Orioles lose big to Red Sox, fall to third place

Heavy rains washed away an otherwise forgettable game tonight as the Orioles were swept in their two-game series with the Red Sox and pushed down to third place for the first time this season.

Before the game was called for rain after six innings, the Orioles found themselves in a bit of a hole. Red Sox starter David Price was dominating them and Dylan Bundy was giving up hits left and right. At 9:20 the game was put into delay and mercifully put out of its misery at about 10:35.

Bundy’s Bad Night

Dylan Bundy has been a revelation for the most part, but tonight he just did not have it. Maybe it was because he was moved to a new day to start when he had been preparing to pitch tomorrow. Maybe he was feeling the effects of falling and twisting his ankle in the third inning. Or maybe he just didn’t have his good stuff because that happens on occasion.

Whatever the reason, the end result was five runs on nine hits in just 4.1 innings.

The Red Sox could have had a big inning in the second, but Bundy’s defense bailed him out and only one run came in. With two outs and Jackie Bradley, Jr. on base after being hit by a pitch, Bundy gave up two straight singles, the second of which knocked in a run. He then walked rookie Andrew Benintendi to load the based, but Hyun Soo Kim make a nice diving catch of a sinking liner off the bat of Dustin Pedroia to end the inning.

Bundy started the third inning looking good with two quick outs of Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz. After throwing his last pitch to Ortiz, however, Bundy’s cleats caught in the dirt and he fell to the ground, twisting his ankle. He stayed in the game after being checked out by Richie Bancells, but sort of fell apart after that. Was it because of the ankle? Who knows; he looked bad in the second inning too.

So with two outs and no one on, Bundy walked Mookie Betts, which may not have seemed like that bad of an idea given how Betts has treated Orioles pitching. But when Bogaerts followed Betts with a home run to dead center field, it seemed less optimal.

After two singles Bundy finally got the third out, then he got through the fourth with little trouble. But in the fifth he was right back into it. He gave up another two-run homer, this one to Sandy Leon. When Brock Holt followed the dinger with a double that was it for Bundy. Tyler Wilson came in and closed out the inning.

Do we need to worry about Bundy? I don’t think so. Sometimes you just don’t have it. It was rotten timing as this was a game the Orioles really needed to win. On the other hand, when you only score one run you’re probably not going to win anyway.

The Price is Right

I had high hopes for the Orioles against Price tonight I don’t know why, he’s a very good pitcher. But they did not have a good night at all. Through the first six innings the Orioles had just five baserunners, and two reached on errors by Dustin Pedroia.

The three hits the Orioles tallied against Price came in three different innings and only one resulted in a run. That one, of course, was Chris Davis’s 25th home run of the year, a beautiful shot to Eutaw Street. Stay tuned for a new plaque!

The soft underbelly of the bullpen

I mean no disrespect to Tyler Wilson and Ubaldo Jimenez, but when those two pitchers are the guys coming out of the bullpen, things are not going very well.

Wilson did a good job getting out of the fifth inning, but things turned into a big mess in the sixth. He gave up four straight hits, three of which were doubles. Naturally that resulted in three runs, but luckily for the Orioles, after Bradley hit his double he ran into an out at third.

Just as Jimenez was getting ready to start the seventh inning with the Orioles down 8-1, the tarp went on the field. The rain had been falling steadily for some time but once the lightning started the umpires shut it down

And so we waited. And it rained. There was thunder and lightning. And Ubaldo never actually got to pitch. And finally it was called.