Jimenez is awful, Orioles are swept by Seattle

The Orioles lost to the Seattle Mariners today, their fourth in a row. As is usually the case, the pitching was the trouble. Namely, Ubaldo Jimenez. I have gone out on the internet to find for you exactly what it feels like to watch Jimenez pitch:

A grand slam by Seth Smith in the third inning gave the Mariners a four-run lead, one from which the Orioles wouldn’t recover. A walk, a bloop, and a brain fart by Ubaldo on a bunt loaded the bases for the present day Barry Bonds, who hit his fourth home run in as many games against the Orioles this series.

The fifth inning saw two more runs scored, including one on a balk by Jimenez where he totally forgot there was a runner at first, and when said runner took off for second Ubaldo just stopped, mid-pitching motion, and stared blankly at the field before him.

Can they really give Jimenez more time in the rotation? But then who do they even give a shot to at this point? I don’t even know. Ariel Miranda? Joe “The Gunk” Gunkel?

Speaking of Miranda, he made his major league debut today! So that was kind of exciting. He took over for JImenez in the fourth inning and then pitched two scoreless before falling apart in the seventh inning. He was looking good until three straight doubles by Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, and Adam Lind.

Still, he did OK for a few innings and he hasn’t totally worn out his welcome yet, so why not give it a try? Ah, who even cares.

The O’s offense looked like they were going to get the team back in the game in the top of the fourth inning. Mark Trumbo hit a majestic home run in to the third deck in left field and later in the inning J.J. Hardy doubled in two more runs.

Hardy looked pretty good at the plate with a single and double, but the basepaths were another story as he limped around them looking like someone had Nancy Kerrigan’d him before the game. Hopefully word to come on whatever that was about.

Other than that inning, the game was mostly missed opportunities. They wasted baserunners in every inning including a first and third, no outs situation in the seventh.

It was an ugly game and just another example of the bad pitching that has plagued the Orioles the entire season for the most part.

The O’s are now 2-4 on their west coast road trip and tomorrow start three games against the Dodgers before finally coming home.