The above image was taken from baltimoresun.com - it was published during the game, presumably for tomorrow morning's paper. It is there as I write this. Kevin Gregg pitched in the game tonight. The result:
(Somewhat more complete story follows below the jump.)
Not only to pile on Gregg - after all, Kevin Cowherd asked us to give Mark Reynolds a chance, too - the Orioles led this game at one time 4-3. The tying run scored on a sharp ground ball in the direction of Reynolds, who was playing close to the grass. People on Twitter suggest this is the preferred thing for him as it mitigates his lack of range by preventing him from dealing with bad short hops in the dirt, since he isn't in the dirt. It also means he has less reaction time on a sharp ball, like the one that scored that 4th Yankees run.
All of this messed up a pretty nice start by Jake Arrieta, who went 6.2 innings, leaving the game with three ER allowed and a runner on first. That runner ended up scoring, spoiling his line somewhat. The 4th run takes it out of the quality start statistic. In the time he pitched, Jake allowed 5 hits and only one walk, giving him a WHIP below 1 for the night. He struck out five Yankees batters. We will take a 5:1 K:BB from Jake any time. After last year's starting pitcher suck-fest, we'll take 6.2 IP from the starters too.
Arrieta gets all the more credit from me (an admitted Jake Arrieta fanboy) because the game opened with a Derek Jeter double and a Curtis Granderson home run. Arrieta was 2-0 in the hole before even retiring a batter. Rather than completely fall apart, he retired the next 11 Yankee batters. Not that it mattered in the end, but it was nice to see. If he can compete at that level against possibly the toughest offense in MLB, then we should see some good games from him on the year, and not just against Minnesota.
As for the rest of the game, some stuff happened; take a look for yourself. Yesterday, I posted a feel-good article about the O's, but after two straight tough extra-innings losses, it's a heck of a lot harder to find something positive to say about it all.
The Orioles have an off day tomorrow and will be heading to Toronto for a three game series against the Blue Jays beginning on Friday evening at 7:07pm. The opening game will see a starting matchup of Brandon Morrow against Tommy Hunter.