Baltimore Orioles: Big wheels start turning

Coming out of Tuesday’s loss, many Baltimore Orioles fans thought the sky was falling. I suppose that last night’s game in theory should have reversed that logic to a point. Adam Jones, Chris Davis, and others homered, as the O’s defeated the BoSox 12-5.

But the game wasn’t without it’s drama in terms of who was going to win. Ubaldo Jimenez was unable to make it out of the fifth inning, despite being given a huge lead. Jimenez’s line: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 1 K. Mychal Givens ended up being credited for the win; it you’re Jimenez, look at it from the perspective that you had worked the angle on a romantic interest for some time and were stalling in a sense before you were ready to ask her out. Then someone else swoops in and does just that after you’ve softened her up a bit.

When you can’t make it out of the fifth of a sure win, that’s kind of what happens. After the game Showalter admitted that Jimenez needed to pitch more like the veteran that he is, but also mentioned that Fenway Park itself can often add to the anxieties of pitchers (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

Ubaldo, a little frustrating because he was really good early on and it looked like he was going to pitch like a veteran should pitch with a lead and then it just kind of left him there and he couldn’t seem to get his delivery back together. I know it’s frustrating for him. Created some anxiety in the game. Of course, in this ballpark, it’s always a possibility. Nobody takes anything for granted.

Much of the early damage was done off of Boston’s Wright (a knuckler) in the first inning. Machado’s RBI-double got things going in the first inning, which was followed by Trumbo’s RBI-single. If you’re Boston, you’re thinking okay let’s just regroup after giving up a couple of early runs. Ha!

Trey Mancini came to the plate later in the inning with two on, and smacked a three-run homer to center field to give the Birds a 5-0 lead. That brought Schoop to the plate, and he followed suit with a solo shot to left. When the dust settled, the O’s led 6-0 after one inning.

And the route continued an inning later. Jones and Davis added solo homers, and Mancini added a second homer (a solo shot) in the third. That ran the score to 9-0, and the Birds had chased the Boston starter from the game.

However the issue with playing the BoSox is that they feel they’re never out of it. A few RBI and a Sandoval two-run homer later, they had chased Jimenez and gotten to within 9-5. Four runs is still a sizable lead for the Orioles, however Boston had the momentum. For awhile, Boston coming from nine down to beat the Orioles in ignoble fashion at Fenway seemed to be the only possible out in this game. But luckily the Orioles’ pen was solid, from Givens to Hart, and eventually Nuno.

The O’s also put a couple of insurance runs on the board late. Castillo smacked a two-RBI double, and Schoop an RBI single in the seventh. That ran the score to 12-5, at which point Boston finally seemed to concede the game. Despite Jimenez’s struggles, the Orioles had broken out the bats in grand fashion at a moment when they needed to do so.

Incidentally just so people don’t think I’m hard-hearted, the analogy I gave above about someone else asking your girl out regarding Jimenez has happened to me more times than I care to admit. Nothing like psyching yourself out having bought flowers, wine, etc. for someone over a period of time and being ready to take the next step…and then seeing someone else step up and do it instead. The point is that to the victors go the spoils – for his sake and for that of the Orioles, hopefully Jimenez realizes that.

The Orioles will now head to Toronto to open up a four-game series this evening. Kevin Gausman will be on the mound for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Francisco Liriano. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

Baltimore Orioles: Darren O’Day haunted by errors behind him

Darren O’Day had a tough outing for the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, prompting the twitterverse to blow up about whether or not he was reliable enough any longer. If his performance last night at Fenway Park is any indication, he is – just as I said on Sunday. Look past the statistics if you don’t believe me.

The Birds got another quality start out of Dylan Bundy last night. He wasn’t as crisp as he was last week against Toronto, but Fenway Park and the BoSox lineup will do that to you. Bundy’s line: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K. (Two of those runs scored after Bundy had departed.) At the end of the day, he put the O’s in a position to win.

Boston got sac fly-RBI in the second and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead. The O’s cut that in half in the seventh with Schoop driving in a run with a fielder’s choice-RBI. Incidentally, Oriole bats were quiet all night long, similar to Sunday against New York. Whether pitching or fielding lets them down is almost irrelevant if they only produce one run.

O’Day was brought into the game in the last of the seventh with a runner at first base and one down in the inning. If you’re O’Day, you’re looking for a ground ball in the infield to induce a double-play and get out of the inning. O’Day did just that. The would-be double-play was tailor made, with a grounder right to Hardy…

…while normally reliable, Hardy fumbled the ball in the infield and suddenly Boston had runners at first and second. Vazquez later sent a lazy pop fly towards very shallow right field. Schoop had the best angle on it from second base…and he dropped it, loading the bases.

Pedroia would later smack a two-RBI single. Benintendi would add an RBI-single, and three runs had crossed the plate while O’Day had been in the game. Vazquez would add a two-RBI triple in the eighth, and Pedroia an infield RBI-single later in the inning to run the score to 8-1.

Someone just reading the box score might assume that O’Day struggled again. Granted, he did give up a two-RBI single. But at a certain point there isn’t much you can do if your defense is failing you. Now the fact is that most people are going to know that what we saw last night was an anomaly from the Orioles’ defense – just as what we saw from O’Day on Sunday was an anomaly. But ultimately it happened.

O’Day got the Orioles out of the inning…that is before the defense messed all over itself. And after the game Showalter said as much (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

That was the highlight for me of the night. Darren was good. That’s Darren. A lot of ground balls, a lot of command. You could tell he felt (good). He’d like to have one pitch back to Benintendi, but other than that, that was real encouraging seeing him today. I really wanted to get him back out there tonight.

These types of games are going to happen here and there, so fans shouldn’t fret too much over it. It’s also worth noting that several of the hits that drove in runs and got guys on base were of the infield variety. Infield hits and incredibly soft-hit balls have seemingly nagged the Orioles since the 2014 ALCS, when Kansas City teased and taunted their way to the World Series by beating the Orioles on broken bat hits and soft-hit balls. But I digress, as I said these games will happen. You accept them and move on, especially when you know that the likes of Hardy and Schoop are going to win you more games than they’re going to lose you.

The short series concludes tonight at Fenway Park. Ubaldo Jimenez will get the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Boston’s Steven Wright. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

Baltimore Orioles head on the road for the first time in 2017

Thus far in 2017 the Baltimore Orioles have only dealt with the adoring cheers of their home crowd. That changes tonight as they head north to Fenway “Pahk” in Boston. They’ll be in Boston for two games, Toronto for four (over Easter), and then Cincinnatti for three. All in all, a nine-game road trip.

Fenway of course provides it’s share of challenges, and not only limited to the fact that the BoSox are a good team. The Orioles’ bullpen should be rested in full after the off day today, however they’ve been called into action far too often thus far in the young season. And we saw the downside of that on Sunday afternoon.

Being the ultimate hitter’s paradise, that could pose a problem for the Orioles tonight. However they do have Dylan Bundy on the mound this evening, and he was the lone starter to go deep into a game thus far (seven innings). But if that’s not enough, they’ll then head up to Toronto where Oriole pitchers always seem to struggle anyways – and of course Rogers Centre is also a hitter’s park.

So the way that the Orioles ensure that the bullpen remains as fresh as it can be is by starters going deeper into games. In fairness, quite a few teams have starters that can only last between four and seven innings in games the first two or three times through the rotation. And the weather can play a role in that, as guys have gotten used to the warm Florida sunshine during spring training. Then they come north and find that it’s still chilly up here.

But ultimately, a park like Fenway can set you back a bit in terms of bullpen depth – if your starters can’t go deep. So the Orioles really need Bundy (and Jimenez tomorrow) to step up when it counts. In Bundy’s case, he’s returning to the site of his big league debut in 2012, when he came in as a reliever in a game late in the season.

Incidentally, this is also a Boston team that got abused over the weekend in Detroit. So you can look at this from the perspective that they’re due, or that the Birds are getting them while they’re down. Bundy will be opposed by Boston’s Drew Pomeranz. Game time is set for just after 7 PM this evening.

Baltimore Orioles: Is the bullpen more susceptible than we think?

Some of the twitter chatter after yesterday’s 7-3 loss to New York amongst Baltimore Orioles fan seemed to indicate this is what we were afraid of; they aren’t that good. I even saw a few comments suggesting that fans learned a valuable lesson about how much worse the Orioles’ bullpen is than we thought. Let’s be frank; it wasn’t a good outing for the bullpen, specifically Darren O’Day. However you have to revert to the track record after a game like this. And that’s pretty good.

Wade Miley got the start, and really set the tone for a very strange game. Miley didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning, yet he walked seven batters. New York actually loaded the bases on walks at one point, but Miley pitched out of it. At the end of the day, he was in line to be the winning pitcher. Miley’s line: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 7 BB, 5 K.

The Orioles took the lead in the last of the second when Trey Mancini grounded into a force out which scored a run. Later in the inning they ran the lead to 2-0 on Hardy’s RBI-single. Trumbo would add an RBI-single of his own in the fifth, and the O’s seemed to be in control at 3-0.

However New York wasn’t about to be outdone on this day. Torreyes’ two-RBI triple in the sixth cut the lead to 3-2, and Judge’s solo home run would tie the game at three in the eighth. But the story of this game came in the ninth, when O’Day allowed four runs to cross the plate. Now while all of those runs were earned, it’s important to note that one did come on a throwing error. However the fact remains that the bullpen overall was shaky in this game, which is something we don’t normally see.

O’Day felt that some of his earlier pitches were borderline strike calls, and quite frankly I might tend to agree with him there. However he also indicated that he needed to re-adjust to the zone, which he was unable to do (quote courtesy of Steve Melewski, MASNsports):

Yeah, I threw some good pitches early in the outing. They were just pitcher’s pitches and I couldn’t make the adjustment to get back into the zone to get strikes called. So I overadjusted on some pitches. If you put three guys on base, bad things are usually going to happen. Just wasn’t a good outing. Pretty bad.

Throughout the entire series I felt that the strike zone was erratic at best. That’s not to say that the umpiring was bad, it was just a bit erratic in terms of balls and strikes. However throughout the entire series, New York did a better job of adjusting to that than did the Orioles. Whereas NY pitchers would try to hit spots that the umpire as calling as strikes, Orioles’ pitchers would try to hit what they felt were strikes.

Nevertheless, should fans panic about this game? Were the Orioles just unmasked and shown to be pretenders instead of contenders? Hardly. You can’t say that they’re either at this point in the season. You’re going to have games like this, and really all you can do is move onto the next game and work on things. If you want further proof, would you as a fan not give the ball to Darren O’Day any longer?

Baltimore Orioles: 2017 Comeback Kids

The Baltimore Orioles have been marked by their ability to come back in games thus far in the very young 2017 season. We saw that again yesterday, as Hyun-Soo Kim‘s go-ahead RBI-single in the last of the seventh put the O’s in the lead. So if there’s a name we could put on the Orioles through the first week of the season, it would be The Comeback Kids.

Kevin Gausman wasn’t effective in the early part of the game, and he struggled his was through his time in the game. Gausman’s line: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 4 K. I always tell people after early-season outings like this that starting pitchers are going to have 10 great outings, 10 poor, and 10 in-between every year. So if you file this one under poor, the Orioles stole a win yesterday.

Gausman to his credit knew his command was off, and made no bones about it after the game (quote courtesy of Steve Melewski, MASNsports):

Obviously, walking the first guy on four straight. I just couldn’t throw a fastball down and away to save my life. From the first pitch on was trying to figure out my mechanics and what I needed to do with my front side. I think it was more mechanically than anything.

Gausman’s issue was in essence runners on base, and he gave up a two-RBI single in the second inning. When guys get on base anything can happen; throw in the fact that the starter’s command is off, and base hits start to bleed through. However the O’s cut the lead in half two innings later on an RBI-single by Welington Castillo. That would be a motif to follow throughout the day.

Gausman compounded matters in the fifth by balking in a run with a runner on third. In a bizarre sequence, he turned and threw to third base – where NY catcher Romine was situated. The home plate umpire saw this as an act of trying to fool the runner, and called Gausman for a balk – allowing the run to score. It was a strange and almost unnatural play, which I think is part of why the balk was called. However the fact is that Gausman never stepped off the rubber – I’ll leave it at that.

Castro was at the plate at the time, and later in the at-bat he smacked an RBI-single to run the score to 4-1 in favor of New York. The runner who scored was previously at first base, and the balk allowed him to advance into scoring position. So all while being off on his command, Gausman did himself no favors in the mental game either.

But these Orioles are the Comeback Kids…you know, the Fighting Showalters. They don’t go quietly into the night! Manny Machado got the comeback rolling in the last of the fifth with an RBI-double, cutting the New York lead in half. Later in the inning Trumbo grounded into a fielder’s choice-RBI, and suddenly the New York lead was only one at 4-3.

But it was the last of the seventh which really sealed it for the Birds. Trumbo’s RBI-single would tie the game at four, letting Gausman off the hook. That brought Kim to the plate later in the inning after Trumbo moved into scoring position, and his RBI-single gave the Orioles the lead at 5-4.

Combine a huge momentum swing like that with the Orioles’ bullpen, and you have a win. Zach Britton knotched his 52nd consecutive save, and the Birds remained undefeated at 4-0. On that note, the Orioles might want to try to build a sizable lead in today’s game to avoid using Britton, who’s appeared in every game thus far.

The series with New York concludes this afternoon. Wade Miley gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by NY’s C.C. Sabathia. The Birds will have to make a roster move prior to the game in order to call Miley up, however at this point it’s unclear who goes out. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.

Baltimore Orioles’ Seth Smith picked a good time for his first homer

The Baltimore Orioles didn’t acquire Seth Smith for his power. So that means any home runs he’s able to provide is gravy more than anything else. However he picked a great moment to give the Orioles his maiden homer as a Bird, and of the 2017 season.

Ubaldo Jimenez seemed a little off from the beginning last night, although the cold temperatures may have contributed to that just a bit. Jimenez’s line: 4.1 IP, 7 H 5 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Jimenez was victimized by the long ball, which is odd for him. And that’s why I say the weather might have played a factor, an idea that was backed up after the game by Buck Showalter (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

You try to give guys a little pass with the weather. You’ve got to have a feel for the split with that weather and I think both home runs were splits that didn’t split properly. I think I’m right. He’s capable of better. Hopefully, when the weather warms up he gets a better feel for it, because he had a good one in the spring.

Jimenez allowed an RBI-single in the first, however the Birds answered in the botto of the inning on Jones’ RBI-single. But two innings later New York had the lead back on Holliday’s two-run home run. They would extend that lead to 5-1 two innings later in the fifth on a two-run homer by Sanchez.

However the Birds weren’t about to go quietly into the night. Not on this day, and not in their home park. With two runners on in the last of the fifth, Manny Machado

smacked a three-run homer to bring the Orioles to within 5-4. And suddenly with that one swing, it was a game again.

It’s important to note that while Jimenez wasn’t as sharp as he could be, the Orioles’ bullpen showed why it’s one of the strengths of the team. They gave up three hits and two walks, having to pitch most of the game. Donnie Hart, a Showalter favorite, recorded the final out of the seventh inning, but that was as big as anything else…

…because in the last of the seventh Smith gave us his aforementioned first homer as an Oriole. It came with a runner on, so it gave the Orioles a 6-5 lead, which they held. That homer meant that Donnie Hart won his first major league game – only recording one out. One of the quirks of baseball, as he was the pitcher of record when they took the lead.

The only area of concern was that closer Zach Britton appeared to roll his ankle while coming off the mound to throw a runner out at first base in the ninth inning. Buck Showalter said after the game that it appeared Britton was fine, but that they’d have to see how he was today. If there’s one reliever the Birds don’t want to lose for any period, it’s Zach Britton.

The series with New York continues in a late afternoon start today at Camden Yards. Kevin Gausman will be on the mound for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Masahiro Tanaka. Game time is set for just after 4 PM.

Baltimore Orioles: The ballpark that forever changed baseball

Twenty-fie years ago the Baltimore Orioles opened Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the “ballpark that forever changed baseball.”

Twenty-five years ago (yesterday), I raced home from my sixth grade class to watch Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles. That was about par for the course for most of my school life over the years, but this wasn’t any old Opening Day. The Birds were opening the brand new Oriole Park at Camden Yards on this day.

I made it home in time to see President Bush throw out the first pitch, which famously bounced in the dirt. But credit to the President, he simply said that he threw a slider low and in. The ballpark looked magnificent on television from my perspective, and even moreso the first time I saw it in person. And for the record, it’s never ceased to look as such.

I remember my Dad commenting right away to the effect that they’re sitting on the wrong side of the field. In fact, the Birds were taking the first base dugout at Camden Yards, whereas fans had gotten used to them sitting on the third base side at Memorial Stadium. But that was due only to the fact that for a 7:30 game in the summertime, the sun would be in the direct vision of the team sitting in Memorial Stadium’s first base side for the first three innings. However in fact, the third base dugout is the traditional home side – but I digress.

If you live in cities such as Cleveland, Dallas (Arlington), Denver, or San Fran, you have Baltimore and the Orioles to thank for your beautiful ballparks. All of those parks were based on Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Cleveland and San Fransisco are probably the closest copies of the bunch, but they’re all similar. And Camden Yards is the prototype, and thus the original.

And that’s why five years ago for the twentieth anniversary the Orioles trademarked the phrase the ballpark that forever changed baseball. All of these parks are at some point going to start having their 20-25 year anniversaries in the near future. So why not remind them all that they were intended to be copies of Oriole Park at Camden Yards?!

For years people have done trips to visit various ballparks around the league. But Camden Yards became a destination park overnight. The idea was to build something that looked and felt old school – but in fact was new. And that’s a feel that was present immediately when the ballpark opened.

First off, it has an old time feel with how it appears to be carved into the neighborhood. The Warehouse certainly plays a big role in that, and if anything that in and of itself gives the park a more archaic feel to it. (And to think that the original plans had the Warehouse being demolished!) But so many fans over the years have felt what those in Baltimore call Orioles Magic from the moment they walked in.

You get the feel that something special could have happened there generations ago. At this point in time, that’s kind of true. I’m not sure about “generations ago,” but Camden Yards has hosted moments such as Murray’s 500th home run, and Ripken breaking the consecutive games played streak. And of course a few playoff games here and there – years ago and within the last few seasons!

Camden Yards was special from the moment it opened. But the fact that it’s been copied a few times in other cities tells us that Baltimore truly got it right. And all of those other parks are special as well, but not as special as their “mother park.” There’s only one Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and it’ll always be the ballpark that forever changed baseball.

New York comes to the ballpark that forever changed baseball this evening to open up a three-game set. Ubaldo Jimenez will make his first start of the season tonight, and he’ll be opposed by NY’s Luis Severino. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

Baltimore Orioles’ Dylan Bundy dominates in win

If the Baltimore Orioles are able to get efforts out of Dylan Bundy (and all starters) like they got in last night’s 3-1 win over Toronto, they’ll be in good shape. There was zip on Bundy’s pitches all night, and he seemed to mow Toronto hitters down and get stronger as his outing went on. Bundy’s line: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 K.

The zero walks and eight strikeouts are obviously what stands out the most. I often drop the line nothing good ever happens after a walk, so the best way to avoid that is to not walk anyone. Bundy kept people off base for the most part all night, minimizing the potential for Toronto to score.

They did put one run across in the top of the third on a Travis RBI-single. And if that’s any indication, it appears that the Orioles are going to lead the league in falling victim to softly-hit RBI-singles once again. Travis smacked a dying quail-type of shot that fell into the cushion between first and second base and right field. Ironically, had he hit it harder the runner probably would have been out at home plate.

But the Orioles didn’t trail for long. With a runner on in the bottom of that third inning, Adam Jones hit his first home run of the season. Suddenly it was the Orioles who were in the lead, erasing the memory of that softly-hit RBI. One inning later Chris Davis hit his first home run of the season as well – this one a solo shot.

And when you have pitching as good as the Orioles got last night, you don’t need to worry about scoring only three runs. The Birds did however have a bit of a scare in the ninth when Zach Britton loaded the bases with only one out. Not only that, but in doing so he went over the twenty pitch number, which is a danger zone for many closers. For a short period, it appeared Toronto had the O’s right where they wanted them.

However Britton’s not the type of guy in whom you want to lose faith. The guy who didn’t blow a save last year kept his streak alive, and induced a game-ending double-play. When asked about Britton after the game, Buck Showalter didn’t hesitate to take up for his closer (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

I love the fact that he found a way to get it done. It’s hard. The ninth inning’s hard. You’re facing one of the best parts of the lineup anywhere in the American League. It’s hard. He gives up a sharp-hit ball to left field and a ground ball found a hole. A walk. Got a big strikeout on (Troy) Tulowitzki and he’s always a pitch from getting two outs.

It’s not always as easy as it may seem. It’s a different inning, it’s a different inning, and not just anybody can pitch it.

One way or the other, the O’s are now 2-0 on the incredibly young season as they go into yet another off day. It’s tough to say this means anything more than face value – starting the season 2-0. During spring training I said if you’re going to play exhibition games you might as well win them. So the same still applies; if you’re going to play these early season games, you might as well win them.

Baltimore Orioles: A disjointed start to the season

Everyone understands why the Baltimore Orioles and most other teams have the traditional day off after Opening Day. The fact is that you never really know what’s going to happen with the weather. As last week wore on the forecast seemed to improve – because it wasn’t always  supposed to be a beautiful day.

It kind of works against a team like the Orioles however, because they had this big dramatic win on Opening Day, and their first instinct is to continue the momentum. Now granted, it’s tough to argue with a free day, especially when eventually you’ll be into the stretch of the season.

Having said that, the Orioles have a very strange beginning to the season this year, unlike anything I’ve ever really seen. They had the off day yesterday, and then they take on Toronto again tonight. It’s actually a truncated two-game series, and Toronto packs up and leaves after tonight’s game. So the series actually ends.

Then the Orioles have off again tomorrow, before New York comes in for the weekend. Once that series is over, guess what happens? You guessed it, another off day on Monday before they head to Boston on Tuesday.

It’s really tough to get momentum going in general with a schedule like that. In fact, it almost gives the feel that the players are back in spring training – where veterans only play in home games for the most part. Play Monday, off Tuesday, play Wednesday, off Thursday, play Friday, etc.

The issue however is that the major league teams only get a certain number of days off during the season. And even those are subject to change as needed if you need to reschedule rain outs. Days off can turn into game days, and regular days can turn into twin bills.

So while the momentum thing is a concern, the bigger one is that the Birds are blowing their days off this month. In full, they have five off days in April. Compare that to August when they have two. Last year they had a flurry of off days in September, which I suspect really helped them in their chase for October. But at the end of the day, this is the schedule the league office gave them. Everyone plays 162 in some manner.

As I said above, the series with Toronto concludes this evening. Dylan Bundy will be on the mound for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s J.A. Happ. Game time is set for just after 7 PM. Fans can follow along on Twitter (@DomenicVadala) for game updates.

Baltimore Orioles right an old wrong in Opening Day win

Mark Trumbo’s walk off home run on Opening Day gave the Baltimore Orioles some payback over Toronto after last year’s wild card game.

As the Opening Day ceremonies came to a close and it was time to PLAY BALL, Baltimore Orioles fans most likely flashed back a few months. The untimely end to the 2016 season was still fresh in a lot of people’s mind. This especially seeing that the O’s were playing the same Toronto Blue Jays – who walked the Orioles off on the AL Wild Card game.

The ironic thing is that Toronto has lost pieces year-over-year, and the O’s have remained largely the same (for the most part). Yet pundits are still in love with Toronto, and still not digging what the Orioles are throwing out there. So in all of these senses, perhaps it was fitting that these two teams met on Opening Day at Camden Yards.

The Orioles started Kevin Gausman, and with mixed results in a sense. Gausman’s line: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 4 K. Gausman actually pitched better than those numbers indicate, although you want your starter to go deeper than 5.1 innings. The four walks were also a bit much. However save for the fifth inning when he struggled and threw a lot of pitches, Gausman was fairly solid.

The Orioles got on the board first in the last of the third on Chris Davis‘ RBI-single. Mark Trumbo would add an RBI-double later in the inning, and the O’s had a 2-0 lead. However as I said, Gausman struggled in the fifth inning, issuing several walks. One of those came with the bases loaded, which cut the Orioles’ lead in half.

Gausman was able to record one out in the sixth before he was lifted in the wake of allowing a base runner. However after Gausman’s departure that base runner would come around to score on an RBI-double, tying the game. That run of course was charged to Gausman.

At one point the Orioles had 15 straight hitters retired by Toronto pitching. While that’s not good, it’s also a bi-product of a pitcher’s duel. While Gausman was long gone as the game wore on, the Orioles showed off one of the big strengths of the team: the bullpen. Through 5.2 innings pitched, the Orioles’ pen gave up six hits, two walks, and no runs. And that folks is outstanding no matter how you want to spin things.

As the game went to extra innings it took on the feel of last year’s AL Wild Card game more and more. And the players had to have noticed the similarities. Presumably Toronto had to think that at some point their heroics would push through just as they did the year before. But the Orioles sat in their dugout hoping to flip the script.

This time around, the Orioles found a way to work Zach Britton into the game, and he pitched two innings. However this Opening Day game will be remembered for two things: how it ended, and what foreshadowed how it ended. Toronto threatened in the 10th inning with runners at first and second. The Camden faithful seemed restless, as Toronto seemed to have the Oriole exactly where they wanted them. To add insult to injury from last year, was Toronto really going to at the very least take a lead against the Orioles and possibly beat them again on Opening Day (at their place)?

And the answer ended up being an emphatic NO! With Pillar at the plate, a bouncer was hit to Manny Machado guarding the line at third base. It was a tough angle, and in fact Machado was perhaps the only player in the game who could have made a play on the ball. With most third basemen, that would have been an infield hit. Instead, Machado fielded the ball, and from his knees threw Pillar out at first base.

That gold glove-caliber play put Toronto on warning that their heroics weren’t going to be enough. New day, new year. However the game did end in similar fashion to that wild card game last year – just with a different team celebrating. The Orioles had the heart of the order coming up in the 11th inning, and it didn’t disappoint…

…Mark Trumbo came up with two outs and nobody on. However the home team bats last, and all the Orioles needed was one run. And Trumbo connected, reminding the Orioles and the fans why the club re-signed him. His solo homer gave the Orioles a 3-2 walk off win on Opening Day at Camden Yards.

Trumbo addressed his heroics after the game, and admitted how special of a moment this was (quote courtesy of Steve Melewski, MASNsports):

Pretty special. It’s a whole lot of fun. We battled tooth and nail today. It was a great game all the way around. Was happy to come through and take us home.

Perhaps saying that this was payback from the Orioles’ perspective in the wake of a sudden death loss in the playoffs is a bit of a stretch. However several players and manager Buck Showalter pointed out how similar this game was to the playoff game last year. It merely unfolded in reverse at the end.

The fact is that nobody can take away that moment from the Toronto Blue Jays last year. But the same is true with the Orioles’ moment yesterday. And quite frankly, while that was a playoff game, yesterday’s moment was a lot more relevant to the here and now.