O's helped opponents too much the last two nights

[Ori-Al]

During the seven-game winning streak, the Orioles did a good job of not helping out their opponents. That changed over the last two nights. Wednesday night, there were the two baserunning blunders that resulted in outs at third-base, one with none out and one with two outs and Davis at the plate. There were also some at-bats with runners in scoring position against the struggling starter during which the batters helped out said starter by swinging at pitches that bounced to put themselves behind in the count.

Last night, three Orioles swung at ball 4 on 3-2 counts - Wieters and Jones on high pitches, and Rickard a check swing off the knob on an inside pitch during an at-bat that resulted in an out a few pitches later (in his defense, he had been called out on a pitch four inches inside in a previous at-bat, so he could've felt he had to swing thanks to the plate umpire, who missed a good number of pitches.) There were also a couple of poor at-bats with a runner on third and less than two outs during which the hitter didn't look for a pitch to drive in the air, instead swinging at pitcher's pitches and stranding the runner at third, resulting in a grounder to third by Manny, and an inning ending double play by Schoop on a 0-1 pitch he did not have to swing at with less than two strikes. As Jim Palmer has said many times, you can't be called out on strike one or strike two. When Tillman had a chance to escape the first and third situation with a double-play ball, he couldn't get the ball down, and induce the double-play needed. Tillman also continued a bad pattern giving back runs after his offense scores. Three times, the Orioles put up a single run. Tillman follows those scores with a leadoff walk that scored (helped by a wild pitch), and two leadoff doubles, one of which didn't score, thanks to a good defensive play by Hardy, the second of which did score as the first run of the five-run inning, which ultimately doomed the Orioles.

Oh, well, tonight is another night, and hopefully things will improve again. Go, O's.

[Frobby]

Adam Jones is a very good player, who will always frustrate me. In addition to striking out on ball four, he also had two one-pitch at bats. He's just not a patient hitter, and he never will be.

I don't see how you can blame Rickard because the ball hit the knob of his bat on a check swing. That's just bad luck.

I agree the at bats by Manny and Schoop with runners on 3B and less than 2 outs weren't the best, but I won't beat them up too badly for it.

[canonfaz]

Yesterday was just a tough game. It reminded me some of the playoff games in 2014 against the Royals. Seems like every play was a matter of inches. The umpire definitely wasn't doing us favors either with his strike zone. Those are games you're going to have over a 162 game year. Today is a new day though, looking for the W tonight!

[Frobby]

Yesterday was just a tough game. It reminded me some of the playoff games in 2014 against the Royals. Seems like every play was a matter of inches. The umpire definitely wasn't doing us favors either with his strike zone. Those are games you're going to have over a 162 game year. Today is a new day though, looking for the W tonight!

Is that your dog in the avatar photo? That's an awesome picture!

[canonfaz]

Is that your dog in the avatar photo? That's an awesome picture!

Yeah, it is. Thanks. He's a cool little guy! Luckily, he's lazy enough to enjoy sitting on my lap and watching O's games with me (for the most part).

[Morgan423]

Sometimes when you're playing a video game, the game will defeat you with some lame, hitting-below-the-belt, quasi-cheaty tactic, instead of actually using correct strategy to beat you fair & square. This drives me nuts when if happens... my term for this is "being cheaped to death."

That's what the game last night felt like to me... being cheaped to death, and being hit at critical times with bloop doubles and went-40-feet-total RBI singles. It was maddening to watch. I honestly hope we beat the Rangers some time this year in exactly the same way... see how they like it. :laughlol: