After finishing up a road trip with visits to Toronto and Boston, the Orioles were welcomed home with a three game series against the Toronto Blue Jays and I am starting to feel some déjà vu.
Game One: Blue Jays: 13, Orioles: 3
The first game of the series was a very forgettable one. Orioles starter Mike Wright was only able to go 3 2/3 innings but still allowed eight earned runs on six hits and allowed three home runs. I would give you his strikeout and walk totals but it is very inconsequential to his performance to where it is not worth the space to type it out. This is how I am getting over this embarrassingly bad game.
The only things worth noting about the Orioles offense are that Manny Machado, Hyun Soo Kim and Ryan Flaherty all went 2-4 on the night with Flaherty hitting a home run to give the Orioles their third run of the night in the bottom of the ninth. Whoop de-freaking-do. Okay, I’m starting to calm down, I apologize.
Game Two: Orioles: 4, Blue Jays: 2
Yovani Gallardo made his first start since April 22nd and pitched good enough to get himself the win and allow the Orioles offense to not have to keep making comebacks like in a Mike Wright start. This is my last dig at Wright, I promise. Gallardo was only able to go five innings but allowed only two runs on five hits while striking out five but also walking four.
He was helped out in part by the trio of Mychal Givens, who pitched two innings, Brad Brach and Zach Britton allowing no runs and only two hits in a combined four innings pitched.
As for the offense in this game, the scoring got started in the bottom of the first with a Manny Machado RBI double to score Jonathan Schoop, who hit second in the O’s lineup in this game. Later in the inning, Machado was able to score on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 right out of the gate.
In the bottom of the third, Jonathan Schoop hit a solo home run to give the Orioles another run, making it 3-1 at the time. Later on in the eighth inning, Mark Trumbo was able to push Schoop across one more time with a force out, and a very odd one.
Trumbo hit a soft fly ball into shallow right field that the Jays’ right fielder Ezequiel Carrera could not field effectively, allowing the ball to drop. Since the ball was hard to judge, Manny Machado did not advance to second base, where he would be out on the force out. Little did the fans in attendance know that they would see that when they came to the ballpark that day.
Another noteworthy part of this game was J.J. Hardy making his return to the Orioles following his foot injury back in April. Hardy went one for three with a strikeout in his return.
Game Three: Orioles: 11, Blue Jays: 6
Do not think for a second that the fathers were forgotten on their special day; the Orioles had just the perfect gift for them like they did the mother’s on Mother’s Day. Following on the trend of scoring a lot of runs for the parents in our lives, the Orioles put up their first double digit run performance since June 1st against the Red Sox.
The scoring once against got started in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Chris Davis followed by a two run home run by Matt Wieters.
Down 4-3 in the second, Ryan Flaherty got an RBI single, scoring Pedro Alvarez to tie the game up. Unfortunately for Flaherty, he suffered a good ol’ TOOTBLAN and was called out trying to get back on first base after the ball was cut off in the infield and thrown to first base to get the out.
The Orioles would create a lead for themselves in the bottom of the fourth with three hits resulting in RBI’s courtesy of Jonathan Schoop, Ryan Flaherty and Adam Jones. This would give the O’s a 7-4 lead at the time.
Matt Wieters could help the cause once again with an RBI single of his own in the bottom of the fifth, making it a 8-4 game.
After allowing the Jays to score a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, the O’s answered right away in the bottom half of the inning with Matt Wieters once again getting an RBI single, giving him four RBI’s on the day. That was followed with a two run home run by Jonathan Schoop, which was a monster shot, to say the least.
As for the pitching, Chris Tillman got the start and pitched decent enough to let a few minor hiccups be forgotten. Tillman on the day went five innings allowing four runs on five hits while striking out four and walking nobody. The big blows for Tillman, literally, came from the long balls. Tillman allowed home runs to both Troy Tulowitzki and Devon Travis in the top of the second which allowed the Jays to get their first and only lead of the game.
This was also the first game Manny Machado missed due to his suspension. Machado withdrew his appeal Saturday and will serve his four games which will end before the series against the Tampa Bay Rays starts next Friday.
A series win against a division opponent is always beneficial considering how tight the AL East race is right now. Yes, it is June but division games are always crucial. Unfortunately for the O’s, they were not able to gain any ground on the Red Sox due to them being able to take two out of three in their series against the Seattle Mariners.
The O’s will now head to Texas to play the Rangers for one game, which is the make-up of a rained out game back in April, and go home right after that game is finished up. The pitching match-up for the game in Texas will be Kevin Gausman going up against Derek Holland.
Following that game, the O’s will return home for a two game series against the San Diego Padres. Tyler Wilson will open up that series against Luis Perdomo with Erik Johnson listed as the only announced starter for the second and final game of the series.
