The Baltimore Orioles sent Kyle Bradish to the hill this afternoon in Oakland to try to earn a series sweep in Oakland. Everyone knows Oakland’s struggles and the Orioles’ successes this year. But the bluntness of the way the game unfolded today was “cold as ice.” It almost made Oakland look like a “foreigner” to baseball. Okay, enough with that – Bradish’s line: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K.
The game wasn’t even close, and it was a donnybrook from the beginning. Ramon Urias grounded into a fielder’s choice-RBI in the first inning. The interesting thing about that was that Oakland challenged the play. Now I’ll grant that it was borderline in terms of out or safe at first base. But to challenge a call that close that early was odd to me.
One inning later, Jorge Mateo reminded fans why he’s on the team. He sent a deep shot to the outfield, and motored all the way around third to home plate. In doing so, his inside-the-park home run extended the Orioles lead to 2-0. But the Birds still had ten runs to go.
Austin Hays’ two-RBI single in the third extended the lead to 4-0. Ryan Mountcastle tacked on a three-run homer later in the inning, which opened the game wide open. If it wasn’t already blown apart.
However while this was a team win, the story was Gunnar Henderson. He smacked a solo homer in the seventh, followed by Jordan Westburg’s RBI-single. Oakland’s lone run came in the last of the seventh on Rooker’s solo homer. Their “nominal” run in a sense. But the O’s got the run back. Adley Rutschman’s RBI-single in the eighth extended the lead to 10-1.
But going back to Henderson, he came up later in the eighth inning a single shy of the cycle. And he sent a tight liner fair down the right field line, scoring an 11th run for the O’s. Had Henderson stopped at first, he would have hit for the cycle. But the extra base was in front of him, so he had to “settle” for a double. Ramon Urias would close out the scoring with an RBI-single later in the inning – scoring Henderson.
So to use a basketball term, Gunnar Henderson put out a “double-double” today. Hence the “double vision” reference. It was fun seeing the Oriole dugout, including Bay Area native Brandon Hyde, ribbing Henderson, saying he should have stopped at first. But that shows that Henderson is a team player. Individual accolades are ill-important. It’s best for the team to take the extra base. And he did.
With the series sweep, the Birds completed a 6-3 west coast swing. That’s striking. Trips like that can sometimes trip up teams in a pennant race. If anything, the O’s got stronger. And the ceiling is unlimited.
Birdland Crush 