Baltimore Orioles: Double is the Key Word

Aug 4, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Wade Miley (38) throws a pitch in the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports /

The Baltimore Orioles lost a 5-3 final (regular season) game to the Texas, as the Rangers hit six doubles and recorded three double plays.

Forget that the Orioles hit three home runs to only one for Texas, as double trouble and a large dose of bad luck bit the O’s all evening long. There’s a lot of green grass on a baseball field, and the Rangers batters managed to find a lot of it on a whole variety of swings, good and bad and ugly.

There is nothing new about the Baltimore Orioles hitting home runs. They now have 161 for the season, still good enough for best in the American League. But it is not like the Rangers are a doubles hitting outfit. They came into the game with only 163 of them, 13^th-ranking in the American League. The Orioles have 189, which is fifth best; and the Red Sox have the most with 242.

But six different Rangers players hit a double on this evening, and they were able to plate four of them along with a solo home run for the 5-3 win.

Solo home runs by the Orioles were hit by Mark Trumbo, Pedro Alvarez and Hyun Soo Kim to account for all of the Orioles scoring. There really were no other chances to score, as the Birds were 0-for-0 with runners in scoring position. You read that correctly. I’m not sure I’ve ever written that before! No Orioles player made it to second base, other than with the three homers.

Double play groundouts by Alvarez, Wieters and Schoop quickly evaporated any possibilities of a rally. Texas leads all of baseball with double plays on defense, leading by a large margin. It really is the pitcher’s best friend.

So what do we make of the first outing of Wade Miley for the Orioles? Going five innings he gave up four runs on eight hits, zero walks and five strikeouts. Jonathan Lucroy hit a solo home run, but honestly it was off a very good pitch. There were more than a couple of cheap hits, including a pair that scored the third and fourth of the runs. At the same time, his pitches are not extra special. His breaking and off-speed stuff has some nice dive to it. Hopefully he will pitch skillfully and add up the innings over his tenure with the Orioles.