Why I loved last night’s win

[Frobby]

Last night’s win was my favorite win in quite a while.  Why?  Because it’s the first win where the pitching really carried us in over a month.  

Back on July 5, the O’s won a 3-2 game.  Since then, they hadn’t won a game in which they scored less than 6 runs, until last night.   That’s not to say they hadn’t had any good pitching performances: they’d won games by scores of 6-3, 9-1, 6-2, and 7-3 since that July 5.  But they hadn’t had any games where bats weren’t very strong but they’d won anyway.   And good teams need to be able to win a good number of those types of games.  Before July 5, we’d had wins of 4-3, 4-2, 2-0, 4-2, 3-0, 2-1, 4-2, 3-2, 4-1, 3-1, 4-0, 4-2, 4-2,  2-1, 2-0 and 4-1.  Inclusive of July 5, that’s 17 games we’d won while scoring 4 or fewer runs.  But since then, none until last night.   

Don’t get me wrong, I love it when we slug our way to a win.  I’d be perfectly happy scoring 6+ runs every night.   But it’s nice to know we can actually win a game when we don’t.  

Another thing I loved about that game was the defense.   Any batted ball that could be turned into an out was converted to an out.  Ramon Urias made two really nice plays at 3B, Gunnar made a great sliding catch near the foul line, and all the routine plays were made without any hiccups.   It felt like that was the first time in forever that it happened.   

I also didn’t mind that we were ahead from the first batter of the game and never looked back.  We even got a couple of runs on some good luck, after a series of hard hit balls had found gloves earlier in the game.  

All in all, I really enjoyed that win.  

[StottyByNature]

I had the exact same sentiment.  I realized that I have been taking great defense for granted and in the last few weeks that simply disappeared.  I also loved the way Eflin was shaping his pitches and seemed to be right in sync with McCann.  Slugging is great but a well pitched, well defended game is beautiful to watch.  

[Roy Firestone]

I enjoyed our overall performance last night too. Elfin throws strikes and doesnt lose his poise or command.Our defense was solid, and the hitting was dominant. But remember,this is an extremely weak hitting Rays lineup, this may not have been the same kind of game against the Yankees or Red Sox lineup. That said, I was happy with the performance and never felt worried about the outcome, which was a start difference in many games in the last six weeks.

[Jim'sKid26]

1 hour ago, Roy Firestone said:

I enjoyed our overall performance last night too. Elfin throws strikes and doesnt lose his poise or command.Our defense was solid, and the hitting was dominant. But remember,this is an extremely weak hitting Rays lineup, this may not have been the same kind of game against the Yankees or Red Sox lineup. That said, I was happy with the performance and never felt worried about the outcome, which was a start difference in many games in the last six weeks.

@Roy Firestone, you of all people (being the eternal optimist that you are) know that we have to beat the teams we should beat to win the division. The performances in Toronto and Miami in recent weeks are examples of the team allowing inferior talent to beat them. The O's should have won both of those series but they didn't. We need momentum when Boston comes into town and hopefully the series against Tampa and Washington will provide that. 

[Aristotelian]

Agreed, it's been a while since we've seen a complete game: starting pitcher, bullpen, and defense were all excellent, and it's been a while since we've gotten that.