ERRORS, QUESTIONABLE MANAGERIAL DECISIONS COST Orioles in Game 1 Loss vs Braves in Extras

Craig Albernaz had to field questions about his decision to take Trevor Rogers out in the 8th after just 88 pitches and Jackson Holliday's costly error in extras. What did the O's skipper have to say? #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

What's going on, folks? Welcome back into another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollyhan. We're coming to you on this Friday evening after the Orioles drop an extra innings ballgame to the Atlanta Braves by a final score of seven to six. They lose game one of this three-game series against the Braves and are now three and a half games back of the wild card spot, the Boston Red Sox tonight. They've moved into second position in the wild card standings here in the American League. The Cleveland Guardians now are the team that the Orioles will be chasing as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, and the Rays defeat Cleveland 11-3. The American League East. I mean, you want to talk about things getting close. You know, the Rays for a while there probably thought, hey, we're we will be uh gliding our way potentially to an AL East crown. Then the New York Yankees, uh, obviously they haven't been playing all that great to get the win tonight against the Phillies, but the Rays have kind of stumbled, especially on the road, but they're four and six in their last ten. And the Yankees are now two games back. Now the Red Sox are six and a half games back, so while it's not likely that they'll take the American League East from either of those two teams, but they certainly are pushing those two teams at the moment. I mean, the Rays don't need any more pushing as they've got obviously the Yankees uh breathing down their necks. But back to the wild card, you know, we talked about it with the Seattle Mariners. Now they lost tonight 5-4 to the Rangers. So the Mariners were the most likely of teams that could, you know, drop back if the Orioles could uh manage to take two of three to the Braves. But, you know, you will also have the Houston Astros defeating the Chicago White Sox 9-5, uh and they actually jump in front of now the O's, and then you have the A's besting the twins tonight two to nothing. So you actually got some help tonight from you know teams you needed to lose. I mean, so you know, you don't lose a ton of ground with the loss tonight, and because Cleveland lost, and I think I talked about it yesterday as well, you'd hope that maybe Cleveland or the White Sox would really tail off, and maybe that is starting to happen for Cleveland. They've lost three in a row, but we'll see uh obviously where all that takes them. Now, to tonight's game between the Braves and the O's. The O's, they got out to an early 2-0 lead. Christian and Carnassi on strand. For a guy who spent the majority of the season in the minor leagues, could you have a better start? And especially for someone whom was a total afterthought. Well, let me rephrase, not an afterthought, but you know, you want to have depth and you want to stash depth in your farm system. That's why you bring a guy like Incarnacio and Strand on. Now he's only 26. I thought he was a little older than that. Uh, but of course came up with the Cincinnati Reds, um, where he had been traded in or at the trade deadline in twenty-two, came up with the Reds, looked like you know, he was obviously red hot in the minor leagues with them when he was younger, and then just continuously could never find a home in Cincinnati, and then comes to Baltimore, gets traded to Baltimore. Um, I mean, his best career so far season was in 63 games in 2023, where he hit 270, 13 homers, and 37 RBIs, but then in 24 and 25, inconsistent play uh and injury as well really hampered his growth. And I mean, look at just how hot so far he's been hitting after tonight's game. His numbers right now hitting 400 on uh the season. So let's get a young season, but hitting 400 and a two for four night tonight. But he gets the O's on board two to nothing. And then Trevor Rogers, who dealt, then some traffic on in the fourth, runners at second and third, sack fly to Dubon, and then Austin Riley, two outs, one-two pitch, a changeup that just catches too much of the plate. Riley puts a good swing on it, singles to center, and we're tied at two. But the Orioles with runners at second and third, Jackson Holiday, first pitch swinging on a slider, goes down, gets it, pulls it to right. Taylor Ward tags up, and it's a 3-2-0's lead. Now, Jack now, Trevor Rogers in this game really was dealing. I mean, he had his stuff, seven innings, gave up two runs on six hits, struck out six. ERA is now at a four-one seven. But we get to the eighth, and his pitch count is at eighty-eight. And if you are a baseball fan, maybe you didn't see the game, you can tell by what I'm talking about or how I'm talking about this right now. You know what happened. They pulled Trevor Rodgers after 88 pitches. You're coming around to the top of the order, and I mean, he had seen the Braves lineup at this point three times through. So we've already reached that threshold that typically managers say, alright, two times through, okay, now he's the third time through, his numbers are going to go up, let's go get him, let's get to the bullpen. But leading off the inning wasn't Drake Baldwin, who leads off the game for the Braves. Leading off the inning, had they left Trevor Rogers in, would have been Jorge Mateo. Now, does Jorge Mateo necessarily scare you? Because it's Mateo righty, Baldwin lefty, and then Albees, who obviously can switch hit and is much more dangerous from the right-handed side of the plate than he is from the left-handed side of the plate. His splits are kind of incredible. And had they left him in to face Mateo, as the nine-hole hitter, then Baldwin, a left-handed hitter, and then maybe went to Rico Garcia to get Albis, or had Mateo gotten on, then maybe you could go to Garcia, or go to maybe a Grant Wolfram there. That could have been the decision as well. But instead, Craig Albernas decides, no, I'm going to go get Trevor Rogers now. And when you consider it, it makes on the surface, you know, you look at it, you're like, well, he's gone seven innings, but then you look, eighty-eight pitches, and he's done. Just to make just does not make a ton of sense. And after the game, I was real interested to hear about what Craig Albernas had to say, and here was the old skipper after the game.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, he did his job. Noah Penn was fresh ready to go, and that was the decision. You feel like he was out of gas there, or he just liked the matchups better? Yeah, he did. He went seven strong, did his job. Did he lobby it only staying? Trevor Burrus, all our guys always lobby to Satan.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, I'm really just struggling to understand the decision. And you could hear of of course, you know, and how do you how do you not expect it? But he's uh, you know, it sounds like in his voice, oh, you know, they're questioning my decision making, and which by the way, this I know we always talk about well, is it his decision making or is it the guys upstairs, you know, is it Mike Elias and the analytics room deciding that no, you gotta yank him after you know, seven innings, close, it doesn't matter the pitch count, whether his pitch count was down, because it's not like he was at 100. He was at 100, all right, there you go. Now, with the way he had thrown, I understand he allows someone on base, you go get him. I would uh I would get that. But again, Jorge Mateo, who's hitting 240 against lefties, his on base percentage is 269, so even if they left him in to face a righty, which against righties, his on base is 301, so it's even worse. But I would think Albert has figured, well, they're probably gonna go and get him, they'll bring in Dominic Smith, and that's not even who we're arguing here, because that's leading off the ending as the nine-hole hitter. The guy who we're arguing, and because he hit a solo home run then, is Drake Baldwin. Why you would go a matchup that more favors Drake Baldwin to go with a right-handed pitcher? And I understand Rico Garcia has had success. But I also understand Drake Baldwin is one of, if not the best, hitting catchers in the game. So I'm sorry, I I have to second guess that decision. And against righties, what do you know? He's hitting 287 with 12 home runs and 38 runs batted in. So going to Rico Garcia there, obviously, as you can tell, I'm not a fan of the move. Baldwin ties it up at three. Now he gets out of the inning, and we get to the bottom of the eighth, and in the bottom of the eighth, Taylor Ward leads it off, he pops out to Riley. Colton Kowser walks, good at bat by Kowser, then Leone Tavares unfortunately f uh flies out now, or pops out rather, but Colton Kowser then steals second, and then on the bad throw by Joey Bart, gets to third base. So runner at third, two outs, and Jackson Holiday the hitter. And what does Jackson Holiday do? Second pitch, pops it up to Austin Riley in foul territory. High fastball. Unfortunately, can't pull it in the right to put the O's ahead with Because all you're looking at honestly, all you're looking to do there is get something that's going to hit the outfield grass. I mean, you have to You have to get a hit in that situation in order for that run to score. And unfortunately, Holiday doesn't come through for you. Tyler Wells comes in in the top of the ninth, does his job, works around a one-out single, but then in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and pitching for the Braves in that inning to get them, or get this game rather, to extras, was a man they've had out there now for three innings, Eliezer Hernandez, and Hernandez pitched three innings, gave up just one hit, walked three, and in that inning, with two down, he was ready to break. He walks Dylan Beavers, then Pete Singles, that gets Beavers to third, and then they intentionally walk Gunner to get to Taylor Ward. And unfortunately, Taylor Ward on a 3-2 pitch, he put he grounds out on a fastball, pulls it to Austin Riley on the ground, he goes across to Matt Olsen, inning over, and we go to extras. Now in extras is where things got really dicey. Runner at second, Brewer Hicklin, Joey Bart singles, gets Hicklin to third. Now, actually, the interesting part about this was with the ball not hit incredibly hard by Joey Bart. I mean, it's 69.4 off the bat. Hicklin is not waived to the plate by third base coach Tommy Watkins. So it was a mistake to not let him score on that play and set up possibly a double play. Now they draw the infield in. The O's do. And I was thinking in my head, man, should they try it for the double play? Should they bring the infield in? They bring the infield in with and with Andrew Kittridge on the mound. And Kittridge with nobody out gets a grounder to the right side. Jackson Holliday to his left, traps it. Bart then starts going to second. Holiday's wat Holiday sees where Bart is. He's not even past Jackson. He's in front of Jackson Holiday. When I say in front, Holiday's looking at the first base side. He's staring at him. So he should know he has time. But he doesn't position his body properly to get off a strong throw, and instead, he like flicks his wrist and he airmails this ball over Gunnar Henderson's head, over the damn second base umpires head, into left field, one run scores, and it'll put runners at second and third with nobody out, and the Braves have the lead. Well, remember the other day when we were on talking about the Orioles and Red Sox series, and game one was, in the opinion of Craig Abernez, what hurt the most that night was Jeremiah Jackson not completing the out at first, and that resulted in a big ending for the Red Sox, that they would take a 3-1 lead. And he singled Jeremiah Jackson out. I said, Man, that's really interesting. He singled him out. I said, I think that's not the first time I've seen him do that to Jeremiah Jackson, or not anyone necessarily, or necessarily anyone. And I thought to myself, man, if they don't get out of this situation, they don't come back and win the game. I'm gonna be really interested to see or hear in this case what Craig Albernaz says post-game. So, what did Craig Albarnaz have to say after the game?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

I do like his effort at trying to go to second. I just think that he didn't realize how much time he had because it was dive and stop. I think Joey was at first. Joey at first, he kind of he had to wait until the ball got by him. He didn't want to run into it. So he had, I think Jackson didn't realize how much time he actually had to go to second.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Okay. So a little bit, shall we say, more not accepting, I don't think, is the word, but not throwing his play I don't want to say through his player under the bus would be I don't I wouldn't say that would be a situation which you'd throw your player under the bus. I think maybe the decision to go to get Trevor Rogers in the eighth also hurt you, although the Orioles didn't help themselves with the bats at the uh in game one tonight. But the bottom line is Jackson Holiday made a huge mistake. Your defense recently hasn't what you would consider been called crisp. And instead of treating the young phenom, Jackson Holiday, the former number one overall pick and top prospect, you don't kill him, but you kill Jeremiah Jackson, the guy who's worked his tail off to get to the bigs, has come up huge for you this season. And that's the guy you rip. Interesting. Very interesting. Very interesting insight on what could be considered A, because remember, he was sent down to the minor leagues. And I keep coming back to this. He was the one I did not understand why they sent him down. Jeremiah Jackson I'm talking about. And in doing so, he get you know, because of the injuries the O's had, they bring him back up, and he helps you win that game before the all-star break against the Cubs, and has been a big help this year when he's been called upon. Now his glove on defense isn't great. But you also, dare I say, don't have to play him at second base. You don't have to play, you know, now, granted, would you rather have him at third? Would you rather put him in the outfield? You know, he's not the best defender. So there are a couple of things you can go up uh with with that one, although it just doesn't seem like his defense has really improved. And I come back to wondering, is that him being a player that maybe doesn't court favor with the coaching staff? Is that what we're looking at here? I it's just it's a very fascinating situation as to why he did not go out and like why he went out of his way t the other night to kill Jackson, but not Jackson Holiday tonight. And Kittridge bears down, he gets two strikeouts back to back, and then he gives up the three-run blast to Madd Olson on a one-two pitch on a fastball up and in that he deposits over the right field stands. Now, I was thinking in my head because they're saying, well, Grant Wolfram's warming up and they actually go and get Grant Wolfram. Let's be honest here, there's not really You can second guess it all you want. I don't fault Albernez for not getting him and going to Wolfram because I don't fully trust Wolfram at all. And I don't kill Andrew Kittrich for giving up the homer to Olsen, because let's be honest. Jackson Holiday, now whether he or not he gets the out at f at at uh at f whether or not Henderson turns two on that play, he gets the lead runner and a run scores, you get the lead runner out at second, and say Gunner does turn two, even though Jim Jarvis was busting it down the first baseline, they turn two. You don't have to face Matt Olsen in that inning. And if all if all they get was a lead out, and you gotta go with Drake Baldwin and Ozzie Albi, say Kittred strikes him out, then the inning's over, and it's just a 4-3 game. And you go to the bottom of the tenth, and what happened was Tyler O'Neal singled, put runners at the corners. Leode Taveras, who was called out on strikes and was uh struck out looking on a changeup that caught the outside part of the plate, dude. Oh, I, you know, it was a great changeup, awesome, but that was too close of a pitch to take. And he took it. If he fouled it off or whatever and lived to see one more pitch, great. But you cannot strike out looking in that situation. Then they go and bring in Jeremiah Jackson. They pinch hit for him. They take out Jackson Holiday. What does Jeremiah Jackson do? Sack fly to Dubon. Then Christian Incarnacio and Strand comes up, hits a two-run homer. Unfortunately, Sam Huff strikes out to end the game, but let's just say everything turned out the way that it turned out in this game. A, you could have tied it up at four, and B, you bring in Christian Incarnacio and Strand, who is your hottest hitter of the season, he hits a two-run homer. Game's over. Game's over right there. Even if, you know, he gets on base and keeps the line moving. Although, granted, Sam Huff would have been hitting in that situation regardless. As you pulled Tromp earlier in the game. I mean, I don't understand the reasoning. Now I well, actually, I do understand the reasoning. Because what I'm trying to get at here with the whole Jackson Holiday situation is it's clearly a coddling of player situation. When, let's be honest, you're the top prospect and you're getting off to kind of uh well, you're not not the greatest season this year. You had a solid season, all things considered, last year, although you you struggled late, if you know, talking about Jackson Holiday. But let's face it, he bonehead decision on that play. And it's not like Craig Albernaz needed to scream and holler into the mic or anything. He could have just said, yeah, it's a play that I'm sure he'd want to have back because you know what? It cost us the game. That was a huge play in the game. It was a big mistake. Although, you know what? I'm sure in that moment, Craig Albernaz may have been thinking, well, how dare I get on him when I made the mistake of pulling Trevor Rogers when he should have probably stayed in to start the eighth, and at least we could go from there. It's a bummer, and you know what the biggest thing is, after sweeping the Astros and having that seven-game win streak, you know, you've now lost three out of your last four, and you're three and a half games back now. You're fifty and fifty-four on the season, and as I saw someone say, just the repeated kick in the groin that this team has given you, allowing you to get a little excited about things. Now, not totally excited, but hey, it's a more w what they were doing was a more watchable product than what you were seeing beforehand. Before that comeback win against the Cubs that sparked the seven-game win streak, what they were doing prior to that was pathetic. They were unwatchable to just even the most common of fan, because I think at a certain point you start to get really frustrated with the way things are going and say, hey, you know what? I'm gonna go look for other things to do. And I don't blame people. Now, was tonight like that? Not necessarily, because the Braves are a good team. Give the O's credit, they did play well against the Braves, but not well enough to win the game. Which is unfortunate because you could have made up ground in the American League wildcard race. Got another one tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, and then one on Sunday. We'll be back on to recap either those games individually, or at the very least, we'll be back on Sunday to uh talk about this three game set against the Atlanta Braves. We'll talk to you then.