Brandon Young and the Baltimore Orioles had to wait an extra hour and 38 minutes to start this afternoon’s first half finale against Miami. The skies opened up over Camden Yards – and the O’s. Young probably wishes the game had been rained out at this point. Young’s line: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 4 K.
Young gave perhaps his best start as a pro earlier this past week against New York. Today was a different story. The O’s had a halfway decent start in that Jackson Holliday led off with a base hit and went to second on a passed ball. He was later picked off of second. Ramon Laureano also ran into the third out in the second trying to steal third.
But it was Miami’s Stowers, who the Orioles traded last year (as part of the Trevor Rogers trade), who owned the day. His solo homer in the first gave Miami a 1-0 lead. The following inning Brandon Young would get to two outs before back-to-back doubles extended the lead to 2-0.
That brought Stowers back to the plate, and he smacked his second home run of the game against his old team, this of the two-run variety. To show Miami wasn’t kidding, Lopez’s solo shot gave them a 5-0 lead. All that with two outs.
But Stowers wanted to prove his point. In the fifth he added a third home run, once again of the two-run variety. At least that one came before two outs. But Stowers didn’t want to leave Baltimore. As evidenced by his play today.
Two-out rallies have been a problem for the O’s for years. Young was heavy on four-seam fastballs on the fringes of the plate today; did Miami bank on that? Perhaps. Young could have also missed his spots. Having said that, he didn’t walk anyone. So I suspect he was throwing it where he intended. Miami would plate three additional runs, and Ramon Laureano’s solo homer got the O’s on the board in the 8th. But the Orioles fell today, 11-1.
End of the day this was a game that snowballed. Stowers finished with three homers and six RBI. And until the aforementioned Laureano homer, the O’s could never get anything going.
Needless to say, the first half wasn’t what anyone wanted. The team was decimated by injuries, and will continue to be. But they played well at the tail end of the first half – despite today. Do they have a stretch run in them at 43-52? That’s asking a lot. But you have to start somewhere.
Birdland Crush 