Orioles FRUSTRATINGLY, CONTROVERSIALLY Lose Series vs Rangers

The Baltimore Orioles lost a controversial game Friday night vs the Rangers on a play at the plate. They then lost Kyle Bradish's start on Saturday, but fortunately salvaged the final game with a pair of homers by Pete Alonso. Now the O's set their sights on the Minnesota Twins. #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:29

All right, folks, welcome back into another episode of the Term City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollyhan. We're back here on this Monday now afternoon as we're winding down the hours till first pitch tonight as the Orioles begin a three-game series with the Minnesota Twins. We'll, of course, talk about the O's salvaging a game against the Rangers. Over the weekend, it was a series that brought upon a lot of frustration, especially in game one, which is where we will begin right now, as the Orioles fell 2-1 on Apple TV against the Rangers. It started off looking like this might be a game that the Orioles could win. They get an early run in the second. A nice early lead on the road off the RBI single from Kobe Mayo. And you had Shane Baz, who was just dominating through five innings. And in the sixth, gives up the two-run belt to Jock Peterson. It's two to one. But for Shane Bass up until that point, the Orioles in that game, they had ten base runners. And the Orioles managed to go one for five with the runners in scoring position, leaving eight on base. There was not a lot of good baseball by the Orioles on this evening from the offensive perspective, off of Ivaldi, who it felt like there were times where the Orioles certainly could have put Evaldi out of the game, especially in the fifth, with a two-out single by Kowser. Navarez follows it up with a single, and then Gunner walks, and then unfortunately Pete Alonzo, 2-2 pitch, which was a splitter. That was a strike three called right down the heart of the plate. Pete pulls the bad head off his shoulder, puts a good swing on it, hopefully pulls it down the left field line instead of taking strike three. Maybe the O's played two more in that inning, and they lead three to nothing. But that felt like the huge momentum boost that the Rangers needed. As O'Neill started the six, well, Jackson Holliday started the six off with a ground up, but then Tyler O'Neal walked. They would take Evaldi out of the game, put in Tyler Alexander, Dylan Beavers, RBI single, the center, a one-out single, two runners on, a runner-in-scoring position, and Leody Taveras strikes out swinging. Mayo grounds out, and then the damage would be done for Texas as Peterson hits the two-run belt. Orioles do nothing in the seventh. They can't get anything going in the eighth after the two-out walk by Tyler O'Neill. Jeremiah Jackson flies out, and then we get through the eighth to the ninth. And in the ninth, Leody Taveras leads it off with a single. And kind of a swinging bunt from Tavares able to reach. Unfortunately, Kobe Mayo would strike out on a six pitch at bat and a change up low that probably could have taken for what would have been ball number three, or rather ball four, I beg your pardon, and put runners at first and second, and maybe would have made the next play a little easier to score on. As Christian Franklin just called up earlier in the week. Big moment in the game. First pitch against Latz. Fastball. Low and kind of in. Off a lefty, and Franklin sends it out to right. Nice inside out swing. It takes a couple hops off the wall. Nimmo fields it. Nimmo fires it to Nikki Lopez. And when Lopez fields it, Taveras is now rounding third. So after a great relay throw by uh or throw by Nimo to Lopez, a terrific relay throw to the plate, and out at the plate was Leote Taveras. But this was without some controversy. As the tag at the plate on Leote Taveras by Elias Diaz, from the naked eye, it looked like he applied the tag on Taveras. But if you look at the replay, Diaz's glove never really touches Taveras. The wrist the wristband of the glove appears to have, but he kind of just takes his arm and wraps it around Tavares. The glove does not appear to ever touch Leote. Craig Albernaz after the game, he was not thrilled with the fact that the call stood, the verbiage that was used saying the call stands and not confirming the call. That didn't seem to sit well with Craig Albarnaz. But I can't put this all on the replay system in New York. The Orioles should have done a better job with runners in scoring position. And you know what? You have one of your hottest hitters in the second half of the year, Christian Incarnacio and Strandon, and this is what we talk about all the time: the base running issues with the Orioles. Second and third one out. You have an opportunity to win the game right there with a base hit from CES, and who's going to be pinch hitting for uh Carlos Navarez in the game. Now you have Gunnar Henderson coming up behind him, more on Gunner in a moment, but the opportunity would have been there to potentially win the game. And the Orioles unfortunately fall 2-1 in a very controversial, frustrating fashion that really has been kind of a mini outlook of the season so far for the O's. Saturday, national TV game on Fox. Kyle Bradish on the mound. The Orioles get an early lead off of Jackson Holiday first inning homer. But that was all the offense that the O's could muster. As the Rangers win that one 5-1, they played two in the second. Orioles defensively did not play well in that game. Two errors. And one out single by Ezekiel Duran, and then the throwing error by Kyle Bradish on the pick-off play. Then having Carter reaches on a fielder's choice by Gunnar Henderson allowing a runner run to score. It's 1-1. Wild pitch by Bradish allows Carter to get to second. Jake Berger, RBI single, and the Rangers just continued as the Orioles offense again, couldn't muster up much. 1-2-3 in the third. Another 1-2-3 in the fourth. A one-out single by Tyler O'Neal, but then Dylan Beavers grounds out into a double play. So able to face the minimum in that inning was Jacob de Grom. And when you're going up against Jacob de Gram, the other side, you gotta be just about perfect. And as was in that second, the Orioles weren't. They weren't able to do anything against DeGrom, who was true to form. And able to go six and able to go six innings for or five innings, I beg your pardon, for the Rangers. They would turn it over to the bullpen. Owes had an opportunity there in the top of the sixth. Runners had first and second. And Dylan Beavers grounds out to end the inning on a pitch that probably should have taken for ball two. And Texas. And then Rico Garcia got you through the seventh. But then in the eighth, with Grant Wolfram and after getting two strikeouts, he allows two batters to reach on walks a six-pitch walk to Foscu. And then Wyatt Langford as well walks on seven pitches, so thirteen pitches right there in total. And then Corey Seeger hits a three-run blast over the right center field wall to make it five to one. And that was all she wrote for game two in Arlington. But yesterday the Orioles salvaged a win. They got a big lift from Pete Alonzo, who blasted two home runs. The Orios played at five in the first two innings. Kowser had a homer. Lonzo's first homer in the second. Lonzo Homer's again in the fourth. Tyler O'Neal adds on in the sixth. Now Cade Povich, he managed to only go three innings. There were some long innings for him. Not necessarily the best game out of Cade. He was actually option down to triple A. He goes again three innings, just 61 pitches. Certainly, as I mentioned, not his day. They bring up uh reliever Cam Sanders, who we saw earlier in the second half of the year, and it opens up a possible spot for Chris Bassett to rejoin the Orioles rotation as we move forward throughout the dog days here in August. We'll see when Chris Bassett, or if Chris Bassett, will potentially come back up to start, but again, it opens the door for him. But again, the Orioles win 10-5 yesterday. Solid uh outing from the pitching staff. I know you give up five runs, but you had given up only three through seven, and then Albert Suarez comes in and gives up uh two there late in the game as he got the final six outs. He gives up two in the bottom of the ninth, but the O's win ten to five. They now sit two games back of the wild card, the final wild card spot, which is obviously occupied by the Rangers, who are now even at 500. Just six teams in the American League are 500 or better. And what's interesting is the Tigers sit a game back, one game back of the Rangers. Tigers do. After trading Scuble. And the Twins sit behind the Tigers a game and a half. O's a half a game behind them as they begin a three-game series tonight. Guardians, game and a half back of the Rangers as well, and then obviously the O's two games back. The Orioles, 25-31 on the road, Twins 30-27 this year at home. So Orioles are obviously going to look to fix that or change that. The Rangers, they'll begin a series tonight with the Angels. So you hope the Angels can give them fits. Tigers are going to be squaring off against Cleveland, which I'm sure the White Sox are going to be licking their chops there as they lead the AL Central. And then obviously the Twins taking on the O's. And hopefully the O's can uh keep it. Take two of three, keep the season rolling along, and give the fans just something to look forward to every night. I honestly can tell you. I'm currently right now looking at this and basically saying I cannot see the Orioles challenging for a wild card spot, but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised. I do think in that clubhouse there is a player who is going to try and push that team to get over the top, and that is Pete Alonzo. And here was Craig Albany after yesterday's win, talking about Pete's play on the field, how he carried the Oz through the win, and as well what he means to the clubhouse.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's it's been it's been an awesome watch. Obviously, we all know the pedigree and track record he has, and to see it day and uh day night in and night out, it's been really impressive. And you know, today he has that in him, you know, with two home runs, great job getting his walks too, and you know, being able to kind of kind of change the game himself. Yeah, and not to mention what he brings to the the culture and the clubhouse and the leadership standpoint, but offensively, it's it's he's a force.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

This season I've really grown to understand why Mets fans really love Pete Alonso so much more than just the fact that he has the home run power, the fact that you know he was uh homegrown Met, loved playing at that ballpark, loved playing for that fan base. He seems to have tried to carry that love and admiration that the Mets fans had for him with Orioles fans, and I think right now it's it's working. It's just a shame that they are not a better team. It sucks that the O's have been this porous. The fact that we sit here on August the 10th and they're 57-61, 118 games through the season. They have had that bad of a record there. Minus 33 in run differential. It's been really brutal, to say the least, watching Orioles baseball this year, and that's putting it kindly. What's been even brutal, though, is the news we continue to get out of one Gunnar Henderson's camp. It was reported earlier in the weekend, by Buster only, that Gunnar Henderson has basically not can't I don't want to say campaigning, but has basically given the absolute 100% declaration that he will not be re signing anytime soon with the Orioles and does not plan to remain in Baltimore throughout his career. Now we have the lockout coming up. I doubt that they'll be moving anyone coming up in terms of trades. I don't know how that could look if they eventually lift the lockout and we do play baseball in 2027. But I would figure that the O's would look too as now his trade stock is way down compared to where it was two years ago and heck even a year ago. But the fact that Adley was not willing to resign, and Adley's not even a Scott Boris contract uh Scott Boris uh Scott Boris isn't even his age, he's not even a Scott Boris client. Gunnar Henderson obviously is, and if you know anything about Scott Boris, you know he always, always, always tells his clients, hit free agency, get as much money as you can possibly get. But I think that if you're a player and you really want to stay with said organization, you really believe that you know what, I came up through here, I've made a home here, I want to stay here, I want to win here, I enjoy my teammates, I enjoy the coaching staff, I want to stay a member of this organization. It just doesn't, for whatever reason, feel like that that has been the case with the Baltimore Orioles young players. I mean, I say young loosely, but it just does not seem like there's any kind of trust from those players, obviously, with Adley choosing not to resign. And although I've seen people give praise to Michael Alias for having the kind of gusto, I suppose, or the kind of stones to admit that there wasn't going to be any long-term value with Adley Rutschman and look to trade him because of the injuries that Rutschman has had. Now, if the Orioles could keep their players healthy, what's interesting is if you go and look at the win-loss record for the Orioles with Adley Rutschman on the field, the O's were 308 and 264 all time. A 53.8 win percentage. Now I know you can sit there and say, yeah, but the injury issues and moving forward, well, I presented this as an idea when the Orioles signed Pete Alonzo and when the Orioles brought up Samuel Basayo. I presented the idea last year and I continued to put it out there. Okay, long-term catching availability, and maybe this was Rutschman's thing. Who knows? Maybe Rutschman wanted to always be the full-time catcher for the O's. But maybe if you would have figured out a way to rotate Rutschman and Pete playing first, as well as maybe giving Rutschman some opportunities behind the plate as well, and have him see reason, maybe there could have been long-term value there. Maybe you could have seen Adley Rutschman stay healthier. Maybe there's something behind the scenes that we just don't know about with how in the world they are preparing for the season. And maybe that's the real issue that Rutschman has. I don't know. We haven't heard from him. We have yet to, and I'm sure someday we will know what the deal is with Mike Elias and with this Orioles team these last three seasons as to why they can't stay healthy and why there is such a digression with the younger players and the touted players, and why guys like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson just do not want to resign? Why has Gunnar Henderson seemingly lost faith in this Orioles coaching staff? Why have the players as a whole lost faith in this coaching staff under the tutelage of Michael Lias? What's the deal? What's the deal? Now, for what's to come, three-game series for the O's against the Twins. Starting off tonight, the Orioles will be facing an old friend, Dean Kramer. One and four with a 5-9-3 ERA this year. It's funny there were talks around the Charmed City about, well, should the Orioles look when Dean came back up, you know, when he was injured and he was called back up after making those rehab starts in June. The talk was, well, should the Orioles consider extending him? And then it's funny how about a month later he's traded to the Twins. He was traded over for the Orioles or to the Orioles in the Manny Machado deal. He was the only from Yuzniel Diaz to Ryland Bannon and Zach Pop and Bravic Valera and Dean Kramer. He was the only one that ever saw significant time with the O. Zach Pop never even never even played in a game with the Orioles as he was selected by the Diamondbacks in the Rule 5 draft in 2020 and then traded to the Marlins in exchange for Tyler Jones. And Pop, along with Kramer, is the only player that really had any kind of a plum, any kind of big-time major league experience from any of those players that were traded in that deal to the Orioles. And Dean Kramer, it's interesting how now eight years later, dealt away at the deadline to the Twins as he looks to really fill out their rotation. But Dean has started one game for the Twins this year where he gave up a run on three hits and five innings with two strikeouts and two walks for the Twins. I'm sure the Twins will come to find. I mean, you you take the good with the bad that comes with Dean Kramer. It's not so much so that and this was a start against the Royals that the Twins actually lost two to one. And again, he went out there and gave them a chance through five innings. Only given up a run. But obviously the Royals are not playing the best baseball. But regardless, gave them a chance, and I'm sure as they'll find out, you're going to have some good starts, going to have some ugly starts, and hopefully tonight will be one of those Dean Kramer starts. As Trevor Rodgers will take them out. He's 7-7 with a 4-2-0 ERA. Pitched seven shutout innings on opening day against the Twins earlier in the year, five strikeouts and four walks. Now he's never pitched at target field, which I gotta say is kind of interesting in his big league career to have never pitched at target field ever. And not even in the last two seasons with the Orioles, it just uh never matriculated that way. Now, on the road this year for Trevor Rogers, three and two with a four oh three ERA and eight starts earlier in the Area 7, some rough starts on the road had a huge blow-up start against the Rays, which is why that ERA is so high. We gave up seven runs on eight hits and three and two thirds innings. Uh that was back in mid-May. But since then, in his last now five starts, he's given up in his last start in Detroit, where he gave up four starts, before then he had only given up two in the previous four. Uh but he has given up six runs since that start against Tampa Bay, six runs on twenty-three hits, and he's pitched into the sixth in every start, so he's at least given you good length. He's only had one game where he's only gone just five. Well, let's put it that way. He's only he's only had one game out of those five where he's only gone five innings. Every other one he's gone into the sixth and beyond. So that's good to see. Game two, Bailey Ober will take the mound for the Minnesota Twins. Ober, seven and three with a four-four-five ERA. He also started versus the Orioles in that opening series to begin the year, where he allowed three runs on four hits in four innings with a strikeout and a walk. He's five and oh with a two-seven two ERA at home and nine starts. Brandon Young tomorrow takes the hill. 8-3 with the 3-4-3 ERA. He's never faced the Twins in his career. He's 6-1 with a 3-4-8 ERA on the road this season. So hopefully we can get another really good Brandon Young start. The Orioles will avoid facing Joe Ryan, the two-time All-Star these last two years for Minnesota. The Minnesota Twins, of course, there was a lot of speculation whether or not they would trade the 30-year-old pitcher who came up with the Twins back in 2021 and made the opening day roster in 22, and was of course given for the first time in his career, and interestingly enough, Rocco Belladelli, the manager at the time for Minnesota, gave him the praise, of course, the ultimate praise for a starting pitcher to be the opening day starter for his first big league season. So that's kind of an interesting note on Joe Ryan. But game three, the Orioles will face Zebi Matthews, who's 5-8 with a 5-2-3 ERA. He faced the Orioles only one other time. That was back in 2024. And uh obviously it's a completely different Orioles team than the team that Zebi Matthews faced that year. Now at home this season, Zebe has been a much better pitcher at home than on the road. He has a 284 ERA, 2-4 win-loss record. Um he has pitched pretty darn well. He's gone at least six full innings. Twice he's peppered in two seven inning games. So he's been pretty he's been really good at home on the road. He has a 7-1-3 ERA and is 3-4. So it's too bad the O's aren't facing him on the road for the former Twins' eighth round pick selected back in 22. Shane Bass takes him out. He's 4-11 with a 3-7-6 ERA. He gave up four runs on seven hits and five and a third innings with four strikeouts and no walks during opening weekend against the Twins. One and seven with a three-eight two ERA in twelve starts on the road this season. Hopefully, Shane Bass is going to go out there and match Zebbie Matthews pitch for pitch. And we'll see if the Orioles can manage to take two of three. Hopefully they do. Hopefully we'll be back on to recap a fun three-game series for the Orioles against the Minnesota Twins, the team that again sits a half a game ahead for the Orioles in the wildcard standings. The Orioles, who are keeping fans interested by just the skin of uh their teeth. And obviously, as we move forward through the month of August, you'd like it to be a month of August where fans are engaged with the Orioles and not looking to just check out what's going on at Ravens training camp. And on nights where there are preseason games, fans aren't just sitting there watching training camp games and not giving a you know what about the Orioles. Hopefully it's gonna be in August and September where there's gonna be interest with the Orioles uh at Camden Yards, but obviously we hold our breath on that. We will be getting to some Ravens news and notes coming up here in just a moment, so bear with us here on the Term City Sports Podcast as we'll have that coming for you throughout the week. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.