The Baltimore Orioles signed starter Charlie Morton in the offseason as a stopgap in a sense. For one reason or the other, it’s not working out. Morton took it on the chin this afternoon, as did the Orioles. Morton’s line: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 4 BB, 2 K.
Mind you, Morton’s 41 years old. Would he have played this year had he known at least how it started? Tough to say. But would you walk away from a guaranteed paycheck? I can’t say I would.
Morton surrendered an RBI-single in the second. But the O’s did tie the score in the bottom of the inning when Ramon Urias scored on an errant throw. But that was false hope for the Birds.
De La Cruz would give Cincinnati the lead back right away, taking Morton deep in the third. But in typical AL/NL central style, Cincinnati cut the Orioles by paper cut to death. A base hit here and a double there…
…Frayley’s RBI-single and a subsequent throwing error by Morton allowed two additional runs, running the lead to 5-1 for Cincinnati. When the smoke cleared, the O’s trailed 8-1 after the third. An RBI-double and an RBI-single in the fourth (off of reliever Cody Poteet made it 10-1.
Cincinnati continued the onslaught in the fifth. Wynns’ RBI-single and Hays’ RBI-double extended their lead to 12-1. Against, a base hit and a walk there – Cincinnati tacked on a few others down the stretch. The O’s brought Jorge Mateo in for the eighth and he gave up a grand slam running it to 20-1.
You almost question how it was possible that the bottom of the order was able to do so much damage, while Oriole bats couldn’t get anything going against a beleaguered pitching staff. Sometimes baseball gives results like this. Cincinnati was in essence going with a bullpen game today. But their bullpen also nitpicked the Orioles to death. It was supposed to have been the other way around.
It begins and ends with Morton – today, that is. But Morton hasn’t been stellar thus far this season. Today there were a few pitches in his short outing that were borderline and called balls. But when you’re regularly outside of the strike zone, odds are you aren’t getting the close calls. It’s easy to say that a strike is a strike and a ball is a ball. But when you miss time and again and you “train” the umpires to see the ball off the plate, they get used to it.
But if the Orioles can get a starter via trade who’s bona fide, it would go a long way towards righting the ship. And maybe you send Morton out on a phantom IL stint. That’s the best option I can give you.
To be clear, the answer isn’t to simply DFA Morton. That’s far too easy to say, and as a society we try far too much to oversimplify things. Morton’s a veteran, and he’s been around for too long to have that sort of fate.
It’s worth mentioning that there’s a good chance Kyle Gibson makes his debut in the next week or so. One has to hope that solidifies the rotation. My solution would be that the O’s need to trade for a starter sooner rather than later. You don’t know when Grayson Rodriguez is going to return, or Kyle Bradish for that manner. Zach Eflin appears to be close to either returning or going out on a rehab start.
Another crazy aspect of this season is how the bottom of teams’ orders are hitting against Oriole pitching. Several backup catchers, including Cincinnati’s Wynns today, have hammered them. Not to mention how good opposing teams are hitting with two strikes. Meanwhile, when the Orioles hit the ball as hard as they can, it finds someone’s mitt. Such can at times be the ebb and flow of the season.
Incidentally, the onslaught continued well after Charlie Morton left the game. Cincinnati might have just been dialed in this afternoon (especially the bottom of the order). Or…it could mean that the Orioles are tipping pitches.
And none of that, least of all the Charlie Morton discussion, explains why the bats are so streaky. They did get a solo homer by Adley Rutschman in the eighth. But this should have been a day when Oriole bats stood out. Cincinnati was all but punting the game with the bullpen handling it. But again often times games are reverse-locks. Needless to say, this one was across the board.
For the record, the line score says the O’s gave up 24 runs. Unequivocally, they did. But the last nine were off of Jorge Mateo and Gary Sanchez – position players. The score was still lopsided, but the official Oriole pitching staff didn’t surrender 24 runs.
Birdland Crush 