Baltimore Orioles Squeak Out Win with Five Homers

In what might be a preview of the 2016 Baltimore Orioles season, it took five home runs to squeak out a 10-inning victory over the Yankees.

Usually when a team slugs five homers in a game, it is going to be a rather certain win. But not with the Orioles and their current pitching state of affairs.

The Orioles enjoyed getting three home runs off Ivan Nova: the fifth of the spring for Mark Trumbo, the second in two days by J.J. Hardy (wind aided), and a sweet two-run blast by Caleb Joseph. Manny Machado hit a solo shot in the seventh inning to tie the game before the Yankees took the lead again immediately in the top of the eighth off Pedro Beato.

But it was the O’s fifth homer of the day by Nolan Reimold that tied the game and sent it into extra innings. And he would later drive in a run in the decisive bottom of the 10^th comeback victory. So the reports of Reimold’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

I am looking forward (as I write this) to seeing the complete replay of the game. The ending was entertaining for sure. Watching it on MLB Gameday while at the office, it was frustrating, as the app was not working well at all (true to form for spring training).

Since the game went into the 10^th inning, the Orioles brought in Stefan Crichton to pitch. I am not going to lie and say that I knew who that was. I had to look it up, noting he was 23^rd-round pick in 2013 who has never pitched above the A level. He immediately gave up a double and three singles, yielding two Yankees runs in the top of the 10^th.

But this is clearly a guy who knows how to pitch into good luck. The Orioles began the bottom of the 10^th by getting two consecutive runners on throwing errors by the third baseman. After loading the bases, Reimold got one run back on a liner to center before Garabez Rosa walked it off with a two-run single up the middle. Rosa is now 6-for-8 in the spring; gotta love that!

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But back to Crichton’s first performance with the big team. He ended up as the winning pitcher!  Imagine him calling his parents back home to tell them he won his first game out! Forget the 18.0 ERA.

Again, it is the pitching that is of concern. Everything I read about the game indicated that Tillman had better stuff than might be imagined from giving up five runs in 4.0 innings. Having now watched those innings (while writing this article), it is indeed true. The velocity was fine and the change looked pretty good. The umpire was not helpful at all. Tillman’s fastball even had some late movement, which is not always true.

In other good news, Trumbo also had an assist from the outfield, throwing out a runner at third base.

It is going to be an interesting season, perhaps also a bit nerve-wracking.