Tough losses happen to every team; they just do. The Orioles have been on both ends of walk-off games this year, the most recent coming Friday night in Oakland. In case you missed it, the A’s, down 4-2 entering the bottom of the ninth, needed just three batters to win the game. A 65-foot swinging bunt and a broken bat blooper brought the winning run to the plate in Josh Donaldson, and then Zach Britton threw a sinker that didn’t sink. About 420 feet later, the A’s were walking off with a 5-4 victory.
It’s easy to second-guess every little thing about this tough loss, arguably the toughest loss of the season. Caleb Joseph should have been bunting with runners on first and second and nobody out the at-bat before Jonathan Schoop’s 2-run blast with the O’s down 1-0. Rather, he grounded into a double play, and instead of a 3-1 lead on the Schoop homer, it was a 2-1 lead.
Chris Tillman should have made a better pitch to Derek Norris as the leadoff hitter the inning after we took that 2-1 lead. Instead, he grooved him one and Norris tied the game in one swing.
Britton should have buried the first pitch to Donaldson in the dirt. A guy hitting .236 and representing the game-winning run is sure to be over-anxious and would have almost certainly swung at that pitch, putting himself in an early hole. Instead, Britton threw his sixth straight sinking fastball, and about the fourth that didn’t sink, and Donaldson tattooed it for the win.
Does everybody feel better now that we’ve aired our grievances? I know I don’t. The fact is, that loss plain old sucked. There’s no way around it. The Orioles were three outs away from putting the baseball world on notice that they are a force to be reckoned with. Instead, Oakland’s resiliency and tenacity shone through yet again, which is why they are the best team in baseball.
But don’t let the loss fool you. The Orioles are pretty damn resilient themselves. In an eerily similar game back on June 20th, the Orioles and their fans took a gut-punch as Carlos Beltran blasted a walk-off, 3-run homer for Yankees in the first game of the series. The O’s could have lied down and lost two of three. Instead, they won the next two games to take the series.
True to form, the Birds bounced back on Saturday, beating Oakland 8-4. Britton himself got a bit of revenge, earning the one-out save on a strikeout to end it. They now have a chance to take the series today.
To be perfectly honest, the A’s have not really outplayed our Charm City heroes. The Orioles could be–and probably should be–4-1 against Oakland. A perfect throw and an ill-advised attempted steal of home cost the Birds a series win against the team back in June. Friday night, the O’s did everything right, until that roller, that sawed-off blooper, and that sink-less sinker snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
But that’s baseball, sports fans. And the beauty of baseball is that there’s another game the next day. The Birds again displayed their resiliency by winning on Saturday. They were ticked off, and they did something about it. They can still make a pretty strong statement this weekend by winning the series.
In a way, it may end up being even more impressive to take two of three after Friday’s loss than it would have been to do it any other way.
