It seems like it was ages ago when Cade Povich started this afternoon for the Baltimore Orioles in Oakland. Povich had the toughest start of outing of his short professional career this afternoon, and the rest of his Orioles teammates didn’t fare much better. You have to hope and believe it’s an anomaly. Povich’s line: 1.0 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 3 BB, 1 K.
Povich walked the first two batters of the game. This after the Orioles stranded a runner in scoring position in the top of the first inning. However Oakland took advantage, and Rooker’s three-run homer before Povich even recorded an out gave Oakland a 3-0 lead.
Before Povich exited the game he surrendered another three-run homer to Schuemann in the second. Langeliers’ RBI-single ran it to 7-0. And unfortunately for the Birds, Oakland was off to the races. Before the second inning was over, the Birds trailed 10-0. By the end of the third, it was 12-0.
These sorts of games happen to the best of teams. There can be little doubt that the O’s are of the crème de la crème of the league. And again, you can’t look at today’s game and say “that’s it, this is the real team!” You take them one game at a time.
The good news is that Oriole bats did come alive. The Birds were already too far behind for it to matter, but the offense put some runs up. They got on the board in the fourth on a sac fly-RBI by Austin Hays. Granted by the end of the sixth Oakland had run it to 17-1. But the O’s never folded until the last out was recorded.
Adley Rutschman’s three-run home run in the seventh cut the lead to 17-4. Jorge Mateo would ground into a force out in the eighth, which combined with an error gave the O’s an additional run. Tack on a run-scoring single by Heston Kjerstad, and the Orioles trailed by a mere 11 runs at 17-6.
They brought on a position player to pitch the last of the eighth, in the form of James McCann. Granted he gave up a two-run homer, but he saved a bullpen reliever as well. So while those two runs count as much as any of them, there weren’t surrendered by the Orioles “official pitching staff.”
But the O’s still didn’t fold. Ryan Mountcastle cranked a solo homer in the top of the ninth. Ramon Urias added an RBI-single before the inning ended. End of the day, it’s a big loss – 19-8. But it’s one loss. You shake it off and come back to play tomorrow.
The series in Oakland concludes tomorrow afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum. Grayson Rodriguez gets the call for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Oakland’s Mitch Spence. Game time is set for just after 4 PM.
Birdland Crush 