Losing three of four from the Rays? Not good
What happened to our momentum? We are talking about a team that has nearly 50 losses before the All-Star break. That’s the Tampa Bay Rays. The same team that we swept back in May.
So there was a doubleheader scheduled on Friday. And we did nothing with Rays pitcher, Alex Colome (suspended for 50 games). He was coming off a minor league start in which he allowed 9 runs in less than two frames.
Kevin Gausman wasn’t at his best for us. He had control problems. Matt Joyce, who killed us in the series, had a good game in the 5-2 win for Tampa. Manny Machado cracked a solo homer for us. In better news, we knotted the series up at 1-1 in the nightcap.
Chris Tillman pitched well against the Rays as this game went to the sixth tied at 1-1. And the light-hitting catcher, Nick Hundley, launched a homer. Nellie Cruz’s two-run blast was the key blow in the 4-1 win. Zach Britton reached double digits in saves.
So we needed one win for a split or two wins for a series win and neither one happened.
On Saturday, we welcomed back our old friend, Erik Bedard. Yes, the major player in one of the best trades the Orioles ever made. In return, we got Adam Jones (star), Chris Tillman and George Sherrill (former closer).
Alas, we didn’t send Bedard to the showers. We were down 5-0 heading to the sixth when Nick Markakis unloaded a homer. In the home half of the eighth, Manny cracked another homer and we were back in the game. Adam Jones got us closer with an RBI single. And were down just a single run. And then we did nothing in the ninth and fell 5-4.
OK, we needed Sunday’s game for the split. And we took a 4-3 lead to the sixth. And then all hell broke loose. Machado again hit a homer. Evan Meek didn’t have it nor did Brian Matusz. Both got bombed in a 7-run inning. We had a 3-run ninth but it wasn’t enough in a 12-7 loss. And thanks to the hometown White Sox, we didn’t lose any ground as the Sox took three of four from the front-running Jays of Toronto.
