Samuel Basallo SHINES in Series Win vs Reds

The Orioles had previously lost five of their six series before the O's took two of three vs the Reds at Great American Ballpark in a series they've desperately needed to win, and Samuel Basallo played a big role! #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

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What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back into yet another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollihan, as we welcome you in on this Monday evening, recapping the three-game series on the road for the Baltimore Orioles in Cincinnati. The Orioles now sit three and a half games back as I'm recording this Monday evening, and they have an opportunity now at home for the final six games. If they take if they take both series. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you to get all giddy and believe that that might actually happen, in which case where the Orioles take three straight series in a row and could finish the year off potentially 46 in 51, or finish the first half. I should say not the year, finish the first half, with that record. Obviously that would be that would obviously uh really help things with the way the season has played itself out, and as you said, three and a half games back of a wild card spot, currently the playoff odds according to baseballreference.com has the Orioles at a 10.8% chance. Now in a bad in a bad American league, it can happen. In a bad American league, it can no doubt happen. But we're talking about an Orioles team. So as I just said, for them to win three series in a row at this point in the season, it would be the first time all year that the Orioles would have won three series in a row. They have not put that together at all. And facing the Cubs at home starting off this homestand is going to be a difficult thing to do. But again, if they could do it, because just splitting it three and three, you're 45 and 52. That's not to me good enough to finish the first half off. And to get now, granted, I mean, hey, it obviously depends upon where they are in the wild card. As right now you're looking up at the Blue Jays who are half a game ahead of you, the twins are two games ahead of you, the Astros are two games ahead of you, and the Rangers obviously three and a half games ahead of you for that final wildcard spot. So in a bad American league, maybe that doesn't ultimately matter for you. But again, in order for me to really start taking this Orioles team seriously, you have to get back to 500. And when I say take them seriously, number one, to make the postseason, you know, and number two, I mean, obviously, to actually have a chance of going deep into the playoffs, but at that point, mentioning a deep run in the postseason feels like, you know, what's the what's the point in even mentioning that? In ending that streak of consecutive playoff losses. Not even series losses. But, anyways, the Orioles, though, they took two out of three against the Reds. They had a the Oas had a horrible record heading into that series. 16-25 on the road this year. They're now 18-26. They're 24-23 at home, which, in spite of winning, you know, two of their last six games at home, I think it kind of gives you a little bit of you know potential excitement for what this final two-game series could mean. But what, in my opinion, was you know, the thrilling part about the Orioles taking two of three was the way they started that series off against the Reds. They built off the momentum of the final win against the Chicago White Sox in that series against the Shy Sox, which was a tough series to say the least, after a tough weekend against the Nets. Samuel Basayo belts a two-run homer in the third, and that that was it for the offense. They scored on an error by uh Tyler Stevenson as Gunnar Henderson swiped third base and then came around to score. Uh, but ultimately, you know, the starting pitching by Trevor Rodgers was excellent. No runs and five innings on two hits, struck out four, did walk five, but limited the damage. Then they go to the bullpen, they bring in Rico Garcia. He throws two innings of no-run baseball, giving up a hit, a walk, picks up a pair of K's, and then Yunir Cano was the interesting decision to bring him in for the eighth. Because I would have thought. Now Cano doesn't make a great. You can't just say, well, Ryan Helsley, who hit the 10-day IL, you can't just say, well, Helsley's down, let's just go to Cano because he's done it in the past. He's probably our most reliable reliever, although he blew up over the weekend. But let's just go. Let's just go with Cano in the in the closer spot. You know, let's just basically make him our de facto closer. Now, I I misspoke. Hesley is on the 15-day IL, not 10-day IL. But they go with Tyler Wells, who hadn't picked up a save all year. Now, Wells has thrown the ball fairly well, and this was a good move by Craig Albanaz to bring him in. Feeling, riding what has been a hot streak for him. He throws a clean frame. No runs or no hits, no walks, obviously no runs cross. And the Orioles get the 3-0 win. They improve to seven games under 500, which I mean, saying you improve to that many games under 500 is not necessarily what I would consider an improvement. Try and get within the five-game realm, and then maybe we'll talk at this point of the season, regardless. Um, Saturday, on the fourth, you know, they go out with Young on the Mound, Brandon Young on the mound, and you think, well, you know, you got a great game the day before, you're facing a tough Hunter Green. Uh we're going to need Brandon Young to match Green pitch for pitch. And what happened was it was the Orioles jumping the Reds early. 3-0 leadoff Samuel Basayo's three-run blast. But unfortunately, the Reds, uh, they proved that on the 4th of July they wanted to give Great American ballpark and uh the U.S. of A's 250th birthday. They wanted to give them a little show. So they get back into it, take the 4-3 lead in the bottom of the second with the Jose Trevino RBI double, TJ Friedel, RBI triple, Ellie Day LaCruz, RBI single, it's 4-3. Now, the one thing the Reds have shown you this year is it doesn't necessarily at times matter who's been on the mound. They are reluctant to give up runs, and that ballpark will do it. Now, the Orioles did not necessarily need to use the long ball, aside from Basal's big blast. Blaze Alexander with traffic on, bases loaded, gets an 0-1 slider. Hunter Green, who's back off the IL, two-run single for Blaze. O's take a 5-4 lead. Adley Rutchman, two batters later. Runners at second and third, two-run doubles, 7-4. Pete Alonzo RBI single, 8-4. The Reds would get back into it with an RBI single by E.U. Genio Suarez off of Cano, who wasn't necessarily as crisp and as perfect. And Grant Wolfram, though, is the one who is credited for allowing the run, but Cano did give up two hits in the inning. And then they go to Wells again for the save, and he gives up a hit and a walk, but ultimately gets the job done. And the Orioles win the series. Now, when you have an opportunity to sweep a team, and especially a team like the Cincinnati Reds, that are just having a horrible sleep season. I mean, a lot of people after last season thought they were going to ride the momentum. They signed a Eugenio Suarez in the offseason. And you thought they were going to ride the momentum and be a contender to win the NL Central. And the Reds have just been horrific. And on Sunday, they, however, were able to get the win over the O's. And, you know, when you have a chance to sweep a team, especially a team like Cincinnati, again, I'll say it again. You go out there and you sweep them. But the O's don't do that. It was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, where Spencer Steer hits a two-run blast off Kyle Bradish. Kobe Mayo gets the O's on the board with an RBI single in the sixth. But then Sal Stewart comes in and against Braddish. He's able to put some breathing room with an RBI double to make it 3-1. And it was actually interesting. You know, Craig let Bradish go in this game. Braddish threw 106 pitches, did not, with traffic on in the eighth, take him out, which I thought was a little interesting. Gunner got the O's a run back in the ninth when they had the bases loaded. Unfortunately, though, wasn't able to do much else other than get Dylan Beavers up there. And then obviously the Orioles would not tie the game, send it to extras, or better yet, have the go-ahead run as Adley Rutschman would line out to TJ Friedel. On a ball that was hit 98.4 off the bat. Not what you would consider smoked off the bat or hit hard, but obviously you wish that would have found some grass and maybe you tie it up, get some traffic on again. You got Taylor Ward coming on, who was two for four in the game. Who knows? He might get on, sets up Pete. Like it's just a bummer in that regard. But they do take two out of three, so you take a little solace in that. But again, I mean, with the way this season has gone for the Baltimore Orioles, is it going to be mean much in the end? I don't know. I don't know. Now, what could be interesting as we move forward here in the month of July is as we get to this point in the season, and the backs are going to be at the walls here, as I talk about that six-game homestand coming up. If this is an Orioles team that honest and truly wants to be a postseason team, that does not want to see pieces traded off how they attack these final or this final month before the trade deadline is going to be interesting. Now they've got the all-star break coming up, obviously. You'll be seeing Adley Rutschman represent the Orioles in the All-Star Break. The loan representative at the moment, in case anything happens. We'll see where things go from that standpoint, in terms of, you know, would there be an opportunity for a couple, you know, reserves to get in. Now, did anyone necessarily get snubbed? I I personally don't believe so. I don't. I mean, the only guy I could have really seen make the all-star game would have been like a Yinir Kano. But I I'm not necessarily sure. And of course, you have every team gets one player in. You know, it's what kind of makes the all-star game not necessarily feel like an all-star game. Um, while it's pretty cool that that does happen, it also leads to players making it that really should not necessarily make the all-star game. I mean, it definitely, you know, brings some notice to them, but it obviously kind of makes it feel a little bit skewed. I mean, you know, that there have been some years where it's like, seriously, this guy gets into the all-star game, this is an all-star. Uh, but, you know, obviously that stuff tends to happen. Uh you know, you think about now, there are examples. Like you look at a Cedric Mullins in 2021, who cer certainly should have made the All-Star game, even though he was on a bad team. But then maybe there are some other years where it's like, eh, does this guy really deserve to be in there? Uh now, uh, how does that tie into the Orioles? Well, well, Adley Rutschman getting in. Um could there have been some other selections that may have made more sense? Sure. But Adley's been having a fine year at the plate. He really has been. He's been having a resurgence here. So in his third time making the All-Star game, uh, he's hitting 254 with eight homers, 45 RBIs, on base of 323, slug of 451, OPS of 774. Not necessarily killer numbers. I mean, he's not a starter, but numbers that I, in my opinion, are good enough, especially when you look at the catchers around baseball right now, not too great, and which is why everyone's saying Adley would no doubt be a serious candidate to be traded, with his contract obviously coming up, even though Mike Elias is mentioned time and time again, we'd love to have Adley here, we want to keep him here long term, which is essentially saying it takes two to tango in this situation. Well, I guess for the Rutschman camp, they don't feel like the Orioles love them enough, and even then, I mean, you look at you look at the Baltimore Orioles and the way things have gone here recently. I mean, you just take a look at this season where everyone thought that, hey, you know, they've added in the offseason, now they're gonna have a big year, and then, you know, they they don't, and you look at the way the bullpen was built. The injury bug for the third year in a row now continuing to be a problem. I mean, the one thing you can always bet on for the Orioles is that they're pretty much gonna need to have you know at least five or six regulars miss part of the season at one point in time or another. I mean, let's just face it, that's just kind of the way it's been in uh in Birdland, but you know, the fact of the matter is the bottom line is where things, as I said earlier, where things are going to be at the end of July, in my opinion, in order for them to seriously be considered in terms of adding, they have to be within three games of a wild card spot in order for me to sit here and tell you for sure they are going to be buyers at the deadline in one way or another, whether they're gonna be conservatively buying in which something's gotta be out there, which in that case, if you're just gonna buy conservatively, what's the point? Because if you're Michael, you're gonna feel pressure to add. He already spoke about it. He said, Well, he always feels pressure within this job. Well, dude, if you're gonna sit there and tell me that you always feel pressure, which I'm sure you do, but to sit there and say you always feel pressure makes me believe you might not have the stones to sit there in that seat for a team that has postseason hopes and championship hopes. Like, let's just face facts here. And you also have to ask yourself, do you want that guy to be trusted in terms of making moves at the deadline with his job very much at stake? Now we know next year's gonna be in question. So if you're within even five games in a bad American league, do you just say burn the boats, let's go for it? Or if your ownership, do you say, you know what, I don't trust you to do a damn thing. Sell off expiring contracts, and that's it. We're gonna move on into next season, into this lockout, and whenever we play baseball again, we're gonna bring a new bring in a new president of baseball operations. We'll see if that's the way the Orioles go. But obviously, time will tell. And again, it the decision has to come even above Michael Eyas. So we'll see ultimately where they go in terms of that. But thanks everyone for tuning into this episode. We are going to be back on uh potentially at the end of this homestand heading into the All-Star Break. Uh, we'll see where the Orioles are at wrapping up this three-game series with the Chicago Cubs. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.