Rich Dubroff

Orioles lose 7th straight, 5-2 to Tigers; Cabrera hits 499th homer; Minor league update

BALTIMORE—Matt Harvey labored through five innings and allowed Miguel Cabrera’s 499th home run. The Orioles’ offense labored through seven innings, not scoring until Anthony Santander hit his fourth home run in three games in the Orioles’ 5-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers before an announced crowd of 8,990 at Camden Yards Wednesday night.

It was the seventh consecutive loss for the Orioles and the second straight game in which the start was delayed by rain.

The Orioles (38-74) haven’t won since August 2nd when they beat the New York Yankees, 7-1.

“We’ve got a tough stretch right now,” Harvey said. “I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of hits, but our pitching has given up a couple of runs here and there. It happens. You go into slumps hitting. You go into slumps pitching. That’s part of the game. We realize there’s a lot of baseball left to play, and we’ve got to keep our heads down and keep pushing.”

Harvey, who left his previous start because of a tweak in his right knee, loaded the bases in the first and third innings. In the first, Austin Hays ran down Jeimer Candelario’s long fly ball for the second out, and Harvey ended the inning on Harold Castro’s groundout to second.

In the third, with the bases full and one out, Eric Haase hit a grounder to first baseman Trey Mancini, who threw home to force Jonathan Schoop. Harvey then struck out Castro.

Harvey said the knee didn’t bother him.

Cabrera, who had singled in his first two at-bats, hit his 499th home run with one out in the fifth. He drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right in the sixth and grounded to second in the ninth.

The Tigers expect Cabrera to start on Thursday on the cusp of his 500th home run. Detroit returns home to play the Cleveland Indians on Friday.

After Cabrera’s home run, Candelario doubled, and Harvey walked Hasse. Castro tried to score Candelario with a bunt, but the ball went right to Mancini, who threw to catcher Pedro Severino at home to get Candelario.

Niko Goodrum doubled to right, scoring Haase and Castro but pulled up at second and left the game because of a strained left groin. He’s the third Detroit outfielder to be injured in the series. On Tuesday, leftfielder Akil Baddoo and centerfielder Derek Hill collided when Hill caught a fly to left-center by Santander. Baddoo is on the seven-day concussion injured list and Hill is on the 10-day injured list.

Harvey (6-11) allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings.

“He kept us in the ballgame,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I thought he looked good on a hot night.”

Harvey hadn’t won from May 1st to July 18th, then won three straight and threw 21 1/3 scoreless innings.

“I just see him making a lot more quality pitches,” Hyde said. “He’s executing pitches a lot better than he was the first half and mixing pitches much better … He’s come a long way since early in the year.”

Dusten Knight allowed two runs in the sixth on Robbie Grossman’s single, Schoop’s double, the sacrifice fly by Cabrera and a wild pitch.

Tarik Skubal (8-10) scattered five singles in six scoreless innings for the Tigers.

Santander hit a two-run home run in the eighth, his 10th of the season. As did his first home run on Tuesday night, the ball landed on Eutaw Street.

Santander has hit three homers onto Eutaw Street in 2021 and six in his career, tying him with Luke Scott for second place in team history. Chris Davis has hit 10 home runs onto Eutaw Street.

The Orioles had the tying run at bat against Gregory Soto in the ninth. With Ryan McKenna at second and Mullins at first, Hays bounced to third to end it, and Soto picked up his 14th save.

Ramón Urias, who started at third base, left after seven innings with upper right leg soreness. The injury kept him out of games on Saturday and Sunday.

Notes: John Means (5-3, 2.79 ERA) will face Matt Manning (2-5, 6.33) on Thursday afternoon at 4:05 p.m. … The delay before the game was one hour, 11 minutes. The total rain delay time this season is seven hours, 26 minutes. … The Orioles optioned right-hander Isaac Mattson to Triple-A Norfolk. Right-hander Tyler Wells is expected to return from the 10-day injured list on Thursday. … Mullins extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a third-inning infield single.

Minor league update: Third baseman Rylan Bannon homered twice to lead Triple-A Norfolk over Memphis, 8-6. Bannon, who has had an injury-marred season, has six homers and is batting just .144.

In his second Triple-A game, Adley Rutschman had two RBIs and a stolen base.

Dean Kremer allowed one run on six hits in four innings, striking out three without a walk.

Designated hitter J.D. Mundy drove in three runs to lead High-A Aberdeen to a 4-3 win over Asheville in the conclusion of a game that was suspended after two innings on Tuesday night. The big hit was Mundy’s two-run shot, his 11th of the season.

Jake Prizina (2-1) allowed two runs in five innings.

The regularly scheduled game was rained out.

DH Lamar Sparks, second baseman Jean Carmona and rightfielder Cristopher Cespedes each drove in two runs to lead Low-A Delmarva over Lynchburg, 8-7, in the first game of a doubleheader. Cespedes hit his 12th home run, a two-run shot.

TT Bowens hit a three-run triple as part of a seven-run fourth as the Shorebirds completed the sweep, 10-6.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

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  • Cabrera has been a washed up singles hitter for 4 years now, has a worse contract than Davis, yet catches lightening in a bottle against the Orioles. The only reason he has not been released is the contract!

    • Easy Lightyear, contract is a contract, heres to guessing you wouldn’t make them fulfill it if it was you, he’s getting paid now what he probably should’ve during the yrs he was underpaid, he hasn’t bankrupted Dominoes...career .311 hitter, lol...:)...go O’s...

    • One of a handful of sure-fire HOF'ers playing today.

      Also appreciate how the Ilitch family handles this contract; they haven't let it sink the team, they are revamping as-they-go, and they allow Miggy to be himself.

      He is also one of the most popular players in the game today amongst his peers.

      Would have been nice for the Orioles owner to suck-it-up and continue their growth rather than having the CD Contract derail the entire franchise---but I digress...

      The longer this team suffers from it's own foolish ways and ineptness (pre-Elias) the more deeply I resent what Ownership has done to this team and its Fanbase.

    • To speak so ill of Miguel Cabrera is just plain ignorant. To compare he and his contract to that of Crush Davis' is just as ignorant.

      He is quite possibly the greatest right handed hitter of all time. Let that sink in Buzz ..... "of all time".

  • Rich… you missed the Bowie game where Grayson Rodriguez pitched another “gem”… five innings… three hits… no runs… and eight strike outs in an 8-4 win over Richmond. It was my first game since 2019 and it was good to be back. However, I’d hoped to see the “double”… Rodriguez and Rutschman but settling for just one was still satisfying. I was impressed with the left fielder, Rizer, with three hits, three RBI’s and a lot of hustle in the field. Zach Watson showed some “pop” with his sixth home run in just sixty five at bats. A fun day… just saying…

    • Me bad… Sorry Rich but I missed it. I’m glad I didn’t miss the game. I’d like to see Rom pitch tonight but have a “date” with my grandson to watch the Field of Dreams game. He’s in Massachusetts and I’m in Maryland but we’re going to make text message comments as the game progresses. I took him to see and to play ball out there when he was 13. He went on to pitch three years in college and is now a baseball coach in high school as well as for an AAU traveling team in the Summer.

  • Harvey did what he’s supposed to do which is pitch decent and keep us in the ballgame. If we could’ve hit maybe we could’ve won. Santander is starting to look like he did last year. Martin looks over matched.

  • Re: Aberdeen. They completed a game started on Tuesday, but suspended after two, and then
    the regular day's game was rained out. Anyone know how they handle the rain checks on that?

    • Hyde just HAD to start playing around again. Urias playing solid SS,making a case for 2022,then comes the platooning and playing out of position. Well guess who's come down to earth. It was nice while it lasted Ramon. How about bouncing Mateo and Martin around st 2B and 3B? Looks like Santander's a little more comfortable as a DH. Can you blame him? Now we've got 3 DH's(Santander,Mancini,Sewart). 3--DH's. Some things never change. God help anyone going to today's game 97 and a 4 o'clock game. Ouch!! Who thought that one out? Lotta sharp breaking balls by Tiger's staff and a lotta straight fastballs by O's staff. Some things never change.

      • In defense of Ramon (and Hyde), he's missed a couple games because of an injury. You also have to let Martin play or cut bait with him. If Ramon Urias is the shortstop for next year, we've bot BIG problems. "Playing solid SS" your say? I disagree. Dude had limited range especially when going to his left. I'm tired of seeing ground balls going thru the hole with this guy. He's simply not that good. Cut Hyde some slack here.

        Also, Santander is NOT a DH. He's our right fielder for the foreseeable future. He may not be Roberto Clemente, but he'll do. Remember just last year he was a GG finalist. (not that I believe that he really IS...but he was)

      • Talented players can survive the upset of new positions. Imagine being a rookie first baseman and being asked to play: left field, right field, second base and third base. Andrew Vaughn of the White Sox has done just that. If you feel the need to make excuses for the players, that's insulting to them. Most are happy just to be in the lineup--anywhere. In fact, most have already played multiple positions if you look at their previous amateur and professional experience.

  • Just saw the news flash that Chris Davis is retiring. Woo Hoo. Note to the O’s… never sign another player with the name Davis… first, last or middle name! … just saying…

    • Isn't he due another $17 million next year? I find it hard to believe he'd leave that on the table.

    • From what Jon Heyman said, Davis will get his full salary next year. They are restructuring his deferred money that is ( or was) owed through 2037.

    • According to MASN Roch, he’ll get his full 2022 salary deferred over the next 3 years. So this must of been in the works for a while.

    • Doesn’t sound like retirement to me, just not playing & getting paid like he has...doesn’t make sense...go O’s...

  • something is going on with the coaching this year. if you look at our top 30 prospect list 6 guys have been brought up this year and 3 others were expected to get some time in majors. out of those 9 guys on prospect list 8 have had horrible years only Mountcastle has been having a decent year. Kremer,Lowther Akin,A.Wells, and McKenna have been beyond bad. Not just in majors but even their minor stats are terrible. 3 other guys who thought they would get time Y.Diaz,T.Nevin and R.Bannon have all been so terrible they can't even be thought of as getting a call up. what has happened? is not that they need time to adjust to the bigs. these guys look like they have no baseball skills anymore. something changed between last season and this to have that many "top prospects" completely fall apart. these guys aren't just having bad years they are all minus mountcastle having embarrassing years

    • All part of a Bottom-Tier System. Just about every one of the players you mentioned are not regarded as potential impact MLB players. It's the necessary --and painful process of transitioning from the previous regime to the current regime.

      Elias has spoken about this from his very first Media Conference where he stressed a complete overhaul of improving the Talent Base throughout the system. It is still early in this process. He is getting some very good players. He needs to continue to bring in many more very good players..many more.

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