The Orioles’ weekend against the Brewers did more than wipe out what was left of their playoff math. It gave Craig Albernaz a chance to say, out loud and without much restraint, exactly what has been grinding at him all season.
Baltimore was blanked in the final two games of the series, extending a run of 19 straight scoreless innings and leaving the club five games behind the final wild-card spot with six games to play. By the time Sunday ended, Albernaz sounded less like a manager trying to smooth things over and more like one who had finally run out of patience.
The flashpoint came in the ninth inning Sunday. After Milwaukee right-hander Chad Patrick threw nine consecutive balls to load the bases with two outs, Jeremiah Jackson jumped at the first pitch he saw and rolled into a groundout. The pitch was in the zone, an elevated fastball Jackson could handle, but Albernaz was still stunned by the swing.
“Swinging bases loaded after nine pitches not in the strike zone was shocking, and I’m embarrassed,” he said. “Like, that’s not winning baseball. That’s not baseball, period.”
He made clear he was not saying Jackson had been told to take the pitch. Albernaz expected the decision to come from the hitter himself.
“That’s something you would learn along the way. Not in professional baseball, just in baseball in general,” Albernaz said.
“But ultimately, it falls on me because he swung, and that’s something that will be addressed moving forward. And also, the standard has to be high to win baseball games here, and that’s also going to be addressed.”
That was a sharper public tone than Albernaz has usually used in his first season. More often, when the Orioles have played sloppy baseball, he has leaned on patience and belief in his players.
That was true as recently as Aug. 6, when Angels pitcher Ryan Johnson loaded the bases with two outs by walking two batters and hitting a third. Jackson Holliday then swung at the first pitch, a fastball in the middle of the zone, and grounded out.
At the time, Albernaz defended the choice.
“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.”
This time, though, with the season nearly over and the Orioles’ playoff hopes all but gone, he sounded far less forgiving.
Jackson took responsibility after hearing Albernaz’s comments.
“Probably not the best idea to swing,” Jackson said. “Obviously, in a situation like that, you want to help the team win, so trying to get something over the heart of the plate.
Got it. Obviously, given the at-bats before, I probably should’ve not swung, so that’s on me.”
He also explained the thinking behind the decision before landing on the same conclusion: the better move would have been to work the pitcher.
The frustration did not begin Sunday. On Saturday, after Rece Hinds missed a fly ball that led to the only run of the game, Albernaz said he was shocked Hinds was not wearing sunglasses. He called the mistake “pretty frustrating” and also pointed to “awful” bunt attempts by Christian Franklin and Hinds, along with “interesting” swing decisions, as part of a “particularly frustrating” game.
What Albernaz returned to over and over after the Brewers series was the same theme: the little stuff. In his view, Baltimore’s season has been dragged down by a failure to do the small things cleanly and consistently.
“The consistency of doing little things constantly right every single night all the time is the separator from good teams and the bad teams with a bad record, and we have a bad record,” Albernaz said. “The little things, it’s something that we can control, and that’s where the series go awry, like this one, we just didn’t control, but when we play our best baseball, we are on top of little things. And that’s the inconsistency that we have right now.”
With president of baseball operations Mike Elias already saying Albernaz will return next season, the manager now heads into a long winter with a roster that will need help but also a core that will be expected to deliver. Some answers will have to come from outside. Others, as Albernaz sees it, will have to come from within.
And after the Brewers series, his public message sounded like a manager adjusting his approach as much as a manager blowing off steam. The frustration was real. So was the warning.
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