Orioles offense comes up short again, O's lose to Rangers 4-1

There isn't much to say about a game like this. The Orioles offense did what they do - a lot of strikeouts and they failed to take advantage when they got ahead of a pitcher. Meanwhile the pitching and defense did what they seem to be doing - some great plays, but some costly errors.

To get to any real action in the night, we start in the bottom of the second. Adrian Beltre hit a single and Mitch Moreland got another single to put two men on. At first I thought Jonathan Schoop might be charged with an error, but Moreland got the advantage on the call. Even if it wasn't an official error, Schoop should have made the play and it bothers me how many of those he's been giving up lately. In the end though it was for naught because Venable would line out to Dariel Alvarez in right field, who threw Beltre out at home. A lot of talk of Alvarez in the minors has been his arm and he certainly showcased it on that play. The inning would end with no runs.

In the top of the third the Orioles got their only run of the night after Paul Janish hit a one out double. Machado and Pearce would follow with walks to load the bases. Adam Jones came up then, but struck out for the second out. Adam Jones is supposed to be one of the O's best hitters, but he looked far from it tonight. For a change of pace though, Chris Davis didn't strikeout after that but worked a walk to drive in a run. The O's led 1-0 after that.

Up until this point Gausman had been looking pretty good and after the last inning, Hamels was looking pretty bad. It seemed like things were going the Orioles way, but as has happened so often recently, the baseball gods decided it was not to be. After that Davis walk, Cole Hamels retired 14 batters in a row. He ended the night with ten strikeouts. Just when it looked like the O's might drive him from the game early, he settled in and ended up pitching a great game. Aren't pitchers supposed to do worse the second time through the lineup?

Gausman on the other hand started out OK, but ended up limping into the seventh inning. First it was a ShinShin-Soo Choo solo HR in the bottom of the 4th. OK, fine. That inning also saw Jones throwing out Prince Fielder trying to make it to second on a double. It would have been a double for most guys, but Fielder is easily one of the slowest players in the game and it wasn't even that close. That was kind of nice. The Rangers took the lead on a Gimenez solo HR in the bottom of the 5th. Frustrating, but still...Gausman was looking OK. In the same inning though they increased their lead after Alberto hit a single on what looked like a Machado error, DeSchields executed a perfect hit and run, and then Alberto scored on a failed double play. Bad defense? Bad luck? Both? Doesn't matter - the Orioles were down 3-1. What finally did Gausman in though was the bottom of the seventh when Venable got a walk, followed by a DeShields triple that scored Venable. T.J. McFarland came in after that. Again - I don't think Gausman was terrible. He got some bad breaks - in the end though he only got one run of support. That's almost never going to be enough.

In the top of the 8th Machado worked a one-out walk, but naturally Steve Pearce grounded into a double play to end the inning. Because that's how things go for this team now. Jones hit a single in the top of the ninth, but no one else seemed to want to do anything and that was that.

I don't want to get into a lot of hot take kind of stuff by saying the Rangers (who are serious Wild Card contenders now) just wanted it more and found a way to win, but that is kind of what it seemed like. Players for the Orioles just seemed to not care. Maybe between guys who know they're not coming back next year and guys who figure they gave it their all last season and guys who just came up from the minors but aren't quite good enough yet you're left with a team that just wants this season to be over. I can understand that - I want it to be over too.