I dont think I've ever seen that many O's strike out looking

[brianod]

Was it going both ways?

No, it wasn't. The Yankee superstars take continuous advantage of close calls going their way. The O's have no superstars and do not get the close calls. Buck chose to take the high road when Markakis got robbed. I'm beginning to think he needs to talk the truth to power. The fact that one Oriole after another got called out on strikes while Arod and Jeter got every call is ludicrous and needs to be addressed by the Orioles imo

[OrioleParkatWrigley]

Umpire was absolutely terrible. Unions at their best, once again.

Palmer has been hammering these guys the past couple games and he's right. Without them being held accountable, the best we can do is feel sorry for ourselves looking at pitch location charts after the game.

I do think the Yankees took advantage of this better by throwing more borderline "strikes" which is what a winning ballclub will do.

[square634]

Has anyone mentioned the Swisher "hit-by-pitch"? I was at the game and it was clear that Swisher swung at strike three, whether he was hit or not.

[brianod]

Do I think the Yanks get more calls than the O's? Yes. Is it way overblown by some people on here? Yes. The O's took a lot of good pitches against Phelps in particular.

Think about what you just said. Team A gets more calls then Team B but team B got some close calls so they shouldn't complain. Huh? Really? Why do we accept the Yankees getting more calls? It's unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Palmer has been hammering these guys the past couple games and he's right. Without them being held accountable, the best we can do is feel sorry for ourselves looking at pitch location charts after the game.

I do think the Yankees took advantage of this better by throwing more borderline "strikes" which is what a winning ballclub will do.

Exactly, and when the calls are being consistently being made/given on the outside corner, we might want to think about working the outside corner. Then again, the Yankees can hit to the opposite field and we seamingly can't.

[lovetoaster]

Has anyone mentioned the Swisher "hit-by-pitch"? I was at the game and it was clear that Swisher swung at strike three, whether he was hit or not.

No kidding, that was an awful call. He definitely swung. That and the check swing call against Davis were two of the worst I have seen in quite some time.

[Bahama O's Fan]

Weren't people on here wanting our hitters to take more pitches the other day?

[SammyBirdland]

But I want to know how many at bats started 0-1.

A lot of them did. But unfortunately a lot of those first pitch strikes were Yankee strikes. We again failed to adjust to the poor umpiring.

[Todd-O]

Definitely a few bad calls inches off the plate. But I want to know how many at bats started 0-1. The whole lineup was taking first pitch strikes all game.

This is so true

[NewMarketSean]

They may have been bad calls but you have to get the bat off your shoulder if it is close with 2 strikes.

Seemed like we either struck out or popped up last might. Another maddening loss to the MFYs.

[Camden_yardbird]

Did anyone see that tube of krazy glue in Wade's back pocket. The guy was throwing 85 to 91 down the middle of the plate. The only time a bat should have stayed on a shoulder was Davis against Rapada, and he bailed out a pitcher who could find the zone.

[Frobby]

I feel the umpiring was pretty much the same for both teams. It was obvious from early in the game that the strike zone was very wide. Palmer mentioned it repeatedly. I think RZNJ is on to something about the fact that the Yankees can do something with pitches on the outer edge of the strike zone, and the Orioles can't. And the Yankees clearly are much better at throwing Strike One. They threw a first-pitch strike on 35 of the 48 hitters they faced. The O's threw a first pitch strike on 33 of 53 Yankee batters.

(By the way, ESPN's box scores now track how many first-pitch strikes were thrown by each pitcher, which is a nice feature.)

I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing if the Orioles are taking more pitches. They did draw 5 walks, got hit by two pitches, and forced Garcia out of the game before completing 5 innings by being patient. But it did seem like late in the game they couldn't adjust to what the Yankees were doing.

[Mayor McCheese]

I will agree that the umpiring was horrible.

However, as hitter you have to adjust to the strikezone... the HP umpire established a wide strikezone for both teams early in the game.

The yankee pitchers were just abusing the outside corner for strike 2 and 3...whereas the O's pitchers (who did a great job) were going inside/outside.

[Bradysburns]

We had exactly 10 backwards Ks.

Oddly the first one wasn't until the 6th. And then the flood gates opened. For some reason Phelps and Wade confused the hell out of our hitters.

Sorry about that - I started watching the game in the sixth inning.

[LookinUp]

I like that the O's were taking pitches. I don't like that they seem to be a team in transition from hacking at whatever they see to selective aggression. We're in between. Even when we did swing the bat last night, many of our swings lacked any kind of authority. I really do think we're in transition to a different approach at the plate, but it was ugly.

With that said, what I learned last night was the Yankees have some real premium arms in the bullpen. Location + movement had us baffled. Their pitchers definitely deserve some real credit.