Shane Baz turned in another strong outing Friday night in Texas, and the Orioles still found a way to leave him hanging.
Baltimore dropped a 2-1 decision to the Rangers at Globe Life Field to open a huge 10-game road trip, a matchup that carried real weight between final Wild Card contenders. The loss sent the Orioles to 56-60 and again exposed the same familiar problem: when Baz deals, the lineup too often disappears.
Baz was excellent for eight innings, striking out nine and allowing just three hits. He worked quickly, stayed out of trouble for most of the night and looked especially sharp through the middle innings. Through five, he had given up only one hit and had the Rangers on their heels.
“He’s doing a great job of getting his change-up in mix,” manager Craig Albernaz told the Apple TV broadcast of Baz during the game, “and we know the curveball is one of his best pitches … Love how he’s pounding the strike one.”
The first real crack in his night came in the sixth. Elias Diaz sent a dribbler to the right of the mound, and Baz couldn’t handle it cleanly.
After a sacrifice bunt moved Diaz up, Joc Pederson jumped on a first-pitch cutter and drove it just inside the right-field foul pole for Texas’ first run. The homer snapped Baz’s streak of 42 1/3 innings without allowing one.
It was the kind of swing that can turn a game when offense is scarce, and Baltimore never answered enough.
The Orioles did scratch out their only run in the second inning, when Coby Mayo - getting a rare start at third base against a right-hander - drove in Leody Taveras after Taveras doubled. It was Baltimore’s only extra-base hit of the night. Beyond that, the bats never really threatened Nathan Eovaldi, who delivered one of his better starts of the season and allowed just the one run.
Baltimore even had a late chance to flip the game. Taveras, who has somehow become the club’s most clutch hitter, singled off Jacob Latz, and Christian Franklin, just acquired at the deadline, ripped his first MLB hit into the right-field corner. But Texas executed an excellent relay and got the tag at the plate, cutting down Taveras by inches.
The Orioles continue to get almost nothing from Gunnar Henderson in what has been a lost season, and the bigger picture around Baz’s starts remains ugly: Baltimore is now 6-17 when he takes the mound this year. That number says plenty about the team’s inability to hit and field behind him, because Baz has been pitching well enough to win.
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