BSR Morning Clicks: August 11, 2014

What a weekend. And John Lackey is still as good of a guy as he was in Boston.

After dropping 22 runs and hitting nine “Camden Yards” type homers over the first two games of the series vs. the 2013 NL World Series’ rep Cardinals, the Orioles cooled off a bit on Sunday in a 8-3 loss.

Starter Kevin Gausman struggled with his command early and the as the Cards put up a two spot in the first inning. The home team did score one of their own in the first frame, but were unable to chase Cards starter Lance Lynn. The Orioles did get as close as 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th inning, but the Cards scored 4 runs late off newly acquired Andrew Miller and closer Zach Britton to help avoid the sweep.

Some notes from the game itself included the late scratch of J.J. Hardy who sprained his left thumb late in Saturday’s game and his “day to day”.

Buck hoping hardy can start tomorrow. Hardy was going to adjust grip and try to play today. Buck being cautious

— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) August 10, 2014

Sunday also included manager Buck Showalter‘s first ejection of the season as he argued a transfer call in the top of the seventh inning. Let’s just say, umpire (Jeff Nelson) who threw Buck out haven’t been exactly exchanging Christmas cards on a yearly basis.

Speaking about the play in question Buck had this to say.

“Ball’s in back of the glove, just like the old rule, new rule, old rule”, ranted Showalter to reporters after. “They changed it out of spring, then they changed it back to the old rule. Today, it got changed back to the other, so what are you going to do?”

Buck even motioned to the replay officials on the field to hand him the headset the umpires use so he could make his point to New York himself. Buck was also not exactly pleased with the inconsistent strike zone of first year umpire Gabe Morales.

“You got a lot of these guys who are callups,” Showalter said. “You have to have either of them in NY. Kind of like expansion in the big leagues, there’s a lot of players that wouldn’t have been there before. “They are trying to do as good of a job as their experience level and talent level. And there’s some really good ones, too. We have a lot of confidence as we go forward these type of problems will work themselves out. Today, wasn’t one of them.”

But besides the Sunday un-Funday at the Yards, it was a glorious weekend for the team in Black and Orange. Friday night’s 12-2 thrashing (6 homers) was only topped by the outstanding post game celebration by the Orioles front office. The 60th year celebration brought every former Oriole great out and was produced like a $100 million movie with it’s creativity and timing. I also would like to tip my cap to MASN for showing it live as well as replaying it online.

This week the 67-50 first place Orioles take on the 61-56 (6.0 game back) New York Yankees for a critical three game series at Yard starting tonight. Stud Bud Norris (9-7, 3.68) takes the hill and will be opposed by newly acquired Chris Capuano (1-2, 3.91).

This series is much bigger for the Yankees as they are just hanging around enough to be relevant in the AL East. If they can take two of three or God forbid sweep the Orioles, this division could get really interesting before the Orioles head to the “Rustbelt” for a nine game roadie through Cleveland, Chicago (AL), Chicago (NL) starting Friday. But if the Orioles continue to#JustWinningSeries, like they have ten out of their last 11 times of late, then you can almost throw some dirt on those old fossil Yankees for good.