As they say, “all good things must come to an end.”
In Baltimore last night, that good thing was closer Jim Johnson’s streak of 35 consecutive successful regular season save attempts. JJ set the new Oriole record on Friday night in Minnesota, and in his very next opportunity, blew his first chance since last July.
San Diego came out hacking against Johnson. While that’s usually a recipe for success for the O’s closer – who is much more of a pitch-to-contact hurler than most of his brethren – this time it resulted in two straight singles on the first two pitches he threw.
While he was able to induce Jedd Gyorko to ground into the 6-4-3 double play, and looked poised to strand the potential tying run on third base to end the game, he fell behind Chris Denorfia, who took his 2-1 pitch into center field to tie the game.
Unfortunately, his mini-meltdown wasn’t over.
He got ahead of the next batter, Nick Hundley, on two straight strikes, and Birdland was thinking that the worst case scenario would be that we’d be headed to extra innings. Instead, he plunked Hundley on the next pitch. The following batter, Everth Cabrera, took the 0-1 offering and just barely got it past a diving J.J. Hardy to score the go-ahead run from second.
The inning would end on the same play, as Adam Jones caught Hundley trying to take third, but the damage was done.
Johnson’s final line: 1.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 HBP, and as mentioned, 1 BS.
A great at bat that resulted in a walk by Chris Davis was all the Birds could muster in the bottom of the frame, as Matt Wieters, representing the potential winning run, struck out to end the game.
It was a very painful loss for O’s fans – comparable in recent memory to the collapse in the finale in Oakland a few weeks back.
Wasted was another quality start from Chris Tillman, who overcame early struggles and pitched out of more than one jam to finish seven allowing only a single run, and a night of offense from unlikely sources – Ryan Flaherty (1 HR) and Steve Pearce had the O’s only RBI.
Look at it as the baseball gods giving us some karma for winning on Saturday despite trailing the Twins 6-0 in the sixth.
The only good news is that there’s a quick turnaround – the O’s take on the Padres again today at 12:35, and can make us all feel better by dinnertime with an afternoon win.
Jason Marquis (4-2, 3.48) takes on Freddy Garcia, who looks for his first O’s win in his third start.
