Tables Turned: How the O's Flipped the Script on Tampa

What a difference a week makes! After a brutal series in Tampa, the O's bounce back to sweep the Rays at Camden Yards. Yennier Cano’s hamstring tweak hurts, but this dominant response proves Baltimore has a pulse! #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome in, folks, to another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollahan. We're back here on this Thursday afternoon. We're just about getting set for the Toronto Blue Jays to come to Camden Yards for a four-game series this upcoming weekend. We'll preview that. But first, the Baltimore Orioles, a clean sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. Just a week ago, the Baltimore Oriolsed by this Tampa Bay Rays team. It sent many fans into a frenzy. It sent many pundits very much at the shrugged shoulders kind of look as to why in the world is this going on? Why have this Orioles team that seemed so promising just a couple of years ago fallen so flat so quickly? Are there still decisions that need to be made in the front office? Do the Orioles have their guy in Craig Albanz? Do they have their man still in Mike Elias? Is this Orioles team still worth believing in? And all those answers still all those questions have still yet to be answered. There is no there is no answer at this moment. And I don't think we'll truly know that until obviously this team is back above five hundred and until this team has been able to make it to the postseason and obviously win a series. You know, the questions about the front office, you know, and all that, that is not something that just winning five out of six games, and and any of the other facts that I just laid out there, or opinions and questions that people had about whether or not this is a team that people are willing to buy into. You know, this is stuff that the jury is very much out on still, because let's face it, you haven't done anything yet. But those questions were not just things people were murmuring about as we continue to move forward throughout the season, which was, well, would they still be able to be playing a brand of baseball throughout the majority of the season or throughout the rest of the season that we saw, you know, early on when they were having success in the month of April. Could this be sustained? And then obviously it wasn't sustained because partially because you weren't getting good starting pitching, A, and B, when you would get good starting pitching, you weren't hitting. It was the classic, when they hit, they don't pitch, when they pitch, they don't hit type of situations. More so, I found on the hitting than the pitching, and that was, of course, questioned up and down from everyone. And then obviously, you come to this series against the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that you saw last week, you're going against Shane McClanahan, Griffin Jacks, and Steven Matz. And you're countering that with Kyle Braddish, Shane Bass, and what we thought was Chris Bassett, then turned into the rookie Trey Gibson. So it wasn't as if you felt all worm and fuzzy heading into the series like you held the you held the sway completely in your direction. You know, the bar was swayed completely in your direction because you're starting pitching. Now you got we'll obviously go over it some more, but you outpitched the Tampa Bay Rays. There's no doubt about it. And we already covered game one with Kyle Braddish, and of course, the exciting Memorial Day win and the walk-off blast by Colton Cowser. We already touched on that. But what was really evident in game two, pretty damn early on, was that the emotion of the previous two days carried over. The emotion of the offense being able to go out there and answer back early after Jonathan Aronda hit the RBI single, and the Rays were up 1-0, and it felt like, okay, you know, Tampa Bay put behind them the tough loss the day before. And then Blaze Alexander reached on a fielder's choice as the Orioles loaded the bases with one away. And then Jackson Holiday, RBI single on the left, with one out, bases loaded two to one. And then Taylor Ward, sack fly with the bases loaded to make it three to one. The ability to continue to move the line, take good at bats, and not succumb to needing to whack the ball four hundred feet. The one player who did hit the ball 400 feet, to be exact, 405 feet though, was Samuel Basayo. And in the meantime, as the Orioles hold to this 3-1 lead, and as we're in the bottom of the fifth, Shane Bass was dealing. He was dealing against his former team. And it provided Samuel Basayo with the opportunity, 3-0 demolishes a cutter that catches way too much of the happy zone. And I'll tell you, swinging green lit 3-0, not something you typically see. I mean, you can look at a lot of the best home run hitters around baseball, unless it's a meatball right down the middle of the plate, you're probably not seeing someone swinging that situation, and especially with two outs. But Pasal decided, you know what? I want to put this game pretty much out of touch with my eighth homer of the year, and he belted that ball to deep right center, and the O's led it six to one. And it took a lot of pressure off of their bullpen that for the last couple days had had a lot of pressure put on them. But Shane Baz was also out there pitching unbelievably, going seven innings, giving up that lone run on seven hits, gave up two walks, and nine strikeouts. A dominant performance. So when you think about it, to begin the game, think about the seven hits. Chandler Simpson led it off with a double on a cutter, low and in, deposits into right field, Camanero grounds out, moves, or I beg your pardon, actually doesn't move. Uh Simpson over to third. He stayed at second. But then Aronda was able to ambush Baz on the second pitch of the at bat, fastball up and in, and it's one to nothing. Then he gives up another single to Yandi Diaz. Then Richie Palacios grounds out into a double play. And Richie Palacios has been someone that throughout a majority of the year Tampa Bay has been able to rely on it, and maybe it just feels that way because he's always been reliable against the Orioles. But you kind of end that inning going, man, I you know, I don't know, and then one, two, three, bottom of the first, gives up a one-out single in the top of the second, and then as we went over that bottom of the second, you know, really helped him. And of course, it helped having the fielding error by Griffin Jax in the bottom of the second inning. Uh Griffin Jax who would leave after two, give way to Mike Clevinger. Um but to say the least, this Orioles team, you know, don't be fooled. They certainly did what they needed to do in order to get the job done to get the win. And listen, just like no one was gonna feel sorry for the Orioles when they were injured, they're not gonna feel sorry for you when you're injured. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna sit here and I'm not gonna completely put down the Orioles win, six to one win against Tampa Bay, because oh, well, Griffin Jacks got hurt. I don't care. The Orioles have been dealing with injuries for the last two years, and no one gave any other team a pass saying, eh, will you beat the beat up Orioles? No, screw that. They went out there and they beat you. You're you got all these players to pull from if you're the Tampa Bay Rays. We know how deep you are, we know how well you're able to produce talent. So certainly there are and Mike Clevinger is not a now, granted, he only pitched two innings, but he's not he's not a slouch either. Uh coming out. Now, talking about Shane Baz and his terrific performance here with Craig Albernaz afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah, really impressive. Um it just speaks to the pitcher that that Shane is and the stuff he has tonight. Tonight was awesome. Like he was really efficient with his pitches. I love the changeup usage. I mean, I think he got close to 10%. You know, just another wrinkle for guys to honor, especially lefties. And it just opened up his curveball. And obviously the fastball's real. Like to get out of some jams. You know, he got to uh the elevated fastball to the top of the zone when he needed to with some with the VLO in the tank. So it was it was a really impressive outing for Shane.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Fantastic performance all the way around from the Orioles and specifically from Baz, who in his last three starts has looked really good, and that is a a really good a telling sign for hopefully what's to come here for for Shane Bass as he's just time and time again gone out there uh the last three starts and pitched brilliantly for the Baltimore Orioles. Now, we believed, previewing that series against the Tampa Bay Rays, that it would be Chris Bassett taking the ball on Wednesday, and instead it was Trey Gibson who got called up earlier that afternoon. Now, Gibson making, you know, what is just his second career start appearing in his third game. Now he pitched well against the Yankees in the Bronx, going four and two thirds, giving up three runs on four hits, but doing d doing well, doing a solid job against the Yankees of all teams. And the Yankees, you know, obviously are viewed as the second best team in the American League, arguably the best team, and you got the Tampa Bay Rays, who are arguably the best team, and the second best team. And he goes out and pitches extremely well against both teams. And in this one, you know, he had to deal with track of traffic on in the first. Chandler Simpson leads off with a single, then a double play that really, uh, as Craig Albernas will allude to, that really settled down Gibson at that point, but then Aronda with a single. Uh the wild pitch gets Aronda the second. Yandi Diaz walks, but then he's able to get the ground out to Richie Palacios, and in the meantime, in the bottom of the first, the Orioles offense had his back. Taylor Ward leads off with a single. Gunner Henderson belts his 12th homer of the year, a 1-1 changeup low and in, and Gunnar Henderson absolutely demolishes that baseball into right, and it was an extremely strong night for Gunner. Lefty on lefty, no doubt, as he sends that one out into uh what was almost to Utah Street. I believe it hit that, you know, black fence out there in the standing room only right field area. But the Orioles wouldn't stop. Adley Rutschman walks, Pete singles, Kobe walks to load the bases, and Leote Tavares ambushes Stephen Matz on a changeup that is low and away. You know, kind of uh just putting bat to ball and seeing what happens, and that's what Leote Tavares did, being able to come through and driving that ball into right, you know, not hit very hard, 67.1 miles per hour. So, you know, for those analytical dorks, this is one that they're, you know, probably, you know, like, oh my goodness, how how dare you hit a ball 67 miles per hour for an RBI single in a right field? But the O's lead it 3-0. Tyler O'Neill strikes out, unfortunate, but then Blaze Alexander picks him up, and that was his walk-up song, uh, by the way, as he had an extremely, extremely strong series against the Rays with one away and 0-1 pitch, drives it into right center to plate two, 5-0 Orioles. I mean, already this game is at the point to where you're like, well, it's 5-0. You know, you protect this lead. I know it's the Tampa Bay Rays. There's still uh 24 outs to be made from them, but this is looking extremely strong, and it would continue to be. Now, Gibson would get into some traffic, get into some jams in the top of the third, bases loaded with one away, gets Yandi Diaz looking, two away, Richie Palacios grounds out. Extremely strong job by Trey Gibson to bear down in that moment. Bottom of third, Kobe Mayo, leadoff double. Leodi Taveras uh unfortunately pops out back to uh second baseman, to Palacios there, and then Tyler O'Neal, RBI single, 6-0-0's, top of the fourth, one out single by Cedric Mullens, double play, Blaze to Jackson, Jeremiah Jackson to Pete, inning ending double play. So great job by the defense playing behind Gibson as well. Uh, you know, this was something that Craig Alberna spoke about after the game. He said, you know what? The defense recently has been better because remember, we've highlighted a lot of tough moments by that defense throughout playing behind their starters, but he said they've been looking a lot better, and it's continued to, you know, fortunately get better and better throughout this homestand. Well, Jonathan Helsley came in to replace um Hunter Bidge, and I'm gonna spare you the details, but safe to say Helsley was nervous or sick or I don't know what, but it didn't look good. And then he gave gives up a leadoff single to Mayo, single to De Veris, gets Kowser to strike out, Blaze Alexander comes through with another RBI hit, two run double, eight-nothing O's to the top of the six we go, and back-to-back base runners allowed a single and a walk by Gibson, gets a force, and then another force that unfortunately would bring home the first run for the Tampa Bay Rays. Uh, but it was just an excellent job uh by the Orioles there. Now, Helsley would stay in the game and would promptly give up the 13th homer of the season and the second homer of the night to Gunnar Henderson on a low changeup. Gunner Henderson, who has been having much better at bats of late, has been having much better games. The results have been there. Now I know Monday, you know, wasn't maybe a game that he would reflect on as a huge positive. He did come through with an RBI ground out in extras, but his at bats have been better and better. He comes through there in that moment. Um, a big homer puts the O's up 9-1, and then Blaze would continue his strong night to nab his third hit in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run blast after a Colton Cowser one-out single, and Blaze was still one out, belts a two-run blast. Now to the top of the eighth was the lone time in this game where you know you kind of had to put the excitement aside because we would once again see yet another Orioles injury. And it would be this time Yunir Kano, right hamstring discomfort, exited the game. We don't know the severity of the injury. Now let's hear from Craig Albernaz afterwards, though, as he discusses what went on with Yanir Kano in that inning.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, he's getting checked out right now. It tightened up on him on it was like a foul ball by Palacios, and he kind of like did a quick move to go get it, and you said he felt it tighten up on him.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

We hope, of course, it's nothing serious because that's the last thing the Orioles want to see right now is an injury to their best pitcher out of the bullpen. I know Rico Garcia has been fantastic, but Yanir Kano has the experience. He's the guy you trust the most in these situations, and you do not want to see that happening, especially for anything long term. So keep our fingers crossed on that. Now let's hear from Craig Albernas and Blaze Alexander on Trey Gibson last evening.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Yeah, really impressive. Obviously, the the five runs in the first was was awesome for a lot of reasons, but especially for Trey to kind of settle into the game. His sinker was really impressive tonight, especially like there, especially to Junior and Yandi. Like those are two real right-handed bats that can really turn on and has bat speed to cover the inside pitch, and he was really living in on there. And he did a great job of attacking the strike zone. The cutter was there. I think it was a it was a huge mountain visit by Rutch. I believe it was in the second, put the bases loaded to kind of settle him down. So it was it was really impressive for him to go out there and and do what he did.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

You know, he he was on, man, and that's that's kind of you know stuff he brings, man. I wouldn't say like quick innings, but dude he just controlled controlled the game and uh yeah, man, got us in the dugout, and you know, offense, you know, we were able to explode, and uh yeah, Trey forget how many innings, six or seven innings, but just dominant, man. Did his inning, man, a bunch of zeros on the scoreboard, and uh yeah, man, couldn't be happier for him.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

So Trey Gibson, obviously, as I mentioned, in just his second start of the year against both the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. I mean, he gave the Orioles a chance against the ra the Yankees. He just needed to go out there and continue to pitch, dare I say, free and easy, and just keep Tampa Bay held in check, and he did just that. So that was an impressive outing from him as well. But what was, I mean, really impressive, no doubt, is the three-game sweep. I mean, we talked about it, you know, how deflating it was coming back after being swept by Tampa Bay. I talked about it ahead of the Detroit series, like, okay, they may take two out of three from Detroit. They could very well sweep them, but you have Tampa Bay following them, and it's like, well, sure you swept these guys, but are you going to even be able to win the series against the Tampa Bay Rays? That's the true test. And the Orioles were up to the task and swept out Tampa Bay. And here was Craig Albanese afterwards talking about his thoughts on his team being able to go out there and pull off the sweep.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Very similar to the to the Yankees spike going their place and coming back here. And our guys are a resilient bunch. Um they do a great job of turning the page and focus on the next day and try to win that night's game and you know to come out, and especially to the extra inning game, how they went back and forth and to come out. I get the bats going early in the first inning was was awesome to see. And our guys had a great approach all game. You know, Matt's is a really good left-handed starter, and our guys did a great job of laying off some tough pitches and forcing them in the strike zone and and getting some good swings off. So but yeah, any win in the big leagues is tough, and uh to get three from our really good team over there was was really impressive for our guys.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Well, the Orioles are now a game out of a wild card spot currently, the last spot being held by the Toronto Blue Jays, with the A's being tied, and the Minnesota Twins hitting sitting a half a game back in the Orioles now, one game back. Uh impressive stuff to say the least, the way the Orioles have been able to bounce back. Obviously, with the American League looking the way it looks, it no doubt opens up the door for the Orioles here. Um it's it's pretty interesting, though, with the athletics falling to where they have fallen to. You know, you look at the Seattle Mariners who are a game under five hundred, and they lead that division by a half a game. So just to give you an idea of where things are. Now in your division, it's I mean, it it does you no favors. You know, you obviously are in such a competitive division that no one it's not like, well, the Orioles are taking on the Boston. Red Sox, well, we just expect Boston to lay down and die. They're not going to do that. Same with the Blue Jays as well. We don't expect them to do that, even though they're obviously playing much better baseball than the, of course, Boston Red Sox and are no doubt looking to get back to the World Series and win it. But there's no easy feeling series at all. I mean, you look at the American League West, you probably have two or three teams. You look at the American League Central, you probably have two teams sitting in front of me in the Royals and the Tigers. So hopefully the Orioles are going to continue this positive trend. I mean, they just handed the the Rays their first sweep of the season, and they've now lost four straight. And the Tampa Bay Rays, who were no doubt riding on uh on Cloud 9, are now no doubt feeling a little sorry for themselves after that one because my oh my, you know, they got beat in every fast of the game. The exact ways that the Orioles beat them, or that they beat the Orioles, that's how Tampa has to be feeling. Now, granted, they're going to be going to play the Angels at home, so they can probably reel off a sweep there. But no doubt about it, that is an excellent series sweep by the O's. Now let's get to the starting pitching preview coming up against the Toronto Blue Jays. So game one, tonight we'll see Chris Bassett take them out. 4-3 with a 5-5-1 ERA this year. Facing the former team that he pitched for in 2023 to 2025, pitched in the World Series for Toronto last year, so this is going to be an interesting matchup to say the least. And then countering him will be Patrick Corbin. 2-1 with a 3-8-6 ERA. He is 0-2 with a 6-8-9 ERA against this Orioles team since 2023. So let's see if the Orioles can continue to stack the wins and get to, no doubt, four in a row and six out of their last seven. Game two will see Trevor Rogers take them out tomorrow, who's 2-6 with a 6-9-6 ERA. Everyone just about. Hopefully you get a strong start out of Chris Bassett. But the previous four pitchers have given you opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. I guess technically the last three. Well, again, we'll see about Bassett tonight. But Trevor Rogers has to go out there and show up. And show up in a big way. Two and six with a six-nine six ERA. Gave up two runs on ten hits with eight strikeouts in ten innings versus the Blue Jays in his last two starts. Now the Blue Jays starting pitcher is listed as TBD. They're dealing with quite a few injuries on their end. Now game three, we'll see Brandon Young take the mound. 3-1 with a 3-4-7 ERA. Gave up two runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts in six innings in his lone start against the Blue Jays in last July. So good numbers against the team that went to the World Series. Trey is Savage among one of the best young starting pitchers in the game today. He's 2-2 with the 2-2-5 ERA. Made his debut last center with the Blue Jays. He was a first-round pick in 2024 with the 20th overall pick. By Toronto, this will be the first time the O's face him. Game four, we'll see Kyle Bradish take the mound. He's 2-6 with a 386 ERA. He's looked a lot better in his last three starts. Gave up two runs on four hits in four innings with three strikeouts in his last start versus the Jays in 2024. Hopefully, we will see Kyle Bradish continue to improve. Now, granted, 2024, that's when he had Tommy John. So, you know, take that last start maybe with a little bit of a grain of salt. And then starting for the Blue Jays on Sunday is going to be listed as TBD. Now, as I mentioned earlier, no one felt sorry for the Orioles when they dealt with, again, this guy being hurt, that guy being hurt, this, whether it was the first guy out of the bullpen or the last guy out of the bullpen, no one has felt bad for the Orioles in the last two years. Why should they return the favor? Go out there, take minimum three of four. Because you do that, you're 29 and 31, we're getting to June, and you are right back into this thing. You are in striking distance of getting above 500. And who knows? You take three of four, you could very well hold a wild card spot. And you've come back, and after being, you know, seven games and eight games under 500, you're right back to where you want to be. Thanks everyone for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.