Saturday night’s game unfolded much the same way as Friday’s did in Birdland. The bats for both teams were silent once again, as starters Bud Norris and Drew Hutchison stymied their competition for 7.0 and 6.0 innings, respectively. The only difference was that Saturday didn’t feature a disastrous inning of errors to hand the Blue Jays a couple unearned runs as Friday did.
As a result, the teams were battling to a scoreless tie until Friday night’s goat, Jonathan Schoop, came up with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning to score David Lough and put the Birds up 1-0. While it wasn’t much of a lead, the way the O’s have been hitting lately, it felt like they’d just exploded for five or six. It would take some stellar bullpen work, but hopefully it would be enough to even the series at a game apiece.
And, it almost was.
Evan Meek pitched a slick eighth inning, allowing just a walk, and Tommy Hunter came on looking to pick up his fourth save in as many opportunities here in the young season.
It took Tommy just five pitches to dispose of Jays Adam Lind and Dioner Navarro, and the Oriole Park crowd rose to their feet.
Hunter started Toronto centerfielder Colby Rasmus off with two nasty curveballs to get ahead 0-2 in the count. He then threw Rasmus a third straight bender, and appeared to have won the game. You make the call…
via @OriolesGIFs
Yeah, um…that’s a swing. Game over, right?
No, not according to rookie third base umpire Jeff Gosney, who was making his major league debut.
The Sun’s Dan Connolly called it…
Umpire Jeff Gosney is making his major league debut. He’s at third base tonight. And you know there will be a major play at third.
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) April 12, 2014
Gosney ruled that Rasmus didn’t go, and as a result, the game went on for at least one more pitch…
Yup. Of course. Hunter tried to sneak a 98 MPH fastball past Rasmus, and ol’ Colby was having none of it. It was the first home run for either team of the series so far.
That tied it up at 1, and the O’s were sat down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame, so off to extras we went.
How very annoying. Thanks, Jeff Gosney.
Darren O’Day set down the Jays in the 10th, allowing only a Melky Cabrera double, but the O’s went down 1-2-3 again in the bottom of the frame.
Zach Britton came on in relief, and got the Jays in order, including a K of Rasmus to end the inning.
The O’s big bats had no magic in them though, as following a Chris Davis walk, Adam Jones hacked at the first offering from Jays reliever Todd Redmond and grounded into the 6-4-3. Steve Clevenger flew out, and we headed to the 12th.
Fortunately, Britton remained stellar, inducing a Cabrera double play to work around a one-out walk in the top of the 12th.
In the bottom, it looked as if the Birds’ bad luck would only continue.
J.J. Hardy, returning for the first game in nearly a week due to back spasms, crushed a liner to right field that sent Jose Baustita sprinting back. He was awkwardly running, spinning, and Hardy seemed destined for extra bases. Instead, Bautista somehow stuck his glove up, behind his head, at the last second and stabbed the ball out of the air before crashing in a heap into the fence of the grounds crew shed.
One out. Ugh, seriously?
Happily, on the very next pitch, Steve Lombardozzi also put a jolt into one. Off the bat, walk-off HR seemed possible, but while that was not to be the case, the ball at least cleared Rasmus in center before bouncing off the wall. Colby had some trouble with it, and the Columbia, Maryland native cruised into third base.
The O’s had the winning run just 90 feet away with one out. Could David Lough come through?
That led directly to Lough’s REAL initiation as an Oriole…
Just how they drew it up, right?
Lough, though, is one of the few players who would seemingly actually prefer the shaving cream pie to an actual whipped cream pie, telling Gary Thorne, who was interviewing him, that “that stuff is poison,” and that he wasn’t even going to so much as lick the whipped cream.
Well, that’s why David Lough looks like this and we don’t, I suppose.
Now, with apologies to David, I’m off to eat a box of Reese’s Eggs.
Let’s take the series today, Birds. Get the bats out, huh?
Lough/Jones pie photo: Beth Tenser
