With the Orioles seeing their brief two-game winning streak stopped in an 8-3 loss to the New York Yankees, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. This one didn’t look encouraging on paper considering the starting pitching matchup and how short the bullpen was after Friday night’s 14-inning win. Buck Showalter admitted after the game that he wasn’t going to use five relievers. It went how you’d expect.
2. Chris Tillman was OK through the first four innings and missed some bats with eight swinging strikes while throwing some effective breaking pitches, but he faltered in the fifth and sixth. The real problem is this is about the best you get from the right-hander going back to last year.
3. It was apparent that Tillman had lost his command to start the sixth inning after a shaky fifth, but Showalter was clearly trying to steal extra outs with his bullpen so short. Ideally, you could have turned a 3-3 game over to the bullpen to start that inning.
4. Even after falling behind 5-3, the Orioles wasted a golden opportunity in the seventh as Yankees reliever David Robertson struck out Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop with runners at second and third. Baltimore was 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Saturday.
5. Sonny Gray’s curveball was really working as he completed six innings for the win. It will be interesting to see if he can stay healthy and be consistent enough to realize the enticing potential he showed in Oakland a few years ago.
6. Of course, forcing Gray to throw only 11 pitches over the first two innings set him up for a successful afternoon. Knowing how stretched New York’s bullpen was from Friday night, you’d think Orioles hitters would have tried to make him work more early on.
7. After a huge two-homer night on Friday, Machado followed that with a two-run double into the left-field corner in the third. I guess he heard everyone discussing his lack of an RBI over the first week of the season.
8. The hero from Friday night, Pedro Alvarez walked and hit an RBI double in his first two at-bats, finally giving the lineup some left-handed production that’s been sorely lacking so far. His lack of versatility is clear, but Alvarez can still hit right-handed pitching.
9. We hadn’t really seen Machado shine at shortstop so far, but his backhanded grab off a Tim Beckham deflection and strong throw to get Aaron Judge in the sixth was a beautiful play.
Manny flashing his platinum-glove ability. #Birdland pic.twitter.com/knwKqBZIAp
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 7, 2018
10. Jimmy Yacabonis didn’t make a good statement to stay in the major leagues after allowing three runs in the seventh inning. He couldn’t keep his club close and didn’t provide much length after throwing 27 pitches, prompting Showalter to use Nestor Cortes in the eighth.
11. After some poor baserunning the night before, the Yankees ran into four outs on the bases on Saturday. You’d like to see the Orioles take better advantage of that.
12. Perhaps his hip — which was surgically repaired in 2016 — has hindered his performance, but Colby Rasmus struck out 13 times in 23 plate appearances before going on the disabled list. It’s fair to wonder if he makes it back on the roster after he walked away from baseball last summer.
