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BALTIMORE—On August 21, the night Orioles tied the major league record by allowing their 258th home run, manager Brandon Hyde was asked about the spate of long balls.
“We’ve given up a ton of homers,” Hyde said. “What’s the record … 258? So, if it’s 259 or 330, I don’t care. I just want us to get better on the mound and obviously finish this year and go into next year trying to do a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark and staying off the barrel, but home runs are up.”
Home runs continue to be hit against Oriole pitching, but not as many.
Hyde wasn’t using hyperbole when he mentioned 330 home runs because at the time of the tying homer, the Orioles were on a pace to allow 328.
With 11 games to play entering Wednesday night, the Orioles have allowed 29 in the past 22 games. They still lead the major leagues with a total of 287, but if they don’t average more than a home run a game during the rest of the season, they’ll avoid giving up 300.
There has been some progress. The Orioles have allowed four or more home runs in 23 games this season, but none since August 12.
They’ve allowed 10 or more runs 25 times, but only once since August 18.
Injury updates: Renato Nunez, Mark Trumbo and Mason Williams weren’t in the starting lineup. Nunez’s bruised left hand and Trumbo’s back are better and they could play if needed.
Williams crashed in the fence in left-center on Cavan Biggio’s ninth-inning triple.
“[He’s] sore in a few places,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It was quite a collision last night. There’s no concussion symptoms. That’s fine. It’s more of his shoulder, his knee and the rest of his body that hit the wall.”
According to Hyde, Alex Cobb, who underwent hip surgery in June, is recovering well.
“We’d love to have Alex Cobb healthy in here and pitching for us,” Hyde said. “I haven’t talked to Alex in a long time. I do get the daily medical reports on how he’s doing, and it sounds like he’s recovering well. It sounds like, hopefully, he’s going to be ready to go in spring training.
“We’ve missed Alex, and having a veteran starter like that. There’s a lot of value to that … experience, a guy who’s pitched in the American League East for a long time. Really good second half last year. We were hoping it was going to translate into this year, but injuries happened.
“We’re hoping he bounces back and recovers and is part of the rotation next year.”
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Trumbo doesn’t need anymore at bats, teams will be hesitant about his health even before his back issues, I would rather see the O’s with their younger pitchers than see Cobb at all, offer Cashner something in the off season, there is a reason that Cobb wasn’t offered anything by Tampa when he was a free agent, if they felt he was worthy of anything they would have offered him, especially considering their playoff run...go O’s....
The Rays did make a qualifying offer of 17.4 million to Cobb , who rejected it. Rays would have liked to keep him, but they are a very small market team. Their a playoff contender and there attendance is lower than the Orioles. Unlike Davis, the issue with Cobb is health. The Orioles can’t trade him and they aren’t going to release him Since Trumbo was activated September 2, he has started 4 out of 17 games. In 4 games he had 1 plate appearance as a pinch hitter. 19 at bats total. Plenty of at bats to go around The Orioles only activated him to reward him for his perseverance in coming back from serious knee surgery.
Can’t wait until the O’s reward their fans for all their perseverance...go O’s...
That would be nice. Has only been 3 years. Does seem longer
Oy... they’re, their, there. It should be: They’re a playoff contender and their attendance is lower... Let’s be careful out there.
Thanks, sometimes my grammar ain’t very good
C.P. I have the same feeling about Castner. If the price is right, sign him to another 2 year deal and re-unite him with Brocail.
It seems like any time a sportswriter writes something positive about an O’s player or about a positive trend that the O’s are showing it blows up on them, ie; “not as many home runs” as in this article. The past two games are... you fill in the rest of the sentence. It’s like living in a nightmare watching the end of their games. TEN runs, TEN in the ninth inning in the past two games!!!!! What a debacle! Why some of their so called relievers are even called relievers is beyond me. Batting practice is about their level of expertise. I, for one, can’t wait for the end of the season and with it the last that we have to see of some of these impostors who are masquerading as Major Leaguers. Just saying...
That is so true. Saw a great writeup on how Castro is finally "coming into his own" just hours before his 9th inning debacle.
I'm glad someone else has noticed the trend of the positive pieces followed by the complete opposite performance by the team and/or story subjects. I've responded to such with the phrase "small sample size". Thus far; I haven't seen any adoption of that philosophy. Live and learn, at least supposedly.