The Baltimore Orioles had New York on the ropes last night. The Birds, behind starter Andrew Cashner, dominated New York’s lineup in all phases of the game last night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But often, losses are about the plays you fail to make as much as they are about the plays that are made by the opponent. The Orioles failed to hit the cut off man on various occasions last night, allowing NY runners to take extra bases. Those runners would eventually score. Cashner’s line: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 2 K.
Trey Mancini smacked an RBI-double, and Pedro Severino an RBI-single in the first inning to give the O’s a 2-0 lead. NY would cut that lead to 2-1 an inning later on a solo homer by Torres, who can’t seem NOT to homer against the Orioles. That was his ninth homer of the inning year, with seven of them having been against the Birds. It’s uncanny.
But the O’s kept the pressure on. Hanser Alberto and Renato Nunez smacked solo homers in the third, extending the lead to 4-1. Alberto and Dwight Smith Jr would also add RBI-singles in the fourth. The game appeared well in hand at 6-1. However New York chipped away. And as I said, the O’s allowed multiple runners to take extra bases. That came back to haunt them.
New York netted two runs in the sixth, cutting the lead to 6-3. However you still felt that the O’s were in command of the game. Especially after Mancini added an additional run on a sac fly-RBI in the bottom of that inning. However as I said, New York chipped away, and took advantage of Oriole mistakes. And I’m not talking errors, but as I am said above – things such as not hitting the cut off man. Torres also smacked his second homer of the game in the eighth, cutting the Orioles’ lead to 7-6.
Pedro Severino allowed a foul pop which appeared catchable to fall in the ninth, keeping an at-bat alive. The ball appeared to sail on Severino; at first it looked like it was going to fall near the screen. But it had a lot of English on it, and it came back towards the field – falling near home plate. However that’a another Oriole mistake that haunted the Orioles, and of which New York took advantage. Hicks tied the game with a sac fly-RBI, and Sanchez followed that up with a three-run homer. New York won the game 10-7.
Games like this are part of the rebuilding process. However it’s pretty incriminating to lose a game in which you were winning 6-1. But again, little things such as letting teams take extra bases and not catching a pop up will just eat you alive. The O’s took advantage of multiple New York mistakes to build that lead also – which is promising. But when you give a team like NY (who’s seemingly getting by right now squarely on confidence) extra opportunities, they’re going to take advantage.
The series continues tonight at Camden Yards. David Hess gets the call for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by NY’s Domingo German. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.
Birdland Crush 