To be clear, I disagree with the concept of an “opener,” used by the Baltimore Orioles tonight. It’s too zaney and against the grain for an old school person such as myself, and I abhor spitting in the face of tradition like that. The Birds sent Keegan Akin to the mound in that capacity tonight, and in fairness it worked – for him, at least. Akin’s line: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.
There’s little point in giving the starting pitching line if you’re going to make the starter merely the inverse of a closer. Charlie Morton of course has struggled, so I assume Brandon Hyde was trying to do something different. And again in fairness, Morton only had one bad inning.
However before that the O’s did have a lead. Gunnar Henderson’s RBI-double gave them a 1-0 lead in the third. Rightfully, it should have been 2-0. Cedric Mullins was to be the second run, but he was thrown out at home plate. And that seemed to inspire Detroit.
Morton opened the third with a walk, a single, and an out recorded on a fielder’s choice. That brought Greene to the plate, who smacked a three-run homer to give Detroit a 3-1 lead. In reality, that was the only dust-up that Morton had. The home run hurt, but it came as a result of smaller things – that being a walk, a hit, and the inability to turn two. Or the ball being hit too softly to turn two, that is.
But that’s what teams like Detroit do. It’s fairly predominant in the central – both NL and AL. They paper cut you to death. Make no mistake, they were thrilled at the prospect of a double-play ball ending up a fielder’s choice. It gave them more life, this as opposed to a double-play. And they took advantage.
The Birds had their chances in this game. They started the sixth by getting two runners in scoring position with one out. Brandon Hyde then lifted Heston Kjerstad and pinch-hit Ramon Laureano. To be clear, there’s a certain methodology to that, as Laureano hits southpaws better. Detroit’s Hurter (who was in the game at the time) is a southpaw.
To be clear, Laureano did drive a run in on a sac fly-RBI – cutting the Detroit lead to 3-2. And that was a big moment. But it wasn’t enough. Detroit would put three insurance runs on the board in the seventh, again in a death by paper cut sort of manner. And the O’s dropped game two, 6-2. This after losing the first game of the doubleheader this afternoon.
Brandon Hyde matches up a lot. And overall, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But sometimes you wonder if it doesn’t shake things up too much. This to the point to where it’s detrimental.
Laureano was hitting .182 when he was inserted into the game. That isn’t to say that Kjerstad is hitting the world on fire – he’s hitting .210. But you get the point.
Sometimes you wonder if it’s not predictable that the Orioles are going to match up no matter what. Tarik Skubal, last year’s Cy Young winner, starts for Detroit tomorrow. My prediction is that the likes of Cedric Mullins and other lefty hitters are out of the starting lineup.
Now that said, keep in mind that the matchup numbers say that should be the case. But while stats don’t lie, sometimes reverse-locks happen. If you consistently allow a computer to determine your lineup and substitutions, you risk having things such as death by a thousand paper cuts occur.
The series concludes tomorrow afternoon at Comerica Park. Dean Kremer gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Detroit’s aforementioned Tarik Skubal. Game time is set for just after 1:40 PM.
Birdland Crush 