Baltimore Orioles: Yuge Win – Trust Me, Believe Me!
The Baltimore Orioles came back from a 7-1 deficit in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon to win 8-7 in a game that may be remembered later as the critical turning point of the season.
Critical game? Really? Time will tell, but there is no doubt that it was a “yuge” win for the Birds. Coming back from being six runs down is a big deal that does not often happen. And doing it on the final game of a 10-game road trip to the west coast is even bigger. And making it happen with two outs in the ninth inning in the ballpark of one of the better teams is biggest. With a three-run homer … priceless.
Even in the past offseason, we were looking ahead to this road trip at this point of the 2016 season as a critical part of the schedule. Locked for months in a three-way race with the Blue Jays and Red Sox, the Orioles needed to avoid a total disaster on the road—an unfriendly place for this version of the O’s. To have a 4-6 record would not exactly be a disaster, but to get this game and have a 5-5 trip is a reasonable success.
This is especially true since the Orioles remain only a half-game behind the Jays and 1.5 ahead of the Sox, both big winners on Sunday. The Birds opened the road trip in a tie with Toronto and up two games over the Red Sox. So they only lost a half-game to each while playing in Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco. We can accept that.
Baltimore is now 66-51, being 39-17 at home and 27-34 on the road. There are 45 games remaining in the season, 25 at home and 20 on the road.
The big blow on Sunday was by Jonathan Schoop, hitting a home run off Giants closer Santiago Casilla after Manny Machado singled and Mark Trumbo walked. He hit an 0-1 pitch over the left-centerfield wall for his 18th home run of the season.
Having played every moment of every game all season long, it has been a good year for Schoop. As did a number of other Orioles outlets, here at The Baltimore Wire we called for the O’s second baseman to have a significant breakout year. Though it could be argued that Schoop has fallen short of that, he has continued his progression as a regular major league player. His overall stats are largely similar to those of his 86 games played last year, though the run-producing component is better this time around.
Schoop is batting .282 currently, having hit .279 in 2015. He hit 15 homers then in only 86 games, raising hopes he could go 30+ this year. That may not happen, but there is no doubt that he is an offensive asset for the Orioles, let alone speaking of his defensive prowess and incredible arm.
The Orioles will have Schoop for another three years before he qualifies as a free agent. They could be very special. But right now the Birds really need Schoop to continue with some clutch hitting, be it in the first inning or ninth inning.
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The Orioles also need to continue to come from behind and win games. Good teams do this. The Orioles have the third-most come-from-behind victories in MLB. However it is only the second time when trailing in the eighth inning or later. Winning clutch games is the mark of a championship outfit, and with a bullpen such as the Orioles have, along with their offensive breakout power, this is a team that should win some games by coming back in the latter innings.