Things weren’t looking good as of Monday night for the Orioles after dropping the series opener in Los Angeles by a score of 7-5. They squandered two separate three-run leads en route to their season-high fifth straight loss, and it seemed as if a nightmare of a West Coast trip was about to get even worse at the hands of the Dodgers.
Fortunately, the Orioles had other plans after their Independence Day loss. Instead of getting chewed up and kicked to the curb in Hollywood, the resilient O’s came away from the clash in LA with the series win in hand after taking the latter two games of the series. They fly home to Birdland after compiling a respectable 4-5 record over their nine-game West Coast swing.
After Joey Rickard’s two-RBI single opened up the Orioles lead to 5-2 in the fourth inning on Monday, the Dodgers responded as Chase Utley and Corey Seager both picked up RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth before Utley drove in the game tying run on an RBI single in the sixth. The Dodgers would take the lead on the Fourth of July after Seager led off the seventh with a triple before scoring on a deep Justin Turner sacrifice fly, and Howie Kendrick put the icing on the cake for the home squad with an RBI single in the eighth to give the Dodgers a 7-5 lead and final.
With Tuesday’s game tied at 1-1 in the top of the fifth, Manny Machado cranked a towering three-run shot off of Kenta Maeda to hand the O’s a 4-1 lead. Chris Tillman (7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) would slam the door shut after getting the lead before letting All-Stars Brad Brach, who emphatically struck out the side in the eighth, and Zach Britton, who registered his 24th straight save in the ninth, wrap up the skid-ending 4-1 triumph and force a series rubber match on Wednesday.
Wednesday, after Mark Trumbo’s 26th homer of the season and second on the afternoon tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth inning, the contest quickly turned into a ‘’Battle of the Bullpens’’, during which both sets of relievers combined for 36 K’s over nine total innings.
The Orioles bullpen, however, stole the show during the series finale.
The first Houdini act was from the sparkling Dylan Bundy (2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) who escaped a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the seventh inning with back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game deadlocked at 4-4.
The second Houdini act came from the ‘’Brach Star’’ himself who escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the eighth inning, forcing Turner into an inning-ending pop-up to keep the deadlock intact.
A full six innings later – and five innings into extras – Jonathan Schoop would finally give the O’s a 6-4 advantage in the top of the 14th inning, roping a two-run double off of Chris Hatcher. Britton proceeded to silence the Dodgers in the ninth to record his 25th consecutive save and give the O’s their second straight win to close out their roller coaster of a road trip.
Now, let’s take a look at the highlights from the trip to Tinsel town:
– Not only did the Orioles bullpen sparkle under the diamond spotlight of Los Angeles on Wednesday by punching out 12 Dodgers over nine shutout innings, they registered a stellar 1.80 ERA, allowing three runs over 15.0 innings of work during the series along with 19 K’s.
– After recording two saves against the Dodgers, Zach Britton is now tied with LA’s Kenley Jansen, Pittsburgh’s Mark Melancon and Miami’s A.J Ramos for the second most saves in the majors (25) to go along with an outstanding 0.76 ERA and 0.84 WHIP on the year. The Orioles 28-year-old star closer has recorded a perfect 0.00 ERA to go along with 11 saves over his last 15 games while striking out 17 over 14.2 innings during that span.
– Brad Brach showed why he was selected to the Mid-Summer Classic after striking out six of a possible eight batters over 2.2 shutout innings versus the Dodgers, and the 30-year-old All-Star has now thrown 11.2 straight scoreless innings over his last nine games while allowing just one hit and racking up 16 K’s.
– After Bundy’s impressive display on Wednesday, the Orioles 23-year-old rookie has now posted a 1-0 record with a superb 1.06 ERA over his last seven outings while registering 22 K’s over 17.0 innings.
– Despite hitting .248 versus the Dodgers, the Orioles still managed to score 15 runs over the three-game set. Over the last 17 games, the O’s sluggers are stilling batting an outstanding .315 as a club while scoring 6.5 runs per game. If you double the sample size to their last 34 contests (21-13), the O’s are putting up a scorching 6.2 runs per game.
– Adam Jones extended his hitting streak to five games with his 2-for-7 performance on Wednesday and has now recorded at least one base hit in 16 of his last 17 ballgames. The O’s captain is hitting .304 (21-for-69) with three homers and ten RBI over his last 15 games.
– Hyun Soo Kim continued to impress, finishing the series 4-for-13 at the plate, and now has recorded a hit in nine of his last ten contests. During that stretch, “The Machine” has posted an incredible .359 average (14-for-39) with four doubles, two homers and seven RBI.
– Despite going 2-for-14 in Los Angeles, Manny Machado made one of those hits count by cranking the eventual game-winning three-run bomb on Tuesday to snap the Orioles losing skid, so there’s that. He was also robbed of hits by sparkling LA defensive plays on at least three occasions. Spot on Manny, spot on. The O’s superstar third baseman is hitting a stellar .373 with two homers and 12 RBI over his last 15 games.
– After going 3-for-6 with two homers and two RBI on Wednesday, Mark Trumbo will head home on a five-game hit streak while also having recorded a base hit in 10 of his last 11 contests. The 2016 All-Star is hitting .254 with six homers and 13 RBI over his last 15 games.
– Not only did his two-RBI double in the 14th inning on Wednesday give the Orioles a 6-4 lead and eventual win, it also extended Jonathan Schoop’s hitting streak to six games. The O’s stud second baseman has now recorded a hit in 17 of his last 18 games and owns a remarkable .347 average with five homers and 19 RBI over his last 30 games. Trust me, he won’t have to wait long to hear his named called for the All-Star Game in the future.
But here’s the big picture for the Orioles: the losing streak is over along with the topsy-turvy trip to the West Coast, and they now head home on a mini-win streak before the Angels come into town on Friday.
Oh, and they still hold a 2.5-game advantage over the Toronto Blue Jays (48-39) for first place in the AL East.
You really can’t ask for much more than that.
