The Orioles spent Thursday working counts, drawing walks and getting hit by pitches, but none of it added up to much on the scoreboard. Craig Albernaz still liked what he saw in the box score from an at-bat perspective. The run column told a much harsher story.
Baltimore fell 4-1 to the Los Angeles Angels after failing to complete a sweep, and the loss came with a strange kind of frustration: the Orioles looked like the team with the worst record in baseball instead of the Angels. Albernaz pointed to eight walks and a hit-by-pitch as evidence that the offense was grinding. The problem was that those free baserunners never turned into runs.
“We did a great job of making them work,” Albernaz said. “At-bat quality was great.
Eight walks, hit by pitch. We just couldn’t get that big hit that we needed.”
The Orioles’ lone run came on a home run by catcher Yohel Pozo, which meant the rest of that traffic never crossed the plate. Baltimore left eight on base, and the early part of the game set the tone. The first six swings produced five outs, including double-play grounders by Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson.
There was also a costly sequence in the third inning after Pozo’s homer. Dylan Beavers singled to center and tried to steal with Pete Alonso at the plate, but catcher Moisés Ballesteros threw from his knees to the first-base side of second and Oswald Peraza applied the tag before Beavers’ hand reached the bag.
“He started his slide really, really early,” Albernaz said. “We talked to him about it.
If he slides later, he’s in there, so it’s just like a little thing like that. I have no problem with him trying to steal there, again trying to get some offense going, get guys in scoring position and keep the inning going.”
The inning stayed alive after that. Alonso and Gunnar Henderson walked, Encarnacion-Strand was hit by a pitch, and then Jackson Holliday rolled the first pitch he saw into a routine ground ball to second to end it.
“If he feels like it’s a good pitch to hit, you’ve got to go,” Albernaz said. “I mean, bases loaded like that you’ve got to take your shot.
You can’t be passive up there. If it’s a good pitch to hit like that, let it rip.”
Baltimore managed only 14 hits across the three-game set, but still won two of those games thanks to pitching, home runs and, yes, the Angels being the Angels. That made Thursday’s loss sting even more with a 10-game road trip looming.
The Orioles also helped Los Angeles along with a pair of rough defensive moments. In the second inning, Holliday, playing shortstop, lost a shallow fly ball to left field in the sun while trying to block the glare with his glove; his sunglasses were perched on top of his cap.
Later, Brandon Young tried to barehand a tapper when he had time to use his glove. Young deserves plenty of credit for the way he has worked this season, and he still escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam without allowing damage.
Then came the eighth inning, when Henderson was on third with two outs and Samy Natera Jr. fired a wild pitch. The ball caromed off the bricks behind home plate, bounced back to Ballesteros, and he flipped to the pitcher, who tagged Henderson for the final out. Henderson paused, then went, and Baltimore lost another chance to score.
“As soon as he stopped, he just has to stay,” Albernaz said. “We all know Gunnar is aggressive, making things happen.
He sensed that we needed to get another run across, but if he trusted his first instinct, if he was going to go, go. But as soon as he stopped, you just have to get back.
And he knows this ballpark better than anyone, and that’s something I know he would want to have back.”
Albernaz was blunt about the baserunning mistakes by Beavers and Henderson. On the question of at-bat quality, though, the definition depends on whether the result shows up in runs. For this Orioles team, Thursday’s answer was no.
Now Baltimore heads to Texas, Minnesota and Tampa Bay. A wild-card spot is still in play, largely because of the starting pitching, but the offense’s at-bats will have to mean more than they did against the Angels.
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