Baltimore Orioles: Can’t Win without the Home Run

The Baltimore Orioles proved on Thursday night that they are able to come from behind and win a game without dependence upon the long ball, defeating Detroit 7-5.

If all you knew about last night’s game was that the O’s fell behind 5-0, but came back to win 7-5 on the strength of five-run bottom of the seventh inning, you would assume that there were likely two or three home runs in the mix. Not so.

Beating up on the Tigers’ bullpen is not a new experience for the Orioles (or anyone else, for that matter). But the Birds did it this time with 10 singles out of 12 hits in the game.

The biggest hit of them all was a triple by Jonathan Schoop to score the two go-ahead runs. This is the first legit triple of the year for the Orioles, who are last in the American League in this category. Mark Trumbo has one also, but it was the result of a misplayed ball lost in the sun.

Schoop needed to bury it deep in the right-field corner to get Pedro Alvarez all of the way around from first base, though he does run well for such a big guy.

All in all, it was a gratifying win. It looked like a grievous mistake on Showalter’s part to send Ubaldo out for the sixth, having flirted with certain death all evening and throwing 100 largely ineffective pitches. Indeed, he put two on base who would score.

But being at the game, it was very interesting to go into the concourses at the pitching change bringing in Vance Worley. In an impromptu conversation with a series of serious O’s fans, everyone believed the Orioles were going to come back. The game was slipping a bit from the Detroit starter, and everyone knew of the infamous Tigers pen.

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That must be totally maddening for Detroit fans (not that their starters have been very good this year either). Here in Birdland we have had our complaints about elements of the team that can be frustrating … like the starters not throwing enough innings, or the annual lack of on-base percentage or plate discipline. But that Tigers bullpen would take it to a whole new level of exasperation. However, having just written that, if we think back to the five years or so before the Showalter era, we had some of the same junk happening in these parts.

Chris Tillman goes to the mound tonight for his eighth start of the season. This has been the best beginning of a season for Tillman in his four full years with the Orioles. Here are his numbers through seven starts over the past four years …

Tillman would have surely had more innings pitched this year were it not for his abbreviated start due to weather at the beginning of the season.

And speaking of weather, it is an issue yet again. Yesterday was the first full day without rain in over two weeks. That is ridiculous. This looks to be the challenge of 2016 for the Orioles. But they will keep grinding, it’s what they do.