Gabriel Ynoa served as an opener this afternoon for the Baltimore Orioles. And with pretty good success at that. Unfortunately for the Birds, Ynoa’s performance was about the highlight of the day. Ynoa’s line: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
Overshadowing just about everything else on the day for the Orioles, they may have lost Trey Mancini for a period of time. Mancini was hit on the wrist in the first inning, and had to leave the game. The Orioles later announced that he had an elbow contusion, which in essence is a bruise. More on that in a moment.
The Birds were no-hit through five, however in the bottom of that fifth inning Phegley smacked a three-run homer. That broke the tie and gave Oakland a 3-0 lead. The Birds would come right back however and cut that lead to 3-2 in the sixth on an RBI-single by Renato Nunez, and a bases-loaded wall by Rio Ruiz.
The O’s and Oakland would trade runs in the last of the sixth and top of the seventh, with the Orioles’ coming on a sac fly-RBI by Anthony Santander. However the last of the seventh did the Orioles in. And excuse me check-swing double got a runner to second, and he made it to third on a single that came against the shift. Consider that again for just a moment; the O’s, like everyone else, play a shift on certain players. But teams always manage to defeat it. You can’t make this stuff up.
With runners at the corners and nobody out, Oakland hit into what should have been a tailor-made 4-6-3 double-play. However instead of yielding the run and taking the two outs, Hanser Alberto opted to nail the runner at the plate. And it might not have been the worst idea. However the throw wasn’t exactly spit on, and the runner scored from third. And the O’s didn’t record an out on the play.
When the smoke cleared, the Orioles trailed 8-3 (which ended up being the final). It’s tough to fault Alberto for trying to cut down the run at the plate. But the proper way to manage that situation is to yield the run and take the two outs. Yes, you surrender another run. But it clears the bases and leaves you with two outs. It’s lapses like that which are HAUNTING this team right now. If they could manage to button some of that up, they might be closer in some of these games.
The bigger concern however is Trey Mancini. He got his elbow X-Rayed, and it came back negative. So presumably he’s day-to-day. However if they lose him for any significant amount of time, that’s going to become a problem very quickly. All the Orioles can do is hope for the best.
The Birds now head to T-Mobile Park to open a four-game set with Seattle. Dylan Bundy gets the start for the O’s and he’ll be opposed by Seattle’s Wade LeBlanc. Game time is set for just after 10 PM tomorrow night.
Birdland Crush 