For those who stayed up well into Saturday morning to watch the opener of this Orioles-Athletics series, well, I wouldn’t exactly say you witnessed an instant classic. There was a whole lot of silly baseball going on. Baserunning blunders. Defensive butchery. Inexplicable managerial decisions. The Orioles couldn’t score more than two runs in regulation against the league’s worst pitching staff, and let a late lead slip away.
But in the end, Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand saved the Orioles’ bacon with back-to-back RBI singles in the top of the 10th, and Alex Hoppe hung on in the bottom half for his first career save, bringing a happy ending to an often bewildering game. To quote Camden Chat commenter Knightley: “This game was so stupid, but at least we won.”
If you were expecting the Orioles to storm into Sacramento and easily put away the third-worst team in baseball, well, you don’t know the Orioles. Every game seems to be a struggle for the Birds, no matter the quality of the opponent. You might think that the O’s, after scoring 26 runs in three games in St. Louis, could at least keep up their offensive momentum against an awful Athletics pitching staff, whose 5.75 ERA entering the game was the worst in the American League. Again, you’d be wrong.
In the first nine innings against these supposedly atrocious A’s pitchers, the Orioles scored two (2) runs. That’s it. Both came in a weird top of the second inning against Athletics starter Jacob Lopez. The lefty’s first pitch drilled Coby Mayo in the shoulder, and later he walked Leody Taveras on four pitches. With two down, Dylan Beavers — starting against a lefty for only the fifth time this year — delivered a clutch hit, roping an RBI single to right to plate Mayo with the game’s first run.
Then things went haywire. Carlos Narváez tapped a 43-mph dribbler down the first base line. It should have been a simple task for Lopez to simply pick the ball up and tag out Narváez on his way to first, but somehow the A’s hurler let the ball pop out of his glove, then collided with Narváez in the baseline, leading to visits from both team’s trainers (both players stayed in). Taveras scored on the error, extending the O’s lead to 2-0.
The Orioles nearly caught a break on the next play, too, when Blaze Alexander’s slow grounder to first bounced off the bag for a gift infield single, but Beavers foolishly tried to score from second on the play — first hesitating around the third-base bag, then ignoring Buck Britton’s stop sign and charging headlong into an easy out at the plate. What was that, Dylan? The wild and not particularly well played half-inning was over with the O’s ahead.
To be honest, the Orioles should have done way more damage against Lopez. His pitch count was inflated from the get-go. He was so covered in sweat that he looked like he’d just climbed out of the pool. The Orioles had traffic on the bases almost constantly. But somehow they didn’t score again versus Lopez, who managed to gut out five full innings on exactly 100 pitches. The Orioles’ luck didn’t improve against the Athletics’ league-worst bullpen, either. Former Oriole Scott Blewett kept them scoreless for two innings, and Luis Medina fired a perfect eighth. You just knew the Orioles’ inability to add on runs was going to come back to haunt them.
For a while, Brandon Young made the lack of run support not matter. The right-hander, who had been showing signs of fatigue in recent starts, tonight delivered his finest outing of the month. He worked seven full innings for the first time since July 19, shutting down an A’s lineup that is missing several of its key hitters due to injury.
Young set the tone for his excellent outing by throwing just five pitches in the first inning to retire the A’s 1-2-3. Three of his first four innings were perfect, and he worked through a second-inning jam by stranding two baserunners. It wasn’t until the sixth that Young showed any signs of tiring; he gave up a two-out infield single and walked Lawrence Butler after getting ahead 0-2 in the count. But after a quick meeting on the mound, Young retired Tommy White on a fly to center to keep the shutout intact.
That ended an inning later. Young was one out away from getting through seven scoreless when former O’s farmhand Jonah Heim laced a solo home run to right field, cutting the lead to 2-1. But Brandon finished the inning to complete his seven-inning gem: one run, five hits, four strikeouts. If the O’s bullpen could hold it, Young was in line for his 10th win of the year.
Spoiler: the O’s bullpen could not, in fact, hold it. Rico Garcia, who’s been pitching much better of late after his midseason swoon, sadly reverted to his ineffective form in the eighth. After getting ahead of leadoff man Henry Bolte 0-2, Garcia missed badly with a four-seam fastball and plunked it off of Bolte’s helmet. Scary stuff there, but Bolte was able to stay in the game. Jeff McNeil followed with a single, and suddenly the O’s were in all sorts of trouble.
After Zack Gelof bunted both runners into scoring position, Lawrence Butler lashed a sharp single to left. Bolte scored the tying run and McNeil too steamed homeward, intent on putting the Athletics ahead. But Beavers came up firing and uncorked perhaps the best throw he’s ever made in the majors, a cannon to the plate that nailed McNeil for a huge second out. The A’s had erased the O’s lead, but Dylan’s heroics prevented them from taking a lead of their own. Yennier Cano relieved Garcia to get the final out and keep the game tied.
Each team’s closer worked a scoreless ninth — Hogan Harris for the A’s, Andrew Kittredge for the O’s — to send the game to extras. And that’s when the Orioles’ bats finally woke up, though the inning featured its share of head-scratching decisions on both sides. The Birds’ free runner was Narváez, who’d made the final out of the ninth.
Despite Gunnar Henderson being available on the bench, O’s manager Craig Albernaz didn’t pinch-run for the lead-footed Narváez, who represented the go-ahead run. Even more bizarrely, Albernaz did have Henderson pinch-run for Pete Alonso at first base after he was intentionally walked with one out. Why would you put the speedy guy as the trail runner but leave a plodding oaf as the lead runner? And don’t get me started on Albernaz’s repeated failure to have Henderson or Samuel Basallo pinch-hit for Narváez in big spots throughout the game. This was not the finest game of Albernaz’s already not-great managerial career.
But enough complaining. It all worked out, because A’s manager Mark Kotsay (on his bobblehead night) made the bad decision to let southpaw Brady Basso face lefty-mashers Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand. Mayo was the first to come through, roping a single to right field. This is where Albernaz’s poor pinch-running tactics nearly cost him, as Narváez likely would’ve been cut down at the plate by any kind of decent throw. But the right fielder Butler got too excited and booted the ball, allowing the run to score.
Encarnacion-Strand was up next and, as usual, came through in a big spot. He ripped an opposite-field single of his own to plate Henderson, giving the Orioles an all-too-valuable insurance run (which they ended up needing). CES does it again! Remember when the O’s acquired this guy for cash considerations? I’d say they won that trade.
With all of the Orioles’ highest leverage relievers already used, it was up to Alex Hoppe to try to convert his first career save opportunity in the 10th. The rookie right-hander got the job done, though it’s a good thing he had the extra run. Hoppe dispatched Bolte on strikes and McNeil on a flyout before Gelof sizzled a single to center, scoring the free runner to make it a 4-3 game. But Hoppe recovered to retire Butler on a grounder to second, ending this exhausting but ultimately successful game. With the Guardians losing earlier in the day, the Orioles are now just two games back for the third wild card.
Who is your Most Birdland Player, Camden Chatters? Mayo? CES? Hoppe? Young? Maybe Beavers for the game-saving throw and the RBI single, if his baserunning blunder doesn’t disqualify him? Let us know in the comments.
Read the full article here