The Orioles, after a paltry 3-6 road trip drove them to the fringe of the playoff discussion, quickly rebounded with three consecutive home wins against the struggling Chicago White Sox, losers of nine straight coming into Sunday’s finale, bringing the O’s to within one game of the AL Wild Card.
“It’s nice to know that in other people’s opinion we’re back in playoff contention,” quipped O’s general manager Dan Duquette before the game.
But just when it seemed the Orioles might be putting together a nice end-of-season run, the team couldn’t complete the job against the Sox, falling 4-2 as a second straight final-inning rally this time fell short.
The story of the game was the Orioles stranding eight runners in scoring position, after leaving 11 on base Saturday. Overall Baltimore is an alarming 3-37 in its last four games with runners in scoring position.
“A lot of times you put a little too much pressure on yourself on the job you’ve got to get done,” said 1B Chris Davis. “It’s that time of year. You’re seeing matchups in the bullpen. It’s not going to be easy, knowing we have so much on the line and our time is running thin.”
Duquette was happy to muse on how many – including this writer – had mostly counted the Orioles out after losing two of three to the Cleveland Indians. But lucky for Baltimore, the Tampa Bay Rays have been just 2-8 in their last 10 games.
The truism that if you aren’t playing well, but some else is playing worse can be certainly apply to a team hoping to somehow stumble its way into the playoffs.
On Sunday, the Birds started their most reliable pitcher in Bud Norris, Duquette’s mid-season acquisition from Houston who entered the game having never lost a game he had started for the Orioles. But Norris labored in this game, constantly pressured by the Sox in 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits.
After a quick first inning, sizzling Sox hitter Dayan Viciedo, who homered in Saturday’s contest, doubled in 3B Conor Gillaspie with one out in the second.
In the 4th, the White Sox loaded the bases against Norris with one out, before the pitcher struck out C Bryan Anderson, but then allowed a run-scoring grounder up the middle to Alejandro De Aza, which could have produced more than one run, but for a great diving stop by 2B Ryan Flaherty. Leury Garcia then struck out looking to end the threat.
Then in the 5th, the oft-losing strategy of pitching to White Sox slugger Adam Dunn failed again. The same hitter who abused the Orioles in Chicago with two game-killing home runs earlier this year blasted another mammoth homer to Eutaw Street, his 31st of the year, with one on against Norris.
Dunn has consistently wrecked right-handed pitching and for some reason the Orioles have continued to pitch to him. Dunn did strike out three times in the game, but the home run came just as the Orioles had closed the gap to 2-1.
“It’s frustrating,” said starter Norris. “I made one bad pitch, the one to Dunn.”
With three straight series losses coming into the home stand, the Orioles were happy to see their fortunes reversed against the Sox winning their first series in the last four they’ve played despite Sunday’s loss.
But manager Buck Showalter was in no mood to talk positives after the game.
“It’s not a take this from this, take that from that. Turn the page, got a very tough team coming here and behind that and behind that and behind that,” Showalter said. “If somebody asked the question if you won three out of four coming in would you take it? We don’t get into ratios, wins…. Just take another chop at it again tomorrow.”
White Sox starter RHP Andre Rienzo had gone 1-1 with a 5.03 ERA entering the game. Yet the Orioles continued a disquieting trend of being unable to score runs and continued this trend against Chicago.
Rienzo and a cadre of relievers simply shut down the Birds every time they threatened, keeping the O’s frustrated when runners had a chance to score.
The Orioles’ first scored in the bottom of the fourth on Adam Jones’ 31st home run, the team’s league-leading 193rd homer of the season. But the problem has been that other than home runs, the Orioles haven’t often been able to score. To that regard, the Orioles have now scored 19 of their last 24 runs on homers.
The team had their chances. In the 8th, 3B Manny Machado reached on a throwing error and Adam Jones walked, bringing PH Michael Morse up to the plate with one out. But after Chicago brought in right-hander Nate Jones to face Morse, Showalter countered with Henry Urrutia who promptly chopped into a 4-6-3 double-play to end the inning.
In the 9th, the Orioles put together their best threat of the game when closer Addison Reed, beaten in the bottom of the 10th Saturday, struggled again Sunday walking Matt Wieters to lead off the inning. Nick Markakis then singled and JJ Hardy walked. With no one out, the Orioles closed the gap with a run-scoring ground-out by Ryan Flaherty, leaving the Birds with first-and-third and one out. But with pinch runner Chris Dickerson, running on contact, a foul-pop-up-turned-double-play from Brian Roberts ended the game.
“Everybody wants to be the guy to get the big hit, score the big run. We were having a lot of fun last year, enjoying the race. I think that’s something we really need to get back to,” said Davis.
GAME NOTES:
Duquette said that the Orioles so far are not planning a significant draw-in-the-fans promotion like last year’s $8 seat promotion the team used to fill the seats for key series near the end of the year (other than the Heart Association promotion in which fans will get 50% off a game of their choice- pending availability – if they make a $10 donation to the Foundation).
A huge cheer came in the bottom of the third inning for O’s broadcaster and 1983 World Series MVP Rick Dempsey who caught a foul ball from his perch in MASN studios then threw it back to the fans.
