This game served as further reminder of three things we already knew, which, acting in concert, led to a bad result in this game.
1. Jeremy Guthrie gives up a lot of home runs.
2. The Toronto Blue Jays hit a lot of home runs.
3. Mark Hendrickson sucks.
The Jays' five runs included four home runs, although at least none of them were hit by Jose Bautista. The Orioles took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second thanks to a Brandon Snyder ground rule double and a pair of bases loaded walks issued by Ricky Romero, but this lead was steadily eroded by Blue Jays solo home runs, and one Lyle Overbay RBI sac fly. 1-9 hitting with RISP doomed the O's today as they left the bases loaded twice.
Once it got into the bullpens, it was just a matter of who would give up the game-winning home run, probably in walk-off fashion. Mike Gonzalez finished off the 7th after Guthrie left a man on base with one out. Jim Johnson threw two perfect innings to get us into extra frames, and Koji Uehara threw a perfect tenth. All the while the Orioles failed to muster any offense against the Toronto bullpen, with the only baserunner in the 9th, 10th and 11th innings combined coming on an error - and immediately that runner was wiped out by a GIDP.
I singled out Mark Hendrickson for being terrible in yesterday's recap, so it's not even like I'm surprised that he gave off a walk-off home run to Lyle Overbay, the first and only batter he faced in the game. He's not a good pitcher. Unfortunately right now, the O's bullpen is stuffed full of pitchers I never want to see again, including Alfredo Simon and Matt Albers along with Hendo. Since the O's couldn't score any runs, eventually someone bad had to come into the game. The moment that happened, the game ended. That's all there is to it.
David Hernandez had appeared in the O's last two games, and Troy Patton is probably being saved for an outing tomorrow in case Rick VandenHurk is unable to go deep into the game in his first Orioles start. So it goes. Shaun Marcum will be starting for the Blue Jays for tomorrow's 1:07 game as the Orioles look to avoid being swept in Canada for the year.