Baltimore Orioles: Taking the Bad with the Good

Apr 28, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles left fielder Hyun Soo Kim (25) stands by home plate during the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Baltimore Orioles defeated Chicago White Sox 10-2. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /

The Baltimore Orioles lost to the Chicago White Sox 8-7 Saturday evening in an odd game they should have won several times.

Almost everything about this game was upside-down from what is normally seen from the O’s. The bullpen blew the game and gave it back to the Sox. The defense faltered and allowed several runs that should have never scored. And several struggling players had good offensive games.

The Orioles’ relievers have been so good that it was inevitable that there were going to be some runs yielded at some point. And it happened last night — five runs in the final three innings.

Chicago managed a run off Mychal Givens. Brett Lawrie walked and stole second base. He really would have been out had Jonathan Schoop properly handled the throw from Matt Wieters. But getting the ball to stick in his glove was a problem throughout the evening for Schoop. He only tallied one error, but there were several other situations where he either did not get the glove to the ball (on a Machado throwing error), or did not get the ball to stick in the glove. It was very strange, enough to make you wonder if he was seeing properly; although a typically massive Schoop home run would tend to negate that theory.

Darren O’Day came into the game next to settle the situation and protect the one-run lead. He had gone 8.2 innings in 10 appearances, giving up only five hits while striking out 14. But on this night he would give up three runs on three hits, including a Todd Frazier homer.

The winning Chicago run would be charged to Zach Britton, the batter reaching on a two-out bunt single in which Britton was injured on the play. Bringing in Vance Worley, he struck out the batter with a definitive strike, but did not get the call due to Wieters rising up to be positioned for what was a fake steal. A walk and single later, and the Orioles were behind and doomed to fall by an 8-7 score.

Much has been written about two struggling Orioles hitters: Hyun Soo Kim and Pedro Alvarez. Each garnered three hits on the evening and looked very good at the plate.

After falling behind 7-5, the Orioles came back to do something no other team had done in a great while — score off former Oriole Matt Albers. The big blow was a clutch two-run double by Chris Davis.

So it was a weird game for sure. A lot of ground balls for the White Sox found holes, while the Orioles hit some hard balls right at fielders. Some nights it just does not go your way, and Saturday was one of them.