Baltimore Orioles Beaten by another Rookie Pitcher

Jul 12, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter (26) pulls starting pitcher Chris Tillman (30) in the seventh inning against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Yankees defeated the Orioles 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

It has certainly been a pattern this season, and even stretching to previous years, that the Baltimore Orioles seem to have great difficulty with rookie pitchers or throwers they have never seen before.

On Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards, the newest Cy Young-like rookie sensation was the Yankees’ Shane Greene, who shut down the Orioles for 7.1 innings on four hits along with nine strikeouts. I’m going to end up ranting a bit here, but make no mistake about it, this young man was very, very good. At the end, the Yankees prevailed 3-0.

Even though Greene was the Yankees organization’s minor league pitcher of the year in 2013, his stats this season were not honestly that great. He was pitching to a 4.61 ERA at AAA, with a batting average against that was approaching .300. The Orioles should be able to handle someone like this, right? Nope… it is enough to make one wish that Masahiro Tanaka or C.C. Sabathia were back – those are guys the O’s can handle and defeat!

But Greene had some awesome stuff. I have to reluctantly, but honestly, say that it is one of the very best pitching efforts I’ve seen in recent years against the Baltimore Orioles. The kid was great. His slider was terrific – lots of late break that caught the strike zone at the last instant or darted under the bat on a swing.

However, the Orioles helped him out a lot, not that he really needed it. Chris Davis looks as lost as any hitter I’ve seen in a long time. With 105 strikeouts on the season, he is making Mark Reynolds look like a contact hitter. Davis has a 32% chance of a strikeout when he steps to the plate. The batting average is down to .197.

It also looks like there is some increasing reason for concern about Nelson Cruz. Like Davis, he also struck out three times in this game. Over the past week or so, Cruz has begun to chase low-and-away breaking pitches in the vein of Adam Jones over the years (though Adam has grown in his ability to resist these balls). Surely the scouts around the league are seeing this; therefore that is what Cruz is going to see. He will have to figure this out and make the adjustments.

The 4-5-6 hitters for the Orioles were a collective 0-for-12 with nine strikeoouts!

While we’re talking about those who struck out three times today, let’s go to the next batter in the lineup – J.J. Hardy. So yes, if you are doing the math in your head, this means that the 4-5-6 hitters in the O’s lineup were a collective 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts!! Hardy so often will swing at the worst pitch in any given at-bat. Today in his final appearance against Greene, he watched two balls break over the plate, and then he swung and missed a breaking ball over a foot outside.

But I’ve saved my worst vitriol for Ryan Flaherty. In the seventh inning, Greene was clearly about totally empty. This was the moment for the Orioles to get back into the game. With two outs (the second one being the Hardy strikeout described above), he walked Manny Machado on four pitches. He then threw two balls well out of the zone to Flaherty, bringing the pitching coach to the mound to buy time for the bullpen to warm up. Again… doing that math – that is six consecutive balls. What should a batter do in this situation with the score 3-0? Maybe if your last name is Puig or Trout or Cano you get a green light … maybe. Or maybe if you are even just a .250 contact hitter you get a green light … maybe, but probably not. But really, do you swing at it if you are a platooned player batting .226? No! Why? Because YOU MIGHT JUST HIT A GROUND BALL INTO THE SHIFT AND END THE INNING!