No way! This is unreal. Things like this never happen to the Baltimore Orioles, of all teams. Those are just things you see on ESPN; Buster Olney or Tim Kurkjian breaks it as a big story. It is the lead on SI.com and the first thing Skip Bayless talks about on his little fake argument show thing.
Wait, ah no. No, no, no, no! Well, I can't say I'm surprised.
That's alright. I mean, we are still in a good spot. We got this.
That is how Oriole fans felt twice on this trade deadline eve. Yeah, for a second everyone in Birdland was having dreams of Jon Lester in black and orange. Our own Mark Brown wrote about that earlier today. But it now seems like a cruel prank.
When it's all said and done it looks more like the team will add a bullpen arm and maybe, if you all are good, a bench player. Not exactly the eye-popping sort of happening that some envisioned.
In a similar fashion, tonight's game at Camden Yards began with a bang.
Adam Jones started things off with a two-run home run to center field off of a 97 mph Garret Richards fastball. It scored himself and Manny Machado, who had reached a pitch earlier on a single up the middle. It all added up to an early 2-0 Baltimore lead.
This round-tripper was a momentous one for the Orioles centerfielder. It tied him for fourth on the Orioles all-time list for home runs hit at Camden Yards (85) with Cal Ripken Jr. Overall, he ties Melvin Mora for the ninth most home runs anywhere in an Oriole uniform with 158. Not to mention it his is 11th first inning home run of the season. That's not a record, just impressive.
Flash forward to the fourth inning. Orioles starter Kevin Gausman is dealing on the mound (we will get to that in a second). He is facing Albert Pujols with two outs in a no ball, one strike count. The Gas-man tosses an 85 mph changeup towards home that Pujols slaps down the third base line and Machado snags. The Baltimore third baseman's momentum pulls him into foul territory. While still moving he guns a throw to first base. Steve Pearce, playing first while Chris Davis recovers from the flu, stretches into foul territory on the opposite side on the field and holds the bag to get Pujols at first. You will be seeing this on ESPN.
The offense would resume in the bottom of this frame. This time, it would come courtesy of the bottom of the lineup. Pearce began things with a one out single. A J.J. Hardy grounder to third would advance Pearce to second base. He would then score as the ever-reliable David Lough doubled with a line drive to left field to make it 3-0. Ryan Flaherty followed things up with a hit of his own to left; his of the one base variety. The speedy Lough crossed home and extended the lead to four runs. We were all saying it in spring training; Lough and Flaherty are the best 7-8 punch in the entire league.
It wasn't just the offense clicking in the first half of the game. Gausman had a perfect game through four and two-thirds innings. And he did it all with just one strike out. But then, he struggled to find the strike zone.
In the bottom of the fifth he issue three straight two-out walks to Howie Kendrick, C.J. Cron and David Freese. Then, Chris Ianetta singled to center field, scoring Kendrick and Cron to shorten the lead; 4-2 Orioles.
Kole Calhoun followed it up with a single to right field and scored Freese and making it 4-3. But Gausman battled and got out of the inning. When it was all said he had thrown 39 pitches in the fifth inning, 19 strikes, 20 balls. He had tossed 37 pitches in the previous four innings combined.
Those first four innings weren't even the most impressive aspect of Gausman's game. It was the way he came back in the sixth and seventh inning, allowing just one hit and turning in a quality start of seven innings and three runs.
After that, the back end of the bullpen took hold of the reins and ran with it.
Darren O'Day continued to impress by striking out two in one inning of relief and earned his 17th hold of the season.
And the revelation that is Zach Britton made the ninth as easy as pie. He allowed one two out hit on an in-between back to himself that he airmailed to first base. But he settled himself and managed to get Kendrick to weakly ground out to Machado. It was another highlight reel play that Manny threw off of one foot into the dirt. Pearce picked it and got the out. Game over. Orioles win the game and the series. It was the 21st save for Britton and, more importantly, the 60th win for the team from Baltimore.
So thing's didn't go the way it seemed. It had the feeling of a special night. The keeper of the history books was prepared to pen "Gausman" down, and he still may one day. Instead, he did something that kept his team in the game and held one of the best offenses in baseball to just three runs. I'll take that. I'll take that any day of the week.
So, tomorrow may not berth that blockbuster move that helps the O's capture the headlines, but things will happen and when it's all said and done, the Orioles are still a damn good team.