With the Orioles rallying late to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 6-5 final in 10 innings, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. Jonathan Schoop was the hero with two home runs, including a 423-foot bomb deep into the right-center bleachers to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. With others in the Baltimore lineup struggling to find consistency, Schoop is leading the way with a .525 slugging percentage.
2. Mark Trumbo provided his third walk-off hit of 2017, but it wouldn’t have been possible had Adam Jones not wisely tagged up on Manny Machado’s fly ball to the left-field wall. It’s the kind of play that more players should make, but that makes you appreciate Jones that much more.
3. Chris Davis not only started the comeback with a solo homer to start the bottom of the seventh, but his single to right-center after being down 0-2 to begin the ninth prompted Schoop to walk to the plate as the tying run. Don’t forget Davis’ contributions in the unlikely win.
4. Kevin Gausman settled in after the second inning, but it’s difficult to recover statistically from a three-run frame. Neither David Freese nor Josh Bell hit their singles hard to start the second, but Gausman allowed run-scoring hits by Andrew McCutchen and John Jaso after being ahead 0-2 on each.
5. Watching Gausman pitch with a lead is bordering on painful now. It was only a 1-0 advantage after one, but you wonder how much his recent track record of failing to protect advantages is wearing on him mentally at this point.
6. Gausman was receiving much of the blame from fans, but the Orioles offense looked like it was on its way to another lifeless night before the late innings. Baltimore entered Tuesday ranked 20th in the majors in runs scored per game. That must get better.
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7. Watching Ivan Nova pitch on Tuesday makes you wish the Orioles could steal away Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage for a while. He has done wonders with the former Yankee as well as other reclamation projects like J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano in recent years.
8. Donnie Hart isn’t inspiring any confidence on the mound since his recent return from Triple-A Norfolk. The Orioles need the left-hander to find the kind of groove he enjoyed late last year and in the first few weeks of 2017.
9. Seeing Mychal Givens touch 98 and 99 mph on the radar gun was impressive enough in a scoreless eighth, but lefties are now hitting .152 against him after they feasted a year ago to the tune of a 1.025 on-base plus slugging percentage.
10. Darren O’Day was scored upon for just the second time since May 8, but he’d be the first to tell you that walking Adam Frazier after being ahead 0-2 with two outs in the ninth was a bad omen.
11. J.J. Hardy is now slugging .295 and owns a .536 OPS. He still plays good defense and there isn’t a logical alternative beyond moving Manny Machado over to shortstop and opening a new hole at third base, but his offense is becoming a major concern.
12. With the Orioles losing a number of winnable games over the last few weeks, seeing them prevail in a game they didn’t have much business having was encouraging.
