BALTIMORE—That talk of 0-and-21 can be silenced. For the first time in 16 days, the Orioles recorded a win on Tuesday night, and fans who lived through those 21 straight losses to begin the 1988 season won’t have to think about another streak that rivals it.
The 7-4 win over the Minnesota Twins before 5,337 on the first night of full capacity at Oriole Park broke a 14-game losing streak that tied for the second longest in club history. The Orioles also dropped 14 straight from August 11-25, 1954. It was the longest losing streak in the major leagues since Houston lost 15 straight in September 2013.
“The last two weeks were obviously not great,” Trey Mancini said. “It was a really strange streak.
“Most of those games we were in. Things didn’t bounce our way. We were all pressing … Tonight we let it all go. It was June 1st and a natural reset for us, and we all decided to forget about May and come out strong in June.”
The win also broke a 16-game losing streak to the Twins dating to March 31, 2018.
Bruce Zimmermann (3-3), who was the winner in the last Orioles’ win on May 16th, pitched 5 1/3 innings for the victory. The Ellicott City native and Loyola Blakefield grad allowed two runs on six hits, walking two and striking out seven, the most in his career.
Cedric Mullins got the Orioles off to a fast start, leading off the first with a triple against Michael Piñeda (3-3). He scored on Mancini’s single.
In the top of the third, after Kyle Garlick’s fourth home run of the season tied it at 1 and Josh Donaldson followed with a two-out single, Nelson Cruz hit a long drive to center. Mullins ran the ball down and slid into the center field wall, holding on to it.
Manager Brandon Hyde said: “That was the best catch I’ve seen here in three years.”
Zimmermann seemed to hold his breath for a moment, then exhaled and pumped his fist as the score remained tied.
“I knew it was going to be borderline,” Zimmermann said. “In a situation like that, against a Cruz, it’s go after it, put the ball in play. It’s really nice to know you have a guy like Ced in center field that’s going to sacrifice himself and go for a ball like that. I think that was the turning point in the game.”
The Orioles (18-37) scored four runs in the third, taking a 5-1 lead. Mullins, Mancini, Anthony Santander and Freddy Galvis had consecutive one-out singles. Mancini and Galvis had RBIs. So did DJ Stewart with a grounder to second, and Ryan Mountcastle with an automatic double.
Pedro Severino’s second home run in the fourth put the Orioles ahead, 6-1.
In the sixth, the Twins (23-31) scored on doubles by Cruz and Alex Kiriloff. Dillon Tate relieved Zimmermann after a walk to Jorge Polanco and retired Miguel Sanó and Willians Astudillo on grounders to end the sixth.
Maikel Franco’s sixth home run in the sixth put the Orioles ahead, 7-2.
In the top of the seventh, Tate walked Garlick, hit Donaldson with a pitch and walked Cruz with one out. Tanner Scott came in, struck out Trevor Larnach before Kiriloff’s single scored Garlick. Polanco grounded into a force to end the inning.
César Valdez relieved Scott with one out in the eighth. Astudillo hit his first pitch for a home run. Andrelton Simmons singled and, in a strange sequence, began to run to second base when Valdez threw a wild to first on a pickoff attempt. But the ball hit off the wall and ricocheted to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. Simmons, perhaps sensing he’d be thrown out at second, stopped running halfway to the base and was tagged out in a rundown by Valdez. Garlick then struck out to end the eighth.
With Paul Fry unavailable because he pitched the last two days, Hyde called on Cole Sulser to work the ninth for the first time this season.
Sulser walked Cruz with one out, and Larnach doubled. Sulser struck out Kiriloff, and Polanco flied to center after pulling an inside fastball deep but foul down the right-field line.
The Orioles were finally able to exhale.
“Probably a lot more relief than happiness at that point,” Hyde said. “Still probably irritated … It was ‘hold on tight’ there for the last five or six outs.
“That was probably the most vocal our dugout has been in three years.”
The late innings were a test, but the Orioles survived.
“It got tight there a couple of times. We were tested,” Mancini said. “We came through, and it felt amazing to get a win.
“It’s a good time in there. The music’s blasting louder than I’ve ever heard it.”
Notes: The Orioles optioned infielder Tyler Nevin to Triple-A Norfolk. Nevin was called up when Mancini and Mountcastle were unavailable because injuries last week. He was 1-for-5 (.200) in two games. The Orioles will add a pitcher for Wednesday. … Matt Harvey (3-6, 6.84 ERA) will face starts Randy Dobnak (1-4, 6.49). Hyde said Harvey will pitch an inning or two, and that the bullpen will pitch the balance of the game. … Minnesota catcher Mitch Garver left the game in the first inning when he suffered a bruised groin. Garver was taken to a local hospital and is expected to miss significant time. … Hunter Harvey pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Norfolk, allowing two hits and striking out two in relief of Dean Kremer, who allowed two runs on two hits in four innings. Kremer struck out seven. … Zimmermann became the second Maryland-born starter to win a game at Camden Yards. Steve Johnson was the first in 2012.
Call for questions: It’s time for our monthly mailbag. Please leave your questions in the comments or send them to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.
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Finally. I lived through the 21 straight losses , what a relief. Mullins was awesome
Why Not?
I don’t understand why they’re going with a bullpen game. Just call up whoever is supposed to start at triple a today. Once again we pulled a starter way to early. He had just gotten out of a jam the previous inning. Let him try it again. Hyde almost mismanaged the bullpen again. You bring Tate in after zimmermann then Scott in in a jam where he gave up an inherited run. High leverage situations don’t seem to be Scott’s strong suit. Then you bring in Valdez who also made it a save situation. Valdez needs to go. The honeymoon phase is over so what he’s got a good story. Be a little more cut throat. And of course Susler made it interesting. Hopefully when Harvey comes back Hyde is smart enough to make him the closer. You look around the league closers are guys with stuff not finesse guys.
Snickers in the morning, mid-day, and just before game time...
We score seven runs, and we use five pitchers to hold the lead. Next day, a bullpen game.
Next day, complaints about overworked pitching staff. Definitely calls for snickers.
If your pitchers are good enough........YOU DON'T WEAR THEM OUT . Next night's so-called "bullpen night" is uneventful, .....O's win again......NO DAMN SNICKERS NEEDED. When your bullpen is full of what we have.......hell yeah, they get worn-out, the next game is a disaster, and you get to push your Snickers ad nauseam
Not sure Hyde has that many options with this staff. He has to use who he has available.Tanner has to eventually learn how to pitch in these key situations as he has all the tools.
You fail to mention that Tate was out of the inning IF Wilkerson makes the throw for the DP. Tate was pretty good before his groin pull. He’s being eased back in to his role. Orioles seem to be protecting their young arms with pitch counts . Why do you blame Hyde for everything?
For myself, I don't blame Hyde for everything. Some things are beyond any particular person's control, and others result from decisions made by multiple people for reasons that are conscious or unconscious. Here I speak simply to what I perceive is happening, some of which I find difficult to accept as best practice. I say something because others seem to see things otherwise, and I think it's good to have diversity of discussion about something we're all interested in. For example, the O's "seem to be protecting young arms," yet their pitchers are not so young (here young for me means 25 years old and younger). Might there be another explanation for what's happening?
The shortened 2020 season or the absence of minor league 2020 season may have a lot to do with the use of theses pitchers
The pitchers…. Sorry fat fingers
A collective sigh of relief. Wilkerson "goat to hero". Makes a dynamic play to end the 7th after flubbing an easy DP the play before. That's our Stevie. Tack on runs,hitting with RISP. Simmons bailed Valdez out big time in the 8th(reminded me of an old Villar type gaff). Tanner Scott could have gone further. Tate is a work in process--at Norfolk. Anybody hear Palmer say that he thinks Severino needs glasses? Seems Pedro sees the ball better with a bat in his hand than he does with a glove on. Why is Hyde/Co. always scratching their head for a starter days after sending a Kremer or an Aiken down? All Organization affiliates won last night---that feels good.
Akin is with the Orioles, Kremer pitched last night for Norfolk. Rain out on 5/28, DH on 5/29 kind of goofed up the five man rotation plans.
Read a rumor Lowther will be called up to be available to pitch tonight.
Villar is an excellent base runner, check his base running stats on fangraphs...
Villar in general is a good base-runner BUT in particular(especially with the O's) he had a tendency of being a little over exuberant/careless at times. I will say this though-- this middle IF could sure use him now.
I used to say, we've got a runner on - as long as he doesn't run us out of the inning. Great talent but far more concerned about padding his baserunning numbers.
Most who pay passing attention just see this as another terrible team, but the talent is there (when healthy) and when they get the experience/reps they need you can start to have hope they'll be able to compete. Key will be if enough of the pitching develops into a starting rotation and other good arms are converted to the pen. Fantasies of Means/Rodriquez/Hall/Zimmerman and either Kremer/Akin/Baumann/Lowther rounding out the rotation or headed to the pen.
Catching we obviously expect the defense to improve tremendously (most important) when Adley gets the call and offense as well. I like what Galvis brings until he's pushed out - Henderson/Jones heading up the middle infield depth. Need more at 3b - Franco is below replacement level and has a WAR even below Rio Ruiz.
I think DJ Stewart will end up elsewhere as a bat off the bench - just too many limitations in the field and too many prolonged slumps to keep him there with Hays/Mullins/Santander/Mountcastle and the OFs in the pipeline with Kjerstad/Diaz.
The light is there... Patience is hard... It's all about the arms...
I'm just glad we finally won one.
The lineup looked major league last night. First time in a long time, but it's exciting to see. Just have to shore up the infield. And of course ...that pitching staff ... well I guess it was good enough for one night, so I'll leave it at that.
5337 in attendance ... ownership reaps what it sows.
Ken, I find it interesting that most comments about attendance come from people who never go to games, and like you, live far away.
Ken, just because some of us live hundreds of miles away (VA. Beach VA.) doesn't mean we can't hope the stands are packed with as much fans as possible each game.
I make 3-4 games in person each year and that's about all I can get too.
Because I attend so few games due to the logistics,.....am I to forfeit my right to worry and complain about O's attendance ?
Of course not.
Brian, it’s always great to hear from you. I just think it’s interesting that fans who
never go to a game write about those who don’t.
Rich, I['m not writing about those who don't go to games. I'm writing about why.
To say I don't/didn't attend games is a bit misleading. I LOVE going to the park. There is no substitute. I won’t go into details, but over the past 60 years, I used to attend anywhere from 3 to 20 games a year. As I got older, the numbers dropped for various reasons, none of which had anything to do with loving live baseball.
NOW why my interest in attendance. I know you firmly don't believe the O's could ever, would ever, move out of Bal'more and it’s crowned jewel of a stadium. I firmly believe you could be mistaken. Attendance is the lifeblood of any Baseball team, and it always will be until some sort of revenue sharing infrastructure is set up, and that is highly unlikely to happen in the near future.
So now I’m watching these numbers drop precipitously for the Orioles. Sure, the Nats don’t help, but I’m a firm believer that the ownership of the team is totally responsible for these atrocious numbers. When the ownership a total dis-interest in winning games, what do you think the fans will do? When you put a decidedly less than major league product on the field, yet charge decidedly major league prices, people simply aren’t going to continue spending. It literally takes hundreds of dollars to take the family to the park for decent seats and some cotton candy. With the coming inflation and the astronomical prices hikes of things like gas and beef, people will have to prioritize their cash. Watching MASN is a lot less expensive, AND it’s a lot less profitable for the O’s.
The 5300 in attendance last night is a harbinger of things to come. You’re going to see numbers far lower than that as the season wears on. And if this continues, I assure you Bal’more will lose this team. My interest in the team is simply my interest in their survival in Baltimore.
Ken, the reason that I answered your flippant remark was because I believe the attendance issue is a much more nuanced one than believed. This is a very thoughtful and well-reasoned argument, which I believe is not correct.
Performance on the field is, of course, the main reason why attendance fluctuates. However, as I wrote in a comment to you, attendance at baseball games has fallen dramatically, and not just in Baltimore.
Take Cleveland. They have a ballpark that was opened just after Oriole Park, and like the Orioles had sellout crowds for years. When the Indians had excellent teams in recent years, attendance never came close to its peaks of 1995-2001. From 2016-2019, the Indians won 90 games each year, and went to the World Series once, yet their attendance peaked at 2.048 million in 2017.
The Indians don't have another team 40 miles away, but like Baltimore, a market much smaller than Cleveland, there is no longer a corporate base that buys large numbers of tickets. Baltimore does not have a Fortune 500 company, and of course, they're hurt terribly by having the Nationals so close.
But, baseball as a whole, sadly is not as popular as it was even 15 years ago, when attendance peaked, and you touched on some points, money is tight for many people, and I think that besides the team being uncompetitive since late 2017, people can watch on their big screen TVs, which didn't exist 20 years ago when the Orioles and Indians were setting attendance records.
Many people are still wary of being in crowds, and I don't think attendance will increase. The Orioles' two biggest draws, Boston and New York, have already played two series, and won't come back until late September.
If the team becomes more competitive in a year or two, attendance will perk up, but because many people got out of the habit of going to games because of the losing, the pandemic, and the fear of crime downtown, which as a nearby resident, I believe is totally overblown, but the perception is there.
Besides baseball being less popular as a sport in the U.S., the way people buy tickets has changed in recent years. Instead of buying ahead of time, many people wait and buy cheaply on the secondary market. If the team is uncompetitive, there's no incentive to buy ahead of time. Fewer people buy season tickets, and without a corporate base in Baltimore, there are fewer ways to sell season tickets and suites.
Because of the fall in popularity of the sport, there are no cities that have major league ready stadiums for teams to move to--or threaten to. Why did the Raiders, Rams and Chargers get new stadiums? Because Los Angeles and Las Vegan built them.
Tampa Bay and Oakland, as you know, have inferior stadiums, but baseball can't get Montreal, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville or Portland to build new stadiums on spec. If one of those cities built a stadium, then there would be leverage to move.
Baltimore has a great stadium, and it would be hard to contemplate another city building a stadium that would be the equal of Oriole Park. The Oakland and Tampa Bay situations are bothersome for baseball, and they want to see them resolved, but there's no leverage right now.
Attendance will continue to be disappointing until the team becomes competitive, and if they do, more fans will come, and the arguments I read will become, in your eyes, less compelling.
Thoughtful arguments deserve detailed responses, and I appreciate that you offered one.
Thanks Rich, if I sounded flippant with my intial comment, I assure you I didn't intend it to be so. Funny thing here is that my initial reply was going to be much longer. However when I reviewed it, I realized that as is most often the case, I was way too verbose with my reply ...so I edited quite a bit out in the name of brevity. Sometimes I forget that this is your site and not mine. Hah.
As far as your remarks, there is not one point you made that I would disagree with. (well, maybe I have a very small issue with the love of HD/TV replacing attendance), but I'll let that one go. However, considering the mryiad of other contributing factors, I'll stand by mine. It stands to reason that all those other factors make it just that much more important to put a decent product on the field if you want the people to come. If you (ownership) don't care .. and there are many indications they don't ... please by all means keep hiring minimum wage players to stock your squad.
And I'll beat this drum 'til the day I die ... but the biggest problem with Baseball's declining interest is the demise of Little League baseball as we knew it in the 50s through the 70s. Fix that problem and baseball could once again be America's Pasttime.
And I WILL be watching those attendance numbers ... It may be the most important statistic in all of baseball.
Rich, I appreciate the thoughtful discussion between you and BRR about attendance at OPACY - many good points made by both of you. A few additional thoughts:
I agree that team performance is the single most important variable affecting attendance, including for the Orioles. That said, in the particular case of the Orioles, I think that safety fears are probably having more impact on attendance than in most other cities. Whether those fears are legitimate or a misperception (I think some of both) is another discussion.
I also would differ with BRR on the impact of technology, specifically HDTV, on attendance. My sense, from my own experience, and talking with others, is that the option to now watch baseball at home on a very large screen with an amazing high definition picture has become a preferable alternative for many folks to the time, traffic, and expense involved with going to a stadium.
Thank you, Birdman.
Hey Rich, just to give you some amo, this whole BS that current ownership doesn't care is totally bogus. Attendance at Memorial Stadium in 1969 when the Orioles went to the World Series, their winning club drew 1,062,069. In 1966 World Series club drew 1,203,366. 1970 World Series year attendance was 1,057,069. And in 1971 another World Series trip drew 1,023,037. So, who we blaming then, ownership again. Or the Washington Senators?
Attendance was a lot better when current ownership (Angelos) and the new and current stadium took over. Here's attendance from 1992 - 3,567,819; 1993 - 3,644,965; 1994 - 2,535,359; 1995 - 3,098,475; 1996 - 3,646,950; 1997 - 3,711,132; 1998 - 3,684,650; 1999 - 3,433,150; 2000 - 3,297,031; 2001 - 3,094,841; 2002 - 2,682,439; 2003 - 2,454,523; 2004 - 2,744,018; 2005 - 2,624,740; 2006 - 2,153,139; 2007 - 2,164,822; 2008 - 1,950,075; 2009 - 1,907,163; 2010 - 1,733,019; 2011 - 1,755,461; 2012 - 2,102,240; 2013 - 2,357,561; 2014 - 2,464,473; 2015 - 2,281,202; 2016 - 2,172,344; 2017 - 2,028,424; 2018 - 1,564,192; 2019 - 1,307,807; 2020 - 0... because of the pandemic, which was the reason they had 0 attendance and less than the early World Series years.
Even World Series years 1979 and 1983 attendance was 1,681,009 and 2,042,071 respectively. Not bad but not better the the early years of the stadium and Peter Angelos.
Number one ... absolutely I'm blaming ownership for driving this franchise into the ground for the last 30 years. Who else would you have us blame? Dan Duquette?
A few points of contention. First, the O's aren't going anywhere, probably ever, and at least for a couple decades. As to the "decidedly major league prices" the Orioles have the least expensive average ticket price in MLB. I was stunned when I went to look at tickets to see the O's in Cleveland where it's hard to find anything with a seat for under $30.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/193673/average-ticket-price-in-the-mlb-by-team/
You also overstate concerns about coming inflation and "astronomical prices" - gas prices spiked in certain areas of the U.S. because some fools went out and panic bought, not due to a lack of supply. The summer travel increase was similar to last year everywhere else. The same will be the case for beef - only will go up if people panic buy. In fact prices will level off and go down once the international supply chain is regenerated after the fits and starts caused by the pandemic and the accident in the Suez Canal.
The Astros struggled for years - and didn't lie about it. Since they've been at or near the top for 6/7 years. Elias is following the same blueprint and most are savvy enough to recognize that. When they win, the stadium will be packed.
You sir, are very misinformed.
Didn’t realize you needed to go to games in person to be allowed to voice an opinion, if anything I think it’s awesome the O’s have fans that don’t live in Baltimore, we try to get to 3 games, about 7 hrs away, we’re gonna hit Akron to watch the baby birds & already have tickets vs the tribe...go O’s...
NOBODY (except the Yanks) beats the O’s 17 straight games!
That's funny!
Rich, I loved your question to Brandon before the game. Your delivery made it clear that you were wanted Brandon to put "extra mustard" on his response. Brandon did not disappoint. NOTE: The crowd microphone picked up his squawking at a coach from the Twins. You could hear a couple of high-pitched, rapid-fire "f*%ks" coming from Brandon. He looked like a manager who was going to blow and get tossed, perhaps to fire up the team. Luckily, that strategy was not needed.
Thank you, Jim. Brandon is always intense during the game, and contrary to popular belief, few get tossed out of a game to inspire their team. They get thrown out because they don’t like a call.
Why do we have Severino catch, what a oxymoron. He missed 4 pitches in one inning. How can the pitchers have confidence in throwing anything low when it’s 50/50 he will catch it?
Palmer doesn’t seem to be a fan, rightfully so, he’s awful...go O’s...
Sure was nice seeing the offense come alive last night. Mullins is always exciting to watch as well as Trey! Mountcastle is still lacking patience but I do like his aggressiveness! Experience will surely help as time goes on. Just some big holes to fill in this lineup. I do get a little hot when I see Stevie taking strikes and shaking his head agreeing with it. Glad that steak is over!
Good to see competitive fire from Zimmerman - he seems intense and I liked the fist pump and hollering as he walked off the mound.
Again, DJ with a miscue in left, but I do realize that ball was smoked. Wilkerson looks like a ball player, but just hasn’t gotten any traction yet. He did have a nice defensive recovery after being unable to complete the DP.
I keep thinking how much the pitchers records would be improved if they had received some offensive support.
Mullins just continues to play like his hair is on fire! What a spark plug.
Let’s build on the momentum. A win tonight is a streak!
Couldn’t agree more about Mullins and I have a feeling he’s gonna get snubbed for the All Star game. I’m guessing the O’s will only have at most 2 players on the team and that they will be Means and Mancini. Don’t get me wrong, they both absolutely deserve it but so does Mullins.
Agree about Mullins getting snubbed, but Mancini got snubbed before as well & was plenty deserving, LOVED Zimmermans yelling & fist pumping, 1st I’ve seen an Orioles pitcher do that in quite awhile...go O’s...
Somebody mentioned Hunter Harvey returning as closer. Hopefully he will be better than current options, especially in that classic closer role. However, I just am not convinced he will be there long term. Golden arm, but he’s pitched 15 innings in the big leagues - hardly durable. He needs to earn our trust with a string of successful appearances IMHO.
Also, (unrelated) anybody know what Austin Hays’ timeline for return is?
Last stats I saw on Harvey’s rehab minor league assignment wasn’t all that impressive, just hope he can stay healthy...go O’s...
Hunter Harvey pitched 1.2 innings last night with two strike outs and no ER allowed (but two hits allowed). His first three rehab appearance weren't too good - 4.2 IP 8 H 1 BB 2 K 3 ER. Hope he can reach his full potential.
Hays is eligible to come off the IL-10 6/5 or 6/6 but "It isn't clear yet whether Hays will need more than the allotted ten days to recover..."
Thank you for the info
Lowther has been called up from Norfolk...
Late to the party but happy for the boys to break that streak! Nowhere left to go but up now