Something along the lines of that aside Mrs. Lincoln how was the play is probably not what the Baltimore Orioles would have wanted to ask Boston fans after last night’s game. Because in the immediate aftermath of paying top dollar to see the home team get bludgeoned by a division rival, many of those folks probably could have sympathized with Mary Todd Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865. But I digress in a way.
Jeremy Hellickson set the tone in a sense, but the fact is this night wasn’t about pitching – even Orioles’ pitching, which was strong. It was about the bats. Yet Hellickson turned in a quality start for the Orioles in a winning effort. Hellickson’s line: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R (2 earned), 0 BB, 2 K.
Interestingly enough, this game wasn’t all just the Orioles laying wood on the ball. Boston committed five errors in the game. Now in fairness, the Orioles committed three as well – but those are in essence forgotten because of the final score. For once, the O’s held a team accountable for their mistakes. And similarly, for once the Birds didn’t seem to have to pay the piper ten fold for theirs.
With the Orioles already leading 2-0 in the second inning, Mark Trumbo smacked a solo homer. However that was only a harbinger of what was to come. Manny Machado added an RBI-single, and an additional run later scored on a throwing error. However keep in mind that a 5-0 lead in the early innings at Fenway is hardly safe. And in fact, Boston closed to within 5-2 in the last of the second with a two-run homer.
And many Orioles fans probably figured that it was a foregone conclusion that Boston might come back at that point. But the Orioles continued along in the third, as Davis smacked a solo homer as well. But after that, Hellickson settled in and seemingly shut Boston down for the majority of the rest of his outing. Then came the fifth inning.
The O’s put up a seven-spot in the fifth. Yes folks, seven runs on top of what they already had. That included RBI-singles by Trey Mancini, Jonathan Schoop, and Adam Jones, and two-RBI singles by both Beckham and Smith. Again, this was a game in which the Orioles finally seemed to hold the opponent accountable for their mistakes. Whereas in past games if the Birds loaded the bases they might score a run on a sac fly and only net one in the inning. In this case the hits just kept on coming, putting two across at various points in the inning.
Mancini would triple home a couple of runs in the seventh as well, and at the end of the day the final score was 16-3 in favor of the Birds. Buck Showalter basically “offered up and excuse” after the game as to why it got so out of hand, almost blaming Boston’s schedule (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):
It looks like Chris and Trum are getting ready to … We caught Porcello on a down night. He’s been pitching well. And we also had the benefit of them having a night game in Cleveland. We’ve had that a lot, it seems like, where we’re playing a game and the other team’s already in the hotel. It’s just part of the schedule you don’t like to see, so I felt fortunate we caught them in a tough travel day. We know they’ll be back again tomorrow. They’re a good club and we just caught them on a down night. They’re a really good defensive team. We made a couple errors, too.
And that’s one of the reasons why Showalter is a good leader. He doesn’t make excuses for any loss or malady regarding his own team. But publicly at least he kind of winks at people when they win a game like that by finding a way to actually call out his opponent in a positive manner. Basically, it wasn’t really because the Orioles were good, it was because they caught Boston after a tough travel day.
The series continues this afternoon at Fenway Park. Kevin Gausman gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Boston’s Eduardo Rodriguez. Game time is set for just after 4 PM.
Birdland Crush 