DENVER—The Orioles were hoping for their first series win in more than a month and their first road series win since the season’s first week. They hadn’t even won consecutive games since May 4-6.
They took a 7-6 lead coming into the ninth after three-run rallies in the seventh and eighth. Branden Kline preserved the lead when he struck out Raimel Tapia and Trevor Story to end the eighth.
In the ninth, Kline got David Dahl to fly out, but Nolan Arenado singled, and Paul Fry walked Daniel Murphy. Mychal Givens, who lost three games this week, walked Mark Reynolds to load the bases.
Givens then walked Ian Desmond to force home Arenado, and Tony Wolters’ sacrifice fly scored pinch-runner Jeff Hoffman with the winning run, dealing the Orioles another deflating setback, 8-7.
Fry was charged with the loss.
“We’re just having a hard time getting the last three outs,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re not closing games out and you can’t walk guys in the ninth inning and you can’t allow baserunners, so we’ve just got to do a better job. We’re putting ourselves in position to win. We made some careless plays defensively earlier in the game that led to some runs, but we battled back great. We had great at-bats throughout the game, and we’re just having a tough time getting the last three outs right now.”
Hyde also expressed concern about Givens.
“Well, he’s had a tough week, obviously, and, yeah, we need him. We need Mychal Givens,” Hyde said.
“He’s a big part of our club and so we have to find a way to get him right. These last three or four appearances weren’t how he threw the ball earlier in the year, and so we’ve got to get him back on track.”
The Orioles trailed, 5-1, after six but their offense fought back in the seventh and eighth.
In the eighth, Richie Martin and Keon Broxton led off with doubles. With two outs, Jonathan Villar walked and Trey Mancini tripled to right-center to finally put the Orioles in front.
After Shawn Armstrong allowed a leadoff double to Desmond in the eighth, and a one-out walk to Ryan McMahon, Kline came in for the big strikeouts.
The Orioles scored in the second when Hanser Alberto walked with one out. He took third on Broxton’s single. Austin Wynns bunted as Alberto broke for home. When Colorado starter German Marquez couldn’t handle the ball cleanly and tried to flip it to home, Alberto scored.
Starter David Hess was impressive through four innings, allowing just two hits. Hess struck out Story and Arenado, who each homered twice on Friday night, two times.
In the fifth, Brendan Rodgers led off with a single. With one out, Wolters grounded to Villar at short. He threw wildly to second, allowing Rodgers to move to third.
Marquez bunted and Rodgers broke for home. Hess fielded it quickly and made a perfect throw home, but catcher Austin Wynns dropped the throw, allowing the run to score and the runners to advance to second and third. Tapia lined to short, and Story struck out for the third time.
In the sixth, Dahl walked, and Arenado homered to left, his fourth of the weekend. It was the major league-leading 18th home run allowed by Hess.
With two outs, Desmond and Wolters singled. Marquez, one of the best hitters among pitchers, tripled off the wall in right-center. It scored Desmond and Walters and ended Hess’ day.
Hess allowed five runs, four earned, on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.
In the Orioles’ three-run rally in the seventh, Wynns, Stevie Wilkerson, Villar and Mancini had consecutive singles to make it 5-2 Mike Dunn relieved Marquez and his only batter, Dwight Smith Jr., hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Villar.
Renato Nunez’s RBI single against Bryan Shaw cut the lead to 5-4.
The Rockies went up, 6-4, in the bottom of the seventh. Dahl singled and advanced to second on Arenado’s infield out. Nunez fielded Daniel Murphy’s grounder and overthrew reliever Richard Bleier, allowing Dahl to score. Nunez was charged with the Orioles’ third error of the game.
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Can’t give extra outs, Hyde apparently changed his mind about giving “Mike” some time off...put Crash on the IR & bring up a pitcher with an era of almost 8....if I did my job as poorly as these guys & Hyde I’d be out of a job...
Sorry, 7.11...lmao...
What the heck is Hyde doing? I don't care who was coming up or what side of the plate he hit from, but why couldn't Hyde leave Kline in to finish? I don't care what the books says ... it ain't working. Fry walks a guy ... Givens follows that up with 2 of his own ... we lose in the 9th again. Shucks .. Kline had at least struck out a couple guys. So what Arenado hit him? He hits everyone! Keep Kline in dangumit. Can't anybody go more than 1 inning any more? I'm starting to think Hyde's a chowder head!! TRY SOMETHING NEW FOR GOSH SAKE!
Agree with you totally on this one. Once Givens came in I knew we lost the game.
Totally agree. Kline should have stayed in and that's NOT second guessing. Hidden in that disaster is Fry laying an egg(walks the ONE man he comes in for). Boy o boy.
Really questioning whether Hyde is a proper manager.
Infield is a shambles as well. Really about done with this season. I have tried to hang i there but the same old mistakes (fielding, baserunning, bullpen management) over and over are driving me insane.
It’s not unrealistic for fans to expect sound fundamentals and a manager who recognizes when his closer is in a slump and rearranged the pen for a while until things smooth out. Losing winnable games with these same mistake is not acceptable, rebuild or not.
There’s a saying out there having to do with insanity. “It’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Hyde did it again with Givens. I’ve just about given up on him. He seems to talk out of both sides of his mouth. I stated just the other day that with some of his pitching moves he’s over managing and today was another example. If this is what managing using analytics is all about then you can have it. Why not just leave it up to a computer? Plus... it hasn’t got a chance if you don’t have players who can execute... both in the field and pitching... and it’s looking like we don’t have either. Just saying...
This season was always going to be about evaluating the talent level in the majors and minors. Think of this year as one big , long, spring training-without the palm trees and cactus’s. Hyde is experimenting to see how some of these guys are handling certain situations. Can be ugly at times. Appears that some of the position players may be here soon ( Stewart, Mountcastle, Hays, Sisco )in that order. Maybe even Santander and Mullins if he can start hitting. The pitching however is not as encouraging. Outside of Aiken at Norfolk and Lowther and Wells at Bowie, most of the pitching depth in the system is in the lower minors and at least 2-3 years away. Much as the Orioles don’t want to add payroll, this off-season they need to consider a few free agent pitchers to bridge the gap until the next crop of young pitchers are ready. Chris Davis goes 0-20 it doesn’t cause Rio Ruiz to be overused. With the pitchers however short starts and ineffective relief can wear out the entire staff.
Not sure what is going on with Hyde.
Didn't he just say he was going to give Givens a rest to get himself straightened out?
Then he immediately brings him into yet another close game, which he proceeds to lose.
I'm also questioning what "analytics" these guys are using.
Surely the data are telling them that Givens can't be trusted late in close games.
Givens does not have the temperament or control to be an effective closer.
Hyde may be a nice guy but it sure looks like he is in over his head here...
Yes Givens doesn’t have the control or mindset for a closer. He was terrible in spring training this year ok for a couple of weeks and now really terrible again. I’d like to give Hyde the benefit of doubt. He should have either let Kline finish it out or Fry. He knows Givens can’t throw strikes now so why bring him in a pressure situation. It makes no sense. I do feel we will see the end of CD situation sooner then later. Elias realizes this team is better without him and it’s not his money. Obviously he has to convince the old man which might not be easy. Hope they bring up DJS today and send Givens down to work things out. Let Phillips close. He can’t be worse.
Givens doesn’t need to be sent down. He was a good setup man, not a closer and always has been. I do agree he needs to work some innings in non-close games before resuming setup man duties. We should ride with the hot hand to close until we can figure out if there is a right guy to close on our team.
Brandon Hydes use of the bullpen is certainly not immune from criticism. Still the fact that starters aren’t getting deeper in the games makes it much more difficult to navigate the bullpen. All those Dan Straley and David Hess short outings take a toll on the bullpen. Kline threw 19 pitches today and 18 on Friday. Remember he was out from 2015-17 with arm issues. Givens was probably worn out but his track record indicates he can pitch multiple innings. Had a horrible week. Whether it’s a 1 run game or you’re losing by 10 runs, you still have to navigate through 27 outs. And do it again the next day. For instance Ynoa is pitching this afternoon. Can we expect more than 4 innings from him? Means you’ll need 5 innings from the bullpen
Don’t think Hyde will be around when we’re better....