The Silver Lining Report: Game 25/162 (O's win 9-1)

[bobmc]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

It's a dinger party!

• Andrew Cashner: Don't look now, but he's sporting a 4.18 ERA and is the ace of this staff. Woops! 7 innings (the first Oriole to do that this season), 5 hits, 5 Ks. SOLID. 4 wins on the year, for what it's worth.
   
• Dwight Smith Jr.: This kind of win deserves a double-unicorn and Dwight's got the other one. What a game. Robbed a home run on an outstanding catch in LF, blasted a 3-run bomb with one of the silliest launch angles we'll see this year from an Oriole (41 degrees), and generally looks like a stud most nights. Your loss, Toronto! 
   
• Trey Mancini: Just the one hit on the night, but a couple of great catches in RF. Mark Trumbo he is not out there. Not always pretty, but if he can get to a ball he's going to catch it, and he'll probably do it while expending extra effort with a slide or a dive or a stretch. Love this guy. He's fun. 
   
• Renato Nunez: Continues his assault with his 6th home run, an absolute no-doubter. Added a walk, because the 2019 Orioles can actually take a walk, which is nice. Your loss, Texas!
   
• Chris Davis: Took a high fastball and gave it a U-turn out to LCF, good for 2 runs. Also had a single earlier in the game, a liner to CF. I had mentioned in other threads during his 0fer streak that his barrel %, launch angle, and EV were all around his 2015-2016 numbers. Perhaps we're seeing the results of that finally. Who knows? We'll find out. 
   
• Joey Rickard: Starting Center Fielder Joey Rickard cranked a 2-run 334 ft squeaker and we'll absolutely take it. Joey gets a lot of hate around here, but all he needs to do is have occasional surprise games like this and play a decent CF until Hays is ready, and that will be fine. Scored on an error following his first hit of the ballgame as well.  
   
• Paul Fry: A dominant looking inning from the stalwart lefty that featured a strikeout and no baserunners. 
   
• Gabriel Ynoa: They're wasting no time working him in. Second straight game with a scoreless inning and you can't help but think that it could be Mike Wright out there instead. I like Gabe. He's younger and better than Mike Wright. 
   
• Richie Martin: Made a terrific diving play early in the game and added a single. I like that he hasn't completely drowned out there. He's treading water and, hopefully, slowly getting better. 
   
• Jonathan Villar: Quietly, a double and an excellent diving play in the 8th inning. 
   
• Rio Ruiz: Rio's my boy, man. Hit, walk (of course), and the game-ending double play. I've really enjoyed watching him settle into being a decent ML player. I'm not sure he's much more than a replacement-level guy or platoon guy, but anytime you lead a ML ball club in walk rate, you're doing something right. .337 OBP despite a .237 AVG. If he can start mixing in a few more XBH his slash line will look pretty damn respectable. 
   
• HOME WIN

Hey! That was a good one. I REALLY enjoyed myself. 

FTFY - you always enjoy yourself "silver thread guy"!

And Papa Frita also helped our very own @Legend_Of_Joey enjoy himself!