BALTIMORE–What happened? The Orioles began a stretch of 15 games heading into the All-Star break last Friday. With 12 games at home, they thought they could make up ground in the American League wild-card race.
Instead, they’ve lost three of four, and have fallen to eight games below .500, equaling their season low with an ugly 8-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox before 17,146 at Oriole Park on Monday night.
After starting pitcher Shane Baz threw a career-high 109 pitches in seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, walking four, striking out six, and leaving with a 2-2 tie, the Orioles’ bullpen and their defense let them down, surrendering six runs in the last two innings.
“Extremely disappointing,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “Shane was outstanding. We needed him to step up and pitch deep in the game, and he did. And to just kind of have it unravel, yeah, it’s extremely disappointing. We’ve got to clean up the back half of the game defensively and a lot of other areas.”
Grant Wolfram (1-2) hit his first batter, Sam Antonacci, to start the eighth. With one out, Colson Montgomery doubled to score Antonacci. After Wolfram struck out Kyle Teel, Randal Grichuk singled against Rico Garcia, scoring Montgomery.
Yennier Cano gave up four straight hits in the ninth. After Tristan Peters singled, Chase Meidroth doubled under shortstop Gunnar Henderson’s glove, and Jacob Gonzalez doubled to score both. Antonacci doubled Gonzalez to third.
Both runs scored when third baseman Blaze Alexander couldn’t handle Teel’s ball for an error, and the Orioles were down, 8-2.
“The guys put the work in,” Albernaz said. “Not sure if they’re being too cautious, too careful. Trying not to make the mistake. It’s one of those things where, it’s baseball, you have to play the game from the first pitch to the last pitch the same way. And our guys have been doing that, but as of late they haven’t.”
The White Sox (44-39) scored two runs in the third against Baz when Gonzalez’s double scored Meidroth, who walked. Gonzalez moved to third on a fly ball to center by Antonacci. Miguel Vargas walked. After Colson Montgomery struck out, Teel’s grounder to Henderson bounced off the shortstop’s glove, and after Gonzalez scored, Vargas was out when Baz, who recovered the ball, threw home.
Adley Rutschman’s sacrifice fly scored Henderson, who doubled and had moved to third on Taylor Ward’s fly to center in the first.
The Orioles (39-47) tied it, 2-2, in the third when after loading the bases with none out, Rutschman’s second sacrifice fly scored Alexander. Ward lined to third before Rutschman’s at-bat, preventing what might have been a big inning.
“I feel like we’ve kind of played our way out of games kind of early and just not even really giving ourselves a chance,” Baz said. “When it happens tonight, it stings. But you’re in the game for so long, you’re not as mad about it. It’s just a lot smaller margins at the end of the game. I think we’ve just got to, as a pitching staff, kind of pull our weight, and we have a lot of faith in our bullpen and lineup and just make plays on defense.”
Chicago’s Grant Taylor (4-1) pitched a perfect seventh and eighth. Brandon Eisert finished with a spotless ninth.
The Orioles had just four hits, two by Henderson, batting leadoff for the first time since May 16th, who doubled in the first and singled in the fifth. Samuel Basallo’s single against Chicago starter Sean Burke was the Orioles’ final hit.
There were two spectacular catches that kept the score close. Peters made a running catch on Dylan Beavers’ fly ball in the fourth, then ran into the center-field wall.
For the second straight game, centerfielder Colton Cowser took away a home run, this time from Vargas, jumping to catch it to end the fifth. He also make an excellent throw to the plate, but Rutschman tried to catch it and tag the runner at the same time and never had possession.
How did the Orioles waste a good performance by Baz? Baz rebounded from allowing five runs in five innings against the Los Angeles Angels on June 23rd.
“I was emptying the tank, for sure,” Baz said. “I’ve said it a couple times, but just trying to earn that trust from him. And obviously, I want to stay in the game as long as I can. If they want me to throw 150 pitches, I’ll do it.
“But ,yeah, it was just kind of one of those outings that I feel like got better after the third, fourth inning where I started to execute a lot and just attacking better. I appreciate any time he’ll leave me in in a tight game like that.”
Do the Orioles still believe? Albernaz still thinks the Orioles can get back in the playoff race.
“It’s just playing a complete game of baseball from pitch one to the last out.” Albernaz said. “We lose back-to-back games, like [Sunday] we come out, score two. And today, did a great job of situational baseball with Adley with the sac fly, Gunnar starting off with a double. And it was kinda just about it. So it’s us just playing with the same mindset we have when we start the game from start to finish. That’s it.”
Beavers thinks the team believes in its manager, too.
“He’s awesome,” Beavers said. “Everyone in here loves him. We talked to him the other day. He just told us he believes we’re capable of great things, and I think we’re all on the same page here. I think we just need to be a little better.”
What’s wrong with the bullpen? Cano’s ERA ballooned from 2.03 to 2.67 with his two earned runs in the ninth.
“His last two outings have been uncharacteristic of Yenni,” Albernaz said. “I mean like today it looked like the split had a little more cut action to it than down action to it. That’s something that our pitching group is diving into and [going to] partner with Yenni and make the necessary adjustments.”
What does it mean? The Orioles are falling further out of the playoff race by the day. They need to turn it around immediately.
What’s the stat of the day? 4 of 5. The Orioles’ bullpen has allowed multiple runs in four of the last five games.
What’s the word? “You would think that, I would hope, that eases some pressure if guys are feeling pressure in the clubhouse. But that’s one of those things where there’s a lot of noise that the players are listening to outside. So, it’s starving the distractions and feeding your focus, that’s the biggest thing for our guys so hopefully we come in tomorrow ready to go.”-Albernaz on president of baseball operations Mike Elias showing faith in the team.
What’s next? Trey Gibson (1-2, 5.64) will start againstErick Fedde (2-6, 4.34) on Tuesday night at 6:35.
Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: [email protected]