At some point in the fifth inning, just after Juan Soto and Aaron Judge had hit nearly identical changeups off Grayson Rodriguez over the center-field wall to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead, the normally cheerful Kevin Brown offered from the booth: “It seems like nothing is going right for the O’s right now.”
That’s right. The Orioles have lost five straight and seven of their last 10. They’re hitting .238 with just 18 runs scored in their last seven games. Their lead in the AL East has shrunk to decimals (.002). Call it slumps, call it fatigue, but this team needs a shakeup, and soon.
Saturday’s game was never close: Grayson Rodriguez, who looked uncomfortable most of the afternoon, allowed four runs in the first inning — six total in just five innings — with a trio of homers coming off his slow pitches. Meanwhile, New York starter Luis Gil was on his game, keeping the Orioles hitters in line for six one-run innings. The Birds’ troubles with runners in scoring position continued, as they went 0-for-5 on the day. So there’s not much suspense here.
For Grayson Rodriguez, one inning took too long to settle, and it proved costly. The Yankees’ first run scored on an infield single by Gleyber Torres with two outs after Rodriguez allowed a single and a cautious walk to Aaron Judge. The O’s starter was still One strike away from escaping trouble, backup catcher Austin Wells, slugging .576 over his last 15 games, worked him for nine pitches. The ninth pitch was a bad slider. Wells launched it to the flagpole to make it 4-0 Yankees.
After that, Rodriguez found his groove for a while, keeping the Yankees off the board in the second and third innings. (That included a career-low four-pitch second inning followed by a career-high 33-pitch first inning. Stats are fun!)
But trading zeros doesn’t work when you’re down by four runs and not scoring. Gunnar Henderson and Anthony Santander bravely responded to the Yankees’ barrage with back-to-back singles in the first inning, but Yankees starter Luis Gil got a pair of flyouts and a Jordan Westburg flyout to strand them.
After that, Baltimore would only have three more hits off Gil, eight total on the day. The Orioles struggled with the right-hander’s fastball-slider combination (actually, more of a slider-fastball combination, as Gil threw sliders about 40% of the time). Gil throws around 97-98 with the fastball, and hitters were swinging defensively at the slider all afternoon.
A valuable Orioles run came in the fourth inning, courtesy of a rare Ryan O’Hearn triple over the left fielder and an RBI groundout. With two outs, Colton Cowser and Austin Hays came alive, hitting two 100-plus mph balls into the outfield. But Ramon Urias grounded out, and now the Orioles’ RISP problems are legion.
Given that, the game felt completely out of reach in the fifth inning, when, as mentioned, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge hit back-to-back batters off Rodriguez to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead, five runs on three homers. Rodriguez’s stuff was not awful Today, but his failed speed command was off and he couldn’t limit the damage against his mistakes.
I guess it’s a good thing the Orioles’ bullpen pitched four scoreless innings today, courtesy of Jacob Webb, Keegan Akin and Vinny Nittoli. Who? Yes, Vinny Nittoli, a 33-year-old on his fifth MLB team who was just called up today due to struggling starter Cade Povich being optioned. Newcomer Nittoli actually looked pretty good, showing off incredible slider ability and keeping the Yankees off the board in the eighth and ninth.
At the end of Saturday’s game, the MASN broadcast showed an image of general manager Mike Elias in a clubhouse box, looking cheerful as he narrowly dodged a foul ball. If there’s a sense of pessimism on this team right now, well, the GM isn’t showing it. Today Elias reported that new owner David Rubenstein is open to “expanding the roster” with moves at the trade deadline.
Trust in the Fearless Leader and the prospect of reinforcements, I suppose?
