What went wrong in the Orioles’ 7-2 defeat to the Boston Red Sox on Monday afternoon?
In trying to identify the top three losing factors with the addition of home plate for any not-so-honorable mentions and other notes, we go around the bases after the 49th game of the 2016 season.
1st — Red Sox starter Steven Wright was superb in pitching his third complete game of the month, but the top five hitters in the Orioles lineup went 0-for-17 with six strikeouts against the knuckleballer. Baltimore is hardly the only team to look bad against Wright in his surprising start to the season, but his knuckleball was especially filthy as he recorded six 1-2-3 innings. Considering the issues the Orioles had with slower breaking pitches during the last road trip, Wright just wasn’t a good matchup with his ability to change speeds. The top half of the lineup was a non-factor throughout the day.
2nd — The Orioles already trailed 3-2 in the eighth, but their lack of an established lefty specialist cost them greatly. With Buck Showalter preferring to stay away from Brad Brach in the bullpen, much was put on the shoulders of rookie Ashur Tolliver and he couldn’t handle it, giving up a home run to David Ortiz and walking Travis Shaw before eventually giving way to Mychal Givens after a Blake Swihart single. Givens’ struggles against lefty bats continued as he gave up a three-run homer to Marco Hernandez to put the game out of reach.
3rd — Tyler Wilson pitched solidly against the best offense in baseball, but the solo homer allowed to Jackie Bradley Jr. in the sixth was deflating. The bottom of the Orioles order had figured out Wright enough to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth, but the starter left a fastball over the plate that Bradley launched into the Baltimore bullpen to lead off the sixth. If the game had remained tied, Showalter might have handled his bullpen differently later in the game instead of turning to a rookie.
Home — After Baltimore plated two runs in the fifth, Chris Davis deviated from an effective opposite-field approach against Wright by grounding out to first with runners at the corners and two outs to end the scoring threat. … Replays showed that Xander Bogaerts’ first-inning dribbler that scored Boston’s first run bounced off his foot in the box, but the play wasn’t reviewable and Wilson failed to cover home plate as Caleb Joseph made the throw to first, allowing Mookie Betts to score from second base. … Nolan Reimold led off the two-run fifth with a triple and has now hit safety in 17 of 22 games this season in which he has had at least one at-bat. … Bogaerts extended his career-high hitting streak to 23 games and is batting .402 over that stretch. … Kevin Gausman will take the mound on Tuesday night against former Orioles prospect Eduardo Rodriguez, who will be making his season debut after dealing with a knee injury since spring training.
