Former Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter used to say that eventually someone was going to pay for the types of offensive struggles the Birds has this week. And we saw that phenomenon tonight; it was the Washington Nationals. Starter Tommy Milone was dominant against the organization which drafted him, and Oriole bats were hot from the beginning. Milone’s line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K.
Jose Iglesias‘ RBI-double in the first inning got the party started. The Birds opened the game with back-to-back doubles. One inning later Austin Hays smacked an RBI-single, and Hanser Alberto tacked on a run on a fielder’s choice. That easily could have been the end of the game. When your pitching limits the opposition to zero runs, you don’t need many to beat them. But…the runs just kept coming.
Iglesias, who ended up with four hits in the game, would add an RBI-single in the fourth. But it was Renato Nunez‘s three-run homer in the sixth which broke the game wide open. That have the O’s a 7-0 lead, an led signaled that the Birds has no intention of looking back.
Pedro Severino and Anthony Santander also got involved in that sixth inning in terms of putting runs on the board. And they came in buckets. When the smoke cleared, the O’s had themselves an 11-0 victory over the defending World Champions.
I always say that in a game that gets out of control like this one, it’s never indicative of either teams’ true capabilities. Games like this happen, and the O’s have been on the other end of their share of them also. So from the Orioles’ perspective you gladly take the win, move onto tomorrow, and take it with a grain of salt.
But again as Buck Showalter used to say, someone’s eventually going to pay for the type of slump in which the Birds found themselves this week. Washington ended up being that lucky team tonight. We saw the O’s break out of the slump partially last night. So that in a way acted as a harbinger for what we saw in D.C. this evening. Now…if another body in that city could get their act together in the same manner, we’d be in business. (Looking at you, Congress!)
The series continues tomorrow night at Nationals Park. Thom Eshelman gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Washington’s Austin Voth. Game time is set for just after 6 PM.
Birdland Crush 