Second Orioles Game of 2017

Went to the Orioles game by myself tonight. The weather was bad and nobody else wanted to go. The Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the bottom of the 11th inning. Seth Smith walked on four straight pitches with the bases loaded. This foul ball, hit by Logan Morrison in the top of the 11th inning, landed behind me, bounced straight up then rolled right down to me. My first foul ball. It only took me fifty years to get one. In the bottom of the 11th, Ryan Flaherty hit a ball that came right at me. I was like a deer in the headlights. I was just starting to move when a guy sitting about six seats to my right jumped up and tried to catch it right in front of my face. He got his hands on the ball but lost it in the lights. It went down front where some other guy got it. 

Foul ball hit by Tamp'a Bay's Logan Morrison in the top of the 11th inning.

From The Baltimore Sun
Article by Eduardo A.Encina
Photos by Karl Merton Ferron and Patrick Semansky

Orioles Recap: After squandering lead, O's rally in 11th to beat Rays, 5-4, on Smith's walk-off walk.

The Orioles’ 5-4, 11-inning walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night was unusual in many ways, from the beginning – when right fielder Seth Smith circled the bases on his bloop single-turned-second-inning-three-ring-circus play – to the end, when Smith drew a four-pitch bases-loaded walk to win the game in anticlimactic fashion.

The Orioles mustered little offense for most of the night, going scoreless for eight straight innings before rallying to score two runs in the bottom of the 11th on three walks, two singles and a sacrifice fly.

No, it didn’t have the excitement of most walk-off wins – and it was one of the Orioles' uglier games of the season – but Smith's four-pitch walk from reliever Danny Farquhar with two outs and the bases full showed the Orioles resilience on a night when they struggled to muster any offense for most of the game.

“We scored the three [going into the 11th] and what did we have, 12, 13, 14 hits?” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “I don’t know how many we ended up with. There was some offense there. I’m hoping as we get into the flow of the season a little bit where the weather cooperates a little bit and guys can get into a routine a little bit more. But to be where we are … very seldom are you going to be functional on all cylinders, but those are the types of games you like to win.”

The Orioles tied the score in the 11th, loading the bases with one out on singles by Chris Davis and Welington Castillo and a walk to Hyun Soo Kim. Jonathan Schoop then scored the tying run on a line-drive out to center field, scoring Davis on a sacrifice fly. Ryan Flaherty then drew a walk to load the bases again for Smith.

It marked the first time a game ended with a pitcher entering the game and throwing four consecutive balls to the first hitter he faced, issueing a walk-off walk since Aug. 20, 2013, when the Red Sox's Brayan Villarreal walked the Giants' Marco Scutaro to end the game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“It's awesome,” Smith said. “Every win is big. That's all that matters at the end of the day, at the end of the season. [To] be down in extra innings and come back and win is always good for the morale and moving forward, probably less so winning than the feeling of losing an extra-inning game at home, but still really good."

After scoring three runs in the second inning, the Orioles (14-6) recorded just three singles and placed just one runner in scoring position in innings three through 10.

The Orioles remained unbeaten in seven series this season (6-0-1) as they head to New York and Boston to continue an opening five weeks that has been dominated by division games.

Rays catcher Jesus Sucre’s broken-bat RBI single with two outs in the 11th off right-hander Alec Asher tied the game. Asher (1-0) put two runners on in the 11th, walking Logan Morrison and hitting Shane Peterson with a pitch before Sucre’s bat shattered as he looped a ball down the right-field line to score Morrison.

The Orioles bullpen was unable to preserve a one-run lead for starter Dylan Bundy.

The Orioles entered the top of the eighth clinging to a one-run lead, but right-hander Mychal Givens, who stranded an inherited runner in scoring position in the seventh – allowed a leadoff double to Derek Norris. Left-hander Donnie Hart then hit pinch hitter Rickie Weeks Jr. with a pitch and walked left-handed hitter Kevin Kiermaier on nine pitches.

That created a no-out, bases-loaded jam for right-hander Darren O’Day, who retired all three batters he faced, but a run scored on Brad Miller’s fielder’s choice groundout, a sharply hit ball on which first baseman Davis dived into the hole to keep in the infield. 

Bundy recorded his fifth straight quality start to open the season, allowing just two runs – a pair of homers to shortstop Tim Beckham – over 6 1/3 innings.

Right-hander Brach Brach dodged a pair of hits while pitching scoreless ninth and 10th innings for his first multiple-inning outing of the season.

The Orioles had a rare opportunity to score the go-ahead run in the eighth inning after Manny Machado opened the inning landing on second after an infield single deep into the hole at shortstop and Beckham’s ensuing wild throw into the stands.

But the Orioles came up empty. After Davis walked, struggling slugger Mark Trumbo struck out looking and Castillo hit into an inning-ending double play.

Smith scores himself on 'Little League home run'

Smith rounded the bases on his own single on an error-filled play that had to be seen to be believed. Smith’s single scored two runs – including himself – in the team’s three-run second inning.

With Flaherty on first base, Smith looped a single to center field that Kiermaier took on a hop and threw to third to attempt to nab Flaherty. Kiermaier’s throw was wild, getting past third baseman Evan Longoria.

Rays pitcher Alex Cobb backed up the play, and after seeing Flaherty round third, he threw back to Longoria, but the throw ricocheted off Flaherty’s helmet and into no-man’s land in left field, enabling Flaherty to score easily.

By the time left fielder Peterson chased down the ball, Smith was rounding third and heading home, and he slid under Longoria’s throw home.

“One time in the minor leagues I was on the bad end of that,” Flaherty said. “It's a complete circus play."

The play – on which the Rays were charged with two throwing errors and Smith was credited with a single but no RBI – gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead.

"I hit the single, and then the throw came in, I was stopping at first, and then it got by, and I was stopping at second, Smith said. "The throw went to left. I was going to third, and I saw there wasn't anybody really close, and I knew I might get sent home, but at that point, everything was behind me, and he was sending me; the hard send is where you know there's probably going to be a play, and thankfully I was able to get there before the ball."

"Maybe so, maybe so,” Smith said when asked whether he’s ever been involved in a similar play, even in Little League. “I hope that's the last time it happens."

Flaherty taking advantage of opportunity

Playing time has been rare for Flaherty, but the Orioles utility player contributed right away Wednesday as he made his second start of the season.

Flaherty, who was in the lineup to give starting shortstop J.J. Hardy the benefit of two straight days off (The Orioles are off Thursday before opening a three-game set at Yankee Stadium on Friday night), roped an RBI single off Cobb in his first at bat of the night in the third inning.

“It’s just fun to get out there and play,” Flaherty said. “When you get a chance to get out there, you try to help the team win, move the chains and keep it going. … It can be tough [not playing], for sure. I think, one way to look at it is when Buck puts you in there, he probably thinks you’ve got a decent chance against the pitcher. You just try to do something to help the team win.”

It was Flaherty’s first hit in five at-bats this season and his first RBI of the year. He then scored on Smith’s round-the-bases single and drew a key walk in the 11th to load the bases for Smith’s walkoff walk.

“Ryan looked good tonight,” Showalter said. “I thought he had some good at-bats tonight. He was seeing the ball well. Nobody was seeing as well as Beckham, I can tell you that. You could tell from the first at-bat that Ryan seemed to be … you get to know a guy. Balanced, was seeing the ball and wasn’t jumping. I liked that. I really wanted to give J.J. these two days if I could.”

Outsider Artist from the Neighborhood

Link to Article

First Orioles Game of 2017 - Orioles vs. Yankees

Mom, Karen, John and I went to the Orioles game last night. We won 6 to 5. It was one of the coldest Orioles games I've ever been to. 

From the New York Time's Mike Wallace

BALTIMORE — Luis Severino’s fall from grace between his excellent rookie season of 2015 and his dispiriting sophomore year of 2016 was shocking. His fall from the mound in the fourth inning at Camden Yards Friday night was merely frightening, and only for a moment.

It was what happened an inning later that was unmistakably alarming.

Severino, who showed such promise as a rookie starter two years ago that many in the Yankees’ organization projected him as a future ace, displayed a flash of that ability for the first four innings of his start against the Baltimore Orioles, after which he enjoyed a 5-1 lead. He had retired seven straight Orioles and had struck out Adam Jones and Manny Machado in succession in the third.

Then came the fifth, and a two-out walk followed by a fastball to Machado that became a laser beam into the left-field stands, a three-run homer that turned an easy game into a nail-biter.

“I tip my hat to Machado, he hit a good pitch right there,” Severino said. “Maybe in a different game, it’s a groundout or a swing and a miss. It’s not going to happen every time.”

But what has been happening, seemingly every time, for Severino, is this: Another start, another Yankees loss. Including 11 starts last season, in which the Yankees lost nine and Severino lost eight, he has not won a game he started since Sept. 27, 2015.

To that point, Severino had been cruising along thanks to a two-run homer by Matt Holliday in the third and another by Gary Sanchez in the fifth. Severino had limited the Orioles’ lineup to four hits, two of them infield singles, and had struck out four on off-speed pitches after setting up hitters with his 97-mile-per-hour fastball. He appeared to be in command.

He even seemed to be on his way to an escape in the fifth after striking out J. J. Hardy and getting Smith to pop out following Jonathan Schoop’s leadoff bloop single. But he walked Jones before grooving the fastball to Machado that turned his first outing of the season from promising to slightly disturbing.

“I think the first thing we need to see is fastball command,” Girardi said before the game. “If he has that, I believe, he can get deep into games. And that is what we continue to stress during spring training to him, pitching down in the zone. You can elevate from time to time, but if you live up between the thighs and the waist, you’re going to get hit hard.”

The pitch Machado hit was knee-high, right down the middle.

The difference between the 2015 edition of Severino and its 2016 counterpart was significant; but the difference between Severino the starter and Severino the reliever last season could only be described as startling.

As a rookie called up from Class AAA at the 2015 trade deadline, Severino went 5-3 with a 2.89 E.R.A., impressing teammates and opponents alike with his 97-m.p.h. fastball and uncommon poise for a 21-year-old. The drop-off in his performance last season, when he went 3-8 with a 5.83 E.R.A. in 22 appearances, told only part of the story.

Working out of the bullpen late in the season, Severino went 3-0 with a 0.39 E.R.A. and held opposing hitters to a .105 batting average in 11 appearances. As a starter, Severino went 0-8 with an 8.50 E.R.A. Opponents hit .337 against him in his 11 starts.

Still, Girardi said the Yankees’ front office never gave any serious consideration to converting Severino from starter to reliever in the off-season.

“Well, I think if you had went through this for a couple years, you would seriously consider that,” Girardi said. “But we have to remember how young he is. I think it’s a growing process and I think it’s way too early in his career to decide that.”

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