Mookie Betts 5, Baltimore Orioles 3
Mookie Betts beat the Baltimore Orioles single-handedly on Tuesday evening by hitting a pair of home runs to account for all five of Boston’s runs.
The win for the Red Sox brings them into a tie with the Orioles. For a while, it appeared there would be a three-way tie for the AL East lead. Probably a lot of O’s fans turned off following MLB knowing that the Yankees were beating the Blue Jays 6-0 after five innings. But proving that the Orioles are not the only bird-named team that can fly back from a six-run deficit, the Jays flocked for four runs in the sixth inning and eight in the eighth to pull out a 12-6 win. Tulowitski (sounds like a bird name) led the air attack with four hits and a homer.
But back to the better birds of Baltimore … what are The Birds supposed to do with this Mookie Betts character? He has now hit seven homers in five games in Baltimore, a quarter of his total of 28 for the season.
As always with the Sox, their players look all out of proportion. Surely having the shortest lineup in the game since the late 1800s, Betts is hitting in the cleanup spot … all five feet, nine inches and 180 pounds of him. Maybe he took it easy on the O’s. He had three homers and eight RBIs on Sunday against Arizona.
This could be one of those guys you walk with the bases loaded. Buck Showalter is the manager who did that with Barry Bonds, right? I don’t think that’s a fairytale. Nope … looked it up. It was in May of 1998 when Buck managed the Diamondbacks.
Walking batters is what Orioles pitchers did last night as well. They gave up a total of six, five of them by Yovani Gallardo in his five innings of work. Apart from a ball that he let hang in the middle of the plate, he almost got away without the Red Sox scoring off him.
The walks are the result of having to pitch around everybody. Gallardo throws some nice pitches, particularly a curve that often has some nice, late drop. But too many of his pitches are very, very average. He has to be precise on the corners; he simply can’t challenge batters and get away with anything over the heart of the plate. The margin in very thin and difficult to sustain for multiple innings.
Speaking of margins, it is difficult to win games on only four base hits. But the Orioles came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie it, this is, before Betts hit his second homer off Brad Brach for the final 5-3 margin. So coming back is a good sign and hopefully the early stages (along with Sunday’s win) of a pattern that will sustain the O’s through the final 44 games.
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Late news has Chris Tillman being pushed back three days due to some shoulder stiffness. This does not hit me as a big deal, though we’d rather not hear about anything of this sort at all. Two weeks until September and call-ups. Gonna need some. Gallardo got drilled on the forearm as well, and it would not be surprising if that develops into the bigger issue.
Look for the Orioles to bounce back tonight against David Price. Dylan Bundy will be sending Papi and the midgets back to the dugout one after another.