There is one person and one person only responsible for last night's loss

[Aristotelian]

I will get flamed here but I thought Gallardo was OK. The walks and the homer were obviously on him. After that, no more walks, only a couple hard hit balls. The damage was done on bloops and a missed double play ball due to broken bat. Two balls got past Stubbs but they both looked catchable to me. Consistently hitting 91 which should be good enough for him. Bottom line, he pitched well enough for the O's to win that game, but the hitters and defense let us down too.

What I would do is push his start from the BOS series to AZ. That would keep Bundy on extra rest while keeping Gallardo away from the Red Sox lineup. But we still need Gallardo to pitch without any better options and needing to protect Bundy and Tillman.

[TINSTAAPP]

Rich Hill over Gallardo last season was clearly a better signing at the end of 2015. You're saying that no one expected Rich Hill to have a nice 2016? Did you not see what he did in 2015? Your post is way off the mark.

Based on a four start sample size? I guess you also thought the Orioles should have re-signed Joe Saunders after the great two months he had for them in 2012.

[TINSTAAPP]

I will get flamed here but I thought Gallardo was OK. The walks and the homer were obviously on him. After that, no more walks, only a couple hard hit balls. The damage was done on bloops and a missed double play ball due to broken bat. Two balls got past Stubbs but they both looked catchable to me. Consistently hitting 91 which should be good enough for him. Bottom line, he pitched well enough for the O's to win that game, but the hitters and defense let us down too.

What I would do is push his start from the BOS series to AZ. That would keep Bundy on extra rest while keeping Gallardo away from the Red Sox lineup. But we still need Gallardo to pitch without any better options and needing to protect Bundy and Tillman.

At this point, the Orioles don't really have much of a choice except to keep starting Gallardo. Miley is still considerably worse and Worley has struggled mightily over the last month or so. Gallardo had allowed three runs or less in six out of his previous seven starts coming into the Tampa Bay game so it's not like he's been completely ineffective. Calling him for to be removed from the rotation is a kneejerk reaction IMO.

[tntoriole]

Based on a four start sample size? I guess you also thought the Orioles should have re-signed Joe Saunders after the great two months he had for them in 2012.

If it was him or Gallardo...yeah, little question for me.

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[DrungoHazewood]

They are simply washed up slackers, apparently, who don't seem to care that their team is in the thick of a playoff chase. If they did, they wouldn't be doing idiotic things like walking the first two batters of a game...who does that??

I try to refrain from attribution of on-field failures in a highly competitive environment to character flaws. After all, most of us here care deeply and desperately want the Orioles to win but have zero ability to play Major League Baseball at all. If you walked up to Gallardo and asked him why he was so stupid he'd probably care enough to punch you in the nose.

[DrungoHazewood]

I will get flamed here but I thought Gallardo was OK. The walks and the homer were obviously on him. After that, no more walks, only a couple hard hit balls. The damage was done on bloops and a missed double play ball due to broken bat. Two balls got past Stubbs but they both looked catchable to me. Consistently hitting 91 which should be good enough for him. Bottom line, he pitched well enough for the O's to win that game, but the hitters and defense let us down too.

What I would do is push his start from the BOS series to AZ. That would keep Bundy on extra rest while keeping Gallardo away from the Red Sox lineup. But we still need Gallardo to pitch without any better options and needing to protect Bundy and Tillman.

You'll get little traction and much hate and discontent trying to separate out results from approach and execution.

[LookitsPuck]

Oh come on. Look at their track records! You're really going to sit there and slam DD for signing Gallardo over Rich-freakin-Hill? That's the worst kind of revisionist history. I can only imagine the uproar and disdain from fans if Rich Hill would've been our big offseason FA signing. Hill is having a nice season that I don't think anyone would have expected, and Gallardo is definitely underperforming - but seriously, I dunno how you can sit there and say that DD should've known that Hill would've been a better signing than Gallardo.

Duquette literally waited until the last possible second. Gallardo failed his physical and Duquette signed him anyway. 1st round pick - gone. ERA near 6.00 most of the season. Short outings. Decreased velocity. Walk rate one of his career worsts. Just overall terrible.

I'm not so sure Gallardo over Hill is as much a slam dunk as people are making it out to be. If Gallardo didn't fail his physical? Sure, all day Gallardo. But track records go out the window when you have shoulder damage.

[pastorfan]

And his name is Yovani Gallardo.

Walking the first two batters of the game was unforgivable.

I really hope we can get rid of both Yovani and Miley in the offseason. They are killing this team.

I know a lot of people will blame DD for signing them, but they have so massively underperformed even their mediocre prior stats that it's hard to blame DD too much. They are simply washed up slackers, apparently, who don't seem to care that their team is in the thick of a playoff chase. If they did, they wouldn't be doing idiotic things like walking the first two batters of a game...who does that??

Wright and Wilson aren't good, but I can't see how they could be any worse than what Gallardo and Miley are giving us at this point.

Jimenez is at least showing some heart down the stretch and regardless of how he pitches from here on out, I believe he's earned the right to come back next season.

Make the 2017 5th starter spot an open competition among our prospects. Maybe Chris Lee is ready.

Stop blaming DD! DD has proven to have a keen eye on veterans and prospects. He did not try to resign Miller or Cruz, and they have been terrible. He did decide to resign O'Day a year after letting Miller go, and O'Day is very durable. He decided Jake would never get it together and he decided Ariel was not ready for the big leagues. Clearly he was right there as well. So stop getting on DD!

[esmd]

Being against signing Gallardo at the time is one thing. I can accept that. But I have a hard time accepting that people were jumping up and down to sign Rich Hill as a starter. You know, since he started all of 4 games in 2015, albeit with good results. But hey, if people here want to claim they're Kreskin and foresaw him posting a 12-4 record with a 2.06 ERA (combined) this year, then good for them.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hillri01.shtml

[epic]

Some of you guys are really unbelievable. We just came off a great roadtrip, probably our best of the year, going 6-3 and we lose a tough game to the Rays the next day and you'd think we were just eliminated from the playoffs. Get it together...

Gallardo put us in a rough 3-0 hole in the first inning and this team responded immediately to take the lead before the start of the 2nd. I'm baffled as to why Buck brought him back out for the 4th though. I also would have gone with Vanimal over Tommy Hunter but alas. Not all decisions are going to pan out the way you want them to.

We had a ton of opportunities last night and it's very frustrating we couldn't even get a deep fly ball on just one of those opportunities but we're still in great shape. If there is one thing we have learned this season is that this team will grind. They're going to come out the rest of this weekend ready to battle and I have no doubt they're still going to be in good shape going into next week's series against the Sox. That series will likely make or break our season.

[eddie83]

I will get flamed here but I thought Gallardo was OK. The walks and the homer were obviously on him. After that, no more walks, only a couple hard hit balls. The damage was done on bloops and a missed double play ball due to broken bat. Two balls got past Stubbs but they both looked catchable to me. Consistently hitting 91 which should be good enough for him. Bottom line, he pitched well enough for the O's to win that game, but the hitters and defense let us down too.

What I would do is push his start from the BOS series to AZ. That would keep Bundy on extra rest while keeping Gallardo away from the Red Sox lineup. But we still need Gallardo to pitch without any better options and needing to protect Bundy and Tillman.

He wasn't good but I agree with your overall point. I didn't think Buck pushed him too far. The 4th run was some bad luck and the last run Hunter allowed in. He needs to be better but I still don't get why he didn't start Monday in Boston and Miley last night, still don't get that.

On a side note Stubbs hasn't covered the ground I thought he would in RF either. Not sure but I didnt think he was getting good jumps either.

[OFFNY]

Some of you guys are really unbelievable. We just came off a great roadtrip, probably our best of the year, going 6-3 and we lose a tough game to the Rays the next day and you'd think we were just eliminated from the playoffs. Get it together...

Gallardo put us in a rough 3-0 hole in the first inning and this team responded immediately to take the lead before the start of the 2nd. I'm baffled as to why Buck brought him back out for the 4th though. I also would have gone with Vanimal over Tommy Hunter but alas. Not all decisions are going to pan out the way you want them to.

We had a ton of opportunities last night and it's very frustrating we couldn't even get a deep fly ball on just one of those opportunities but we're still in great shape. If there is one thing we have learned this season is that this team will grind. They're going to come out the rest of this weekend ready to battle and I have no doubt they're still going to be in good shape going into next week's series against the Sox. That series will likely make or break our season.

o

The Rays are 17-14 in their last 31 games, and they are coming off of a series with the Blue Jays ...... a series that was played in Toronto ...... in which they manhandled the Blue Jays in the final 2 games of the series (6-2 and 8-1, respectively), after dropping a very close game in the opener of said series (3-2.)

The Rays are playing in the toughest division in baseball, and they aren't laying down for anybody ...... although even after last night's win, they are still a paltry 5-11 against the Orioles on the season.

[NashLumber]

Glass half full view:

If the O's do squeak by and make it into the playoffs, we know whom to avoid in the rotation in a five game series. Looks like a three man rotation in that scenario.

[OFFNY]

Glass half full view:

If the O's do squeak by and make it into the playoffs, we know whom to avoid in the rotation in a five-game series. Looks like a three-man rotation in that scenario.

o

I suspect that they would go with a 4-man rotation should they make it that far ...... Tillman, Gausman, Jimenez, and Bundy.

[fansince79]

Stop blaming DD! DD has proven to have a keen eye on veterans and prospects. He did not try to resign Miller or Cruz, and they have been terrible. He did decide to resign O'Day a year after letting Miller go, and O'Day is very durable. He decided Jake would never get it together and he decided Ariel was not ready for the big leagues. Clearly he was right there as well. So stop getting on DD!

Good points.