Grayson Rodriguez put the Baltimore Orioles in a spot to win this evening at Progressive Field in Cleveland. But that wasn’t enough, and it isn’t enough at this stage of the game. The O’s need wins, not to be put in positions to win. Rodriguez’s line: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 7 K.
Rodriguez gave up his two runs at the end of his outing. Ramirez’s RBI-single and Naylor’s sac fly- RBI gave Cleveland a 2-0 lead in the fifth. However the Birds came back to tie it up in the eighth. With two runners in scoring position, Anthony Santander’s RBI-ground out and Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI-double tied the game at two.
The O’s brought Cionel Perez in to pitch in the last of the eighth, and he began by hitting Cleveland’s Naylor. A steal, an infield single, and two walks later, and Perez walked in a run. This gave Cleveland the lead back at 3-2.
(Bo) Naylor would send a flair pop down the right field line that would tick off of Adam Frazier’s glove and fall for an RBI-single. Arias’ RBI-groundout would extend the Cleveland lead to 5-2. Which would up being the final.
The Orioles’ lead in the AL East fell to 1.5 games with the loss. The magic number remains at 7 to clinch the AL East. This with Tampa getting set to play Toronto this weekend.
The concerning thing is that the Orioles were paper cut to death in the end. In that eighth inning, Cleveland put across five runs without getting an extra base hit. That’s almost tough to do. We saw this as well back in May when Cleveland was at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And it seems fairly typical of Midwest teams.
The series continues tomorrow night at Progressive Field. Dean Kremer gets the start for the Birds, and he’ll be opposed by Cleveland’s Shane Bieber. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.
Birdland Crush 