It would be easy for the Baltimore Orioles to look at starter Kyle Bradish and wonder what happened. But while Bradish’s outing wasn’t great, the Toronto onslaught continued well after he left the ballgame. And Oriole pitching ran into a Toronto team that was intent on making the Birds pay for even being on the same field with them. Bradish’s line: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 3 K.
You have another example of an Oriole starter (and subsequent relievers) wanting to pitch-to-contact, and an opponent who wanted to make contact. And make no mistake that Toronto wasn’t making the greatest contact. A lot of their hits were bloops or softly-hit balls. But they managed to find holes and the balls dropped in. Frustrating for the Orioles on the whole.
Toronto took the lead early on Kirk’s RBI-single in the last of the first. Incidentally how did Kirk get on base? He hit a comebacker off of Bradish’s foot, which trickled into foul ground on the third base line for an infield hit. Fluke thing for sure, but it cost the Birds in the long run.
Guerrero Jr. smacked RBI-singles in the third and fifth respectively to run Toronto’s lead to 3-0. And thus began Toronto’s big fifth inning. When the smoke cleared, they had put seven runs on the board, and chased Bradish.
Again, many of those runs came as a result of softly-hit balls with an outfield playing back. So the Orioles weren’t necessarily too far off in this game. Or at least as far off as the final score looks. If you’re Toronto you’ll take hits and runs however you can get them. Of you’re the Orioles, it has to be frustrating as heck.
Toronto would add a tenth run on Espinal’s RBI-single in the sixth. The lone bright spot for the O’s was left fielder Kyle Stowers – who made his major league debut. Stowers was on the Orioles’ taxi squad, and took the place of Anthony Santander, who presumably couldn’t get into Canada due to his vaccination status. Stowers smacked an RBI-single in the top of the seventh – his first big league hit. Guerrero would add a solo homer for Toronto in the last of the eighth, and the O’s fell 11-1.
The series continues tomorrow night at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Jordan Lyles gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Yusei Kikuchi. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.
Birdland Crush 