Who stood out in the Orioles’ 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night?
In the spirit of hockey’s “three stars” system with the addition of home plate for honorable mentions and other notes, we go around the bases after the 71st game of the 2016 season.
1st — Mark Trumbo entered the night with just 10 hits in his last 55 at-bats and hadn’t homered in his last 59 plate appearances dating back to June 7, but that changed with his leadoff homer to right-center to tie the game in the bottom of the second. The right fielder followed that with a leadoff double that led to another run in the fourth and a single in the bottom of the seventh. Trumbo is now tied with Todd Frazier and Nolan Arenado for the most homers in the major leagues with 21. He’s now one home run shy of his total from last season in 241 fewer plate appearances in 2016.
2nd — Ubaldo Jimenez wasn’t great in walking four batters in addition to surrendering four hits, but manager Buck Showalter summarized it nicely by saying he would have signed up for the right-hander allowing two runs in six innings at the start of the night. His fastball command was better than we’ve seen in several weeks as he registered his first quality start since May 7, and he finished on a high note with four straight strikeouts to conclude the outing. However, his solid night against a last-place club probably shouldn’t guarantee Jimenez anything beyond the temporary quieting of calls for him to be designated for assignment. Showalter was noncommittal about whether he’d start again on Tuesday.
3rd — Jonathan Schoop started a game hitting out of the No. 3 spot in the order for the first time in his major league career and went 2-for-3 with an RBI double, a walk, and a run scored to raise his average to .285 with an .808 on-base plus slugging percentage. The 24-year-old second baseman is now hitting .320 with six walks, seven doubles, four homers, 16 runs, and 14 RBIs in the month of June.
Home — Matt Wieters went 1-for-3 with an RBI single and a sacrifice fly to give him 34 RBIs on the season. … Ryan Flaherty hit his third homer of the year and is now hitting .288 with seven walks, four doubles, three homers, and 12 RBIs in his last 19 games. … In addition to collecting two hits, Adam Jones impressively scored from first base on Schoop’s double to shallow left-center in the third, taking advantage of some lethargic San Diego defense. … Hyun Soo Kim collected two hits and drove in a run while raising his average to a stout .339. … Pitching for the first time since Sunday, Brad Brach struck out two while tossing two perfect innings in relief. … The Orioles won their 1,000 all-time game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. … On Friday, Baltimore will send Yovani Gallardo to the hill to open a four-game series with Tampa Bay, who will start lefty Matt Moore.
