Baltimore Orioles: Winning Weird Works Well
The Baltimore Orioles won a fifth straight game, doing it in weird fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning over the Colorado Rockies.
It was the second consecutive walk-off win for the Orioles and the fifth in this 2016 season, the first being on opening day. Seeing the winning run score at Camden Yards and the team rushing the plate from the dugout never gets old for an O’s fan.
And winning games in varied and strange fashion also brings back memories of the 96-win season of 2014. Baltimore won a total of 10 walkoff victories that year. And by the way, at 58-40, the Orioles are on exact pace to win 96 games again this year.
The Rockies tried to give the game away early with errors, but the Orioles could not get the critically-needed hit. Colorado starter Jorge De La Rosa was hittable enough at the beginning, but after hanging around awhile got better as the innings passed.
Meanwhile, Orioles starter Yovani Gallardo continued the recent stretch of quality starts by throwing 6.2 innings of two runs on five hits and a pair of walks. The bullpen of Mychal Givens, Zach Britton and Chaz Roe did what the O’s relievers do – shut down the other team. And eventually the Orioles eeked out a final run for the win, being set up with hits by Adam Jones and Jonathan Schoop.
The Orioles are 9-4 over the past 13 games, though outscoring opponents only 40-36 in that time. But the pitching staff has a 2.68 ERA in 114 innings of baseball. They have moved up two places in ERA in the AL, going from next to last to 12th place. The overall ERA of 4.19 has the Baltimore staff at seventh overall. And the bullpen ranks as the very best at 3.05, also having a 25-8 record.
It would be nice to win games 8-2 or 7-3 once in a while. It so often seems difficult to get the hitting and pitching working together. The more frequent scenario is needing, as recently, to squeeze out a low-scoring win; or as in the past, to outslug the opposition.
Not wanting to steal defeat from the jaws of victory, but to rather be honest in analysis, there are troubling aspects of the current situation with the Orioles. Few are hitting well at all, and several – especially Davis – look rather lost at the plate. A couple of wild pitches that might more accurately have been credited as passed balls nearly doomed the Birds last night.
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At the same time, the defense is typically strong, with the lack of such on display by the Rockies last night, in many ways costing them the game. Manny made one of his amazing throws on a weak grounder down the third base line. I often wonder what he would be clocked at if he were to pitch.
Hyun Soo Kim should be back with the Orioles. He was 2-for-4 with a homer for the BaySox in a wild affair last night, as Bowie put up nine runs with three homers. But they gave up 10 runs on 16 hits with Tanner Scott taking the loss.