Coming into this afternoon’s series finale in Texas, the Baltimore Orioles had gotten great pitching but little in the way of hitting. Cade Povich was hoping he wouldn’t be the latest victim. The good news is he wasn’t. The bad news (for Povich) is that he didn’t stick around long enough to qualify for the win. Povich’s line: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 K.
The Orioles put two runners on with two outs in the first inning. Dylan Beavers’ RBI-single gave them a 1-0 lead. Leody Taveras followed with an RBI-double, and the O’s led 2-0 early on.
After Povich sent Texas down 1-2-3 in the last of the first, Colton Cowser smacked a mammoth solo homer to center in the second, and the O’s led, 3-0. Later in the inning Gunnar Henderson drew a walk, bringing Pete Alonso to the plate. And Big Pete sent a two-run homer over the left field wall, giving the Birds a 5-0 lead.
Povich was cruising, as for once were Oriole bats. However the third inning brought problems for Povich. He allowed an infield single with one out, followed with a walk with two outs having been recorded. Suddenly Povich couldn’t find a strike zone, and he surrendered a three-run home run to Nimmo which cut the lead to 5-3.
Povich got out of that inning without any further runs scoring, but he seemed spooked. That ended up being his last inning, which wasn’t a huge deal as the Oriole bullpen was well rested due to starters pitching deep (albeit in losing efforts) in the first two games of the series. You wish that Craig Albernaz would have allowed Povich to qualify for the win, but end of the day he opted for the bullpen.
In the mean time, Pete Alonso smacked his second two-run homer of the ballgame in the fourth, extending the Oriole lead to 7-3. It was Alonso’s first multi-home run game as an Oriole. And in the wake of the rough third inning, it re-centered the Orioles a bit.
Tyler O’Neill provided some insurance in the sixth with a two-run homer of his own. To further the point, Colton Cowser walked in a run in the ninth. Texas would also slide two across in the bottom of the inning – runs which meant nothing.
End of the day you wish you had won this series. However the Orioles finished it off with a bang, running away with a 10-5 victory off of Pete Alonso’s bat, deep in the heart of Texas. Hopefully the offensive output continues.
The O’s now head to Target Field to open a three-game set against Minnesota. Trevor Rogers gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Minnesota’s Dean Kremer (of course a former and very recent Oriole himself). Game time is set for 7:40 PM.
Birdland Crush 