The Baltimore Orioles once again gave a starter a lead in Seattle, this time Gabriel Ynoa. And once again, they couldn’t hold the lead – twice, in this case. Ynoa’s line: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 0 K.
Ynoa nibbles the entire truncated time he was in the game. And as I’ve said before, that’s not conducive to getting borderline calls. It also shows a lack of confidence on his part. Ultimately however when you’ve been trying to nibble and you eventually do perhaps hit the corner, umpires are less inclined to call that pitch a strike. Make no mistake however, that’s on the pitcher – not the umpire.
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead before Ynoa even took the field on a solo home run by Trey Mancini. However Ynoa gave up a solo shot in the bottom of that first inning to Crawford, and we were tied at one. The second inning brought an RBI-double by Hanser Alberto. However it also brought Williamson grounding into a double-play which scored a run.
Through two innings Seattle had taken the anything you can do I can do better tactic. And that generally doesn’t bode well for the Orioles. But the good news was that the run-for-a-run routine didn’t last long…
…Seattle our eight runs on the board in the third. The worst part was that many of them cam with the bases loaded. Oriole pitching would either walk players, hit them with pitches, or had base hits that were just perfectly placed enough to net a single. The runs kept coming, and there was nothing that the Orioles could seemingly do about it.
An inning like that effectively ends the game. Especially when it comes so early in the game, it’s fashionable to say hey, if they can do it we can do it. In theory that sounds great. In practice it’s another story.
Surrendering eight runs in an inning generally means the game is over. You can start not holding runners on, with the full knowledge that the unwritten rules of the game prevent the opponent from stealing a base. And I say that in the sense that both teams begin going through the motions. Especially the Orioles, who are flying home this evening.
The Orioles ended up dropping the game 13-3. Big innings as such are happening more and more frequently. Some of that is opponents taking advantage of their opportunities – whereas the Orioles do not. But some of it the result of mental errors by the Orioles. And that’s tough to defend against.
Birdland Crush 