Well, at least they tried.

Things were going swimmingly until the bullpen decided to have a bad game. Eh, better to get it out of the way early so that it doesn’t happen later on, right?

Oh, but they got a compliment from Joe Maddon:

BEHAVE IN THE SANDBOX, ORIOLES, OR WE’LL HAVE TO LEAVE THE PLAYGROUND EARLY.

To take some positives away from this first loss of the season, let’s all remember that the offense picked right up where it left off yesterday. The bullpen faltering put a slight damper on things – if the team had made it to extra innings a victory was surely in the bag based on last year – but overall, this was still a strong performance that the team shouldn’t be ashamed of.

Tommy Hunter really needs to stop giving up home runs, though. This one actually cost the team the game. Maybe Buck shouldn’t put him in unless the team’s really far ahead or really far behind just in case because this homer habit is costing them.

Afternoon start tomorrow at 3:10 – don’t forget. The team then gets to come home for a proper debut on Friday against the Twins. Can’t wait to see the fan reception they get at their home opener – it should be glorious compared to recent years.

Oooooooooooooooooooooh.

I liked this game a lot. I liked the first two innings the best because we scored seven runs total in them, which was really, really awesome, but overall I liked the entire game quite a bit.

Once again, we had a fine start from Chris Tillman, who went six innings against his former club and only gave up one run on three hits. Zach Phillips followed, giving up a second run on a solo homer, but his 1.2 innings of work were otherwise not so bad. He did walk a batter, though. Luis Ayala finished the night up and was somewhat rusty, giving up a double followed by a home run and then struggling to continue before being relieved by Tommy Hunter. Hunter loaded the bases and then miraculously did not give up a home run, instead notching a strikeout to end the game.

This win was probably most important because it means now we’re only half a game behind the Yankees. It puts just the teensiest bit more pressure on them to stay ahead because we’re less than a game back. It’s all mental, sure, but sometimes it’s the mental things that matter most at this stage of the season. Mentally, the Orioles are locked in, and it shows in how they’ve been playing overall during this stretch run. I’m excited. It’s late at night and I should be going to bed, but I’m excited, almost too excited to sleep.

I’m going to try to go to bed. If you’re reading this at the moment it’s posting and you’re not on the West Coast, you should go to bed, too.

This is how many games we have left in the regular season. I think we really need to put things in turbo mode here.

That’s more like it, guys! Thanks for salvaging a game in this series!

It didn’t look so good in the first – starter Randy Wolf gave up a two-run homer to start things off, and it looked like it was going to be just like the other two games, where the A’s scored early and then shut us down with pitching. Turns out that wasn’t the case – the Orioles scored one run in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings, then took a break in the sixth before putting up three more runs in the seventh. A couple of insurance runs came across in the ninth, which really helped to ease my mind because the A’s scored two in the eighth and one more in the ninth. Fortunately, we were able to pull out Jim Johnson and end things quickly.

Although Randy Wolf stayed in for four innings and Tommy Hunter pitched the fifth, Brian Matusz, who pitched in the sixth and the seventh, was given the win, perhaps because it was the top of the seventh in which the Orioles scored the three runs that would keep them on top for the rest of the game. Scorers get to choose these things sometimes at their own discretion, and I’m sure Matusz doesn’t mind it one bit.

Three games left on the West Coast this season. I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited to get some sleep for the rest of the year. It’d be super-nice if we won a few more of these, too. Like, really nice. With the Yankees losing at the same time. I’d like that.

I really don’t even know where to start with this game. The game itself wasn’t really the problem – although Tommy Hunter giving up home runs is clearly still an issue – but with the umpiring crew. There’s just so much we need to talk about regarding them right now since, although their call didn’t affect any runs scoring during the actual game because Wieters threw out a runner, they made a mockery of baseball tonight.

Here’s what happened: Jhonny Peralta grounded out to third. Manny Machado stopped the ball and threw it wide to first, but Mark Reynolds stretched and made the play. Peralta, in a rare fit of anger, protested that Reynolds’s foot wasn’t on the bag. Video replays clearly showed it was, but MLB doesn’t use expanded replay yet, so the umpires had a conference and astoundingly overturned the call.

Mark Reynolds then did this (.gif via Twitter user @itschadlol):

Naturally, Reynolds was ejected for this sort of behavior, and Showalter soon followed when he came out to argue the overturning of the call. Rumors then swirled around regarding whether or not the Orioles were playing the rest of this game under protest. Games being played under protest are covered by MLB rule 4.19:

4.19
PROTESTING GAMES.
Each league shall adopt rules governing procedure for protesting a game, when a manager claims that an umpire’s decision is in violation of these rules. No protest shall ever be permitted on judgment decisions by the umpire. In all protested games, the decision of the League President shall be final.
Even if it is held that the protested decision violated the rules, no replay of the game will be ordered unless in the opinion of the League President the violation adversely affected the protesting team’s chances of winning the game.

• Rule 4.19 Comment: Whenever a manager protests a game because of alleged misapplication of the rules the protest will not be recognized unless the umpires are notified at the time the play under protest occurs and before the next pitch, play or attempted play. A protest arising on a game-ending play may be filed until 12 noon the following day with the league office.

The problem for the Orioles tonight is that the manager was ejected from the game, so now we have no idea whether or not the team was playing this game under protest. Since they lost, if they were playing this game under protest and their protest was accepted, the game would be replayed starting from that play at first base.

The funny bit regarding all of this is that the play didn’t even matter in the end since Matt Wieters threw out Peralta trying to steal second base. In the end, it became a game about bullpens, and ours was the more tired one.

There’s a bigger issue underlying all of this, though, and that’s the umpiring in MLB right now. In the past few years, umps have become far more outspoken, overstepping boundaries that we didn’t even realize existed until they started complaining about things (like Joe West) and overruled correct calls. In an ideal world, MLB would step in and investigate all of this, but that’s not happening here. It’s depressing, but it’s the truth.

I wonder if this’ll at least prompt MLB to really try out that expanded replay they’re supposedly testing this weekend.

This still rings true even in August. I can’t believe it.

We won again! This team just amazes me.

Tonight belongs to Chris Tillman, who went 7.1 innings and only gave up one run. He also notched five strikeouts and only walked one batter on the night. On a day when we lost Jim Thome until September, which is at the very least a kick in the morale, Tillman came out and was completely solid, the latest in a string of strong performances from a starting pitcher. Tillman’s command was incredible tonight, which is even better than just having good stuff – the reason I complain all the time about Tommy Hunter is that he has that habit of letting his command slip and giving up home runs.

To be honest, our pitchers have been pretty solid lately, which is exactly what we need. It’s such a relief to know that we’ve got the staff working well to keep us in games regardless of whether we score late, like we did yesterday, or early, like we did today (all our runs came in the second inning this evening). It’s nice to know that we’ve got some security here – as long as the bats keep up, then we’re in decent shape for the last two months.

It’s a little tough to write these posts for games that happen during the Olympics. I know nobody cares about baseball when the Olympics are on. Knowing that the Orioles are doing such a good job of holding the fort down whilst all of Baltimore’s eyes are elsewhere (i.e. on Michael Phelps and company) is making this easier on me, though – everyone’s going to come back to such a pleasant surprise when they see that we’re currently only 5.5 games back in the AL East.

Maryland is nevertheless happy tonight – like Louise – because it has now officially produced the greatest Olympian of all time.

Oh. Okay.

Let’s play a little game. The Orioles gave up one run in the fourth and one run in the sixth. Tommy Hunter was pitching. Guess how those runs scored.

If you guessed that they scored on two solo home runs, congratulations, you’re a winner! Not that you win anything because we lost today, but you get the idea. Tommy Hunter apparently now leads the league in giving up home runs. Joy. Add in our recent knack for not being able to score rearing its ugly head again, and you get tonight’s game.

I know Hunter’s been back down to Norfolk twice this season already. I also know that he gives up too many home runs for my liking. I really do think that there’s something he needs to work through regarding his, you know, aim, but those two stints in Norfolk really haven’t seemed to fix him yet. It’s a really unfortunate issue that I’m actually concerned he’ll never fix since it seems to be such an engrained habit. Every so often, he throws a pitch right down the middle and it ends up in the seats. It’s almost like he can’t help it. It’s really frustrating to watch – you feel bad for him, but at the same time you want to just shake him and tell him to snap out of it.

At least very few people were watching because, you know, Michael Phelps was getting another gold medal tonight, which is a huge deal in Maryland, so Tommy’s sort of off the hook. Except we still all know what he did, so not really.

Our only run came on a Markakis homer in the 9th. Like this recap, it’s too little too late.

Okay, maybe the recap’s a little less substantial than a home run that prevented the Orioles from being shut out completely because it’s just a pile of words, but you get my point – this isn’t a very exciting game to recap, especially since everyone was watching the Olympics instead, myself included. Here’s the important bit, though…

…of the five runs Tommy Hunter gave up today, four came on home runs. FOUR.

Now, we’ve known he has a problem with giving up homers for a while. Today, it made up 80% of his runs allowed. That’s a problem that needs immediate fixing – if we were to get a lead (and not blow it horribly like yesterday), I’d be constantly nervous with Hunter on the mound because he’s so prone to coughing up the long ball. Your starting pitcher’s supposed to inspire confidence, not constant concern.

I really, really hope we win tomorrow just so we don’t look like complete idiots. Seriously. Also, Duquette, you’ve got until Tuesday to make something happen. Get on that, my man.

There’s really not much to say about this game. Yeah. We’re not a good team when our offense doesn’t work.

The only way we were able to score is because Flaherty was hit by a pitch and was doubled in. That’s a true story. We can’t score unless we get hit by pitches, apparently. Right.

Also, Tommy Hunter gave up a home run again, which makes this the most unoriginal game recap ever because he pretty much always does that.

Here is my cat facepalming to improve this game recap.

Well, we haven’t done that in a while, now, have we?

I mean, we actually won and had good starting pitching. That actually happened. I’m having trouble believing this, but it happened.

Tommy Hunter returned from the dead Norfolk and gave the Orioles seven solid innings (and got one out in the eighth), only allowing one run on the night. Of course, that run came on a solo homer, because pretty much every single run Tommy Hunter allows involves giving up home runs. After Hunter left the game, Troy Patton struggled his way through the remaining two outs in the eighth, but he survived without giving up a run, and Jim Johnson locked things down quickly in the ninth. And we won. It actually happened. It’s very strange to think about, but this team won a ballgame.

Adam Jones provided all of the offense needed on the night with a two-run homer in the first inning. Although this team had more opportunities to score (including that same Mr. Jones finding himself on third base with a leadoff triple), they were unsuccessful, which brings me to my usual rant about how this offense is inconsistent. Good pitching, however, can nullify the other team’s offense completely, which is what happened tonight, which allowed us to actually land in the win column for once.

Since I haven’t celebrated a win in a while, here’s Louise:

Celebrate!

One more in Minnesota and then we go to Cleveland before we get to return home. To be honest, I’m glad we’re not on the East Coast right now because the humidity is insane here. I’m in New Jersey and it’s sweltering – I can only imagine how bad it must be further south.

This was ugly. Like, really, really ugly. I don’t think we should even talk about this.

Basically, we looked horrible. See? Five runs each were on Dana Eveland and Tommy Hunter, and we weren’t able to answer very well. We just scored five overall.

Oh, but we did get Jim Thome, so now I can say JI-

JIM THOME a lot. He’s expected to be activated tomorrow, so I should honor The Dugout and write tomorrow’s recap in caps lock. Right? Of course I should.

And now…I think I’ll find a way to make this loss feel better. Fortunately, I have sheepdogs and cats for times like these…

She doesn’t like this game very much, but I do.