.00 ERA in two starts.
The youngster left his pitches up in the zone. They were fastballs and were crushed by major league hitters. Gausman may get away with those pitches in the minors, but not in the majors, nor against a team that was christened as World Series bound in the spring.
At this point, most front offices would send a pitcher like Gausman back to the minors. However, that will not be the case as manager Buck Showalter announced he would make his next start on Sunday.
Um, against the out-of-this-word Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers.
Gausman can pitch based on his minor league numbers; however, can he get hitters out and be consistent from one inning to the next.
That is the question.
If any good news came from this game, it’s this: Chris Davis is having a year for the ages – so far. He hit his 17th home run last night off of Karn in the 4th inning and now has 17 homers with 47 runs driven in.
Even more amazing, Davis is batting .344.
I was worried about him racking up the strikeouts in the offseason, but he’s hitting everything in sight and has greatly improved his batting eye.
He right now may probably be the best hitter in the majors outside the aforementioned Miguel Cabrera.
I would have never guessed Davis would have done this before the season.
Then again, I would also add Manny Machado to the mix. He and Davis are setting themselves up to have watershed seasons with the Baltimore franchise.
Machado is currently batting .335 and went 1-for-3 last night in Washington.
J.J. Hardy is hot as well, as he homered last night – his 10th on the year – and had three hits. He is currently batting .250, which is a marked improvement from last month.
It has been fun to watch the offense this season, but ugh, the pitching has to get better.
