In game one of a doubleheader, Baltimore Orioles’ starter Cade Povich was ill-afraid of failure. He used a lot of pitches early, but he painted the strike zone for five innings. And when the smoke cleared, he left with the lead. Povich’s line: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 6 K.
The Orioles had an early lead in this one. Jackson Holliday’s RBI-single in the third gave them a 1-0 lead. Adley Rutschman would drive in a second run with an RBI-groundout, and the Birds led, 2-0.
One inning later Boston started chipping away. Sogard’s RBI-groundout cut the lead to 2-1. Boston threatened in the fifth with two outs – and Povich quickly tiring. He was nearing 100 pitches, but he was left in the game to face Boston’s Story. To be clear, this wasn’t the greatest matchup statistically for the Orioles. But true to form, Povich went after him. And he got him, leaving the game with the lead.
However a sixth inning RBI-single by Rafaela tied the game at two off of Seranthony Dominguez. After a pitching change to Gregory Soto, Duran’s RBI-single gave Boston a 3-2 lead. In the immediate wake of that, Devers’ three-run homer extended it to 6-2.
In that sequence, only the Duran RBI-single was a pitch that was intended to be put in play. I’ve written a lot about getting too much of the plate. That pitch did. But the others – were all either out of the strike zone, or in the upper echelon of it. Meaning that Dominguez and Gregory were potentially afraid of Boston hitters.
And while the O’s did cut the lead to 6-3 on an eighth inning RBI-single by Ramon Urias, maybe they were afraid of Boston hitters with good reason. Duran’s RBI-double in the last of the eighth extended the lead to 7-3. This, a run that should have never scored. Rafaela was out by a country mile, however Adley Rutschman dropped the ball at home plate.
Devers added an RBI-single, and Refsnyder a three-run homer later in the inning. Tony Mansolino brought in Emmanuel Rivera to close out the eighth, yes a position player. And before it ended Boston had 19 runs.
The bright spot was Cade Povich. He was strong today, and quite frankly you could say he deserved better. Also against a position player, the Orioles put two across in the ninth. Jackson Holliday had an RBI-single, and Ryan Mountcastle a sac fly-RBI.
The issue isn’t the margin of defeat. That’s irrelevant, especially given that Boston put up the majority of the add-on runs against Emmanuel Rivera. The issue in the game was Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto not wanting to attack Boston hitters. Again, often times this year Oriole pitchers have gotten too much of the strike zone. In this case they seemed to purposely try to stay out of the strike zone.
Not only that, but the Boston hitters seemed to anticipate that fear. They swung away, and it worked. They sensed the Orioles’ fear, and showed it with good reason.
After the game Tony Mansolino told reporters that they “didn’t take it personally.” On one hand, it’s a good thing he said that – at least publicly. It shows a degree of professionalism to the rest of the world.
But on the flip side, you also hope he was lying, or putting on a show for the media and the public. You have to take it personally to some degree, despite the fact that it was out of hand due to a position player pitching. Publicly, yes. Again if that means lying through your teeth, do it. But in private, take it personally. And learn from it.
The series continues this evening (weather permitting) at Fenway Park. The Orioles have yet to announce a starter, but whomever he is will be opposed by Boston’s Lucas Giolito. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.
Birdland Crush 