The Orioles lost last night to the San Diego Padres, by a scoare of 3-2, despite holding a 2-1 lead entering the ninth inning. Closer Jim Johnson had converted 35 straight save chances so the Birds had this one in the bag right?
Wrong.
A closer can’t be perfect forever. The reality is that at some point closers will blow a save chance. Johnson has been as good as it gets finishing games so far this season, but last night he didn’t have his best stuff.
I noticed right away that everything was up in the strike zone. The Padres opened the inning with back-to-back singles. I was surprised that, with runners on first and second nobody out, San Diego didn’t bunt the runners over. This looked to be a break for Orioles because even though Jedd Gyorko hit the ball hard, it was hit right to JJ Hardy for a double play.
Unfortunately, Johnson couldn’t get the last out. A base hit, a hit batsman and another base hit turned a 2-1win into a 3-2 loss.
What fascinated me was how many people either called or texted into my show last night to tell me Jim Johnson was done.
It’s one game people. Even Mariano Rivera blows a save every now and then. Johnson has been lights out so far this season. If the Orioles come back today and beat the Padres you get this loss out of your system.
During a baseball season, it’s important to not get too high after a win or too low after a loss. There are too many games. What’s unfortunate to me is they ended up wasting very good pitching performance from Chris Tillman. Hopefully, the other starters took notice and can build off of that.
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One Response
162 games…at least 9 innings per game (in most cases)…can’t get too high or too low…it’s a long season !