Miley struggles early, offense can’t come up clutch, O’s lose 5-2 to Yanks

A poor first inning from Wade Miley and the Orioles inability to hit with runners on base proved to be too much to overcome as the Birds lost 5-2 to the Yankees in the series finale at Camden Yards on Sunday afternoon.

Miley’s misery

It would have been really cool for the Orioles to shut out the Yankees in three consecutive games. Wade Miley doesn’t like cool things. So, he gave the Bombers three runs right away. Man, how sweet of you, Wade.

The southpaw began things a bit wild. Brett Gardner and Rob Refsnyder led off with back-to-back, six-pitch walks. Then, somehow, Miley managed to strike out both Gary Sanchez and Starlin Castro. Yes! He’s gonna get out of this! Oh crap...

Chase Headley singled in Gardner. Then, with Austin Romine at the plate, Refsnyder and Headley moved up a base each on a Miley wild pitch. Both would score on Romine’s single moments later.

More trouble in the third inning: A Refsnyder single and Sanchez walk set the stage. Castro then grounded into a double play to relieve some pressure. From there, Headley grounded to Machado at third base and the inning should have been over. In the box score, it went down as a “single”, but Manny should have done a lot better. The ball was hit between short and third. Machado reached it in plenty of time, spun, failed to set his feet and sent a short throw to first base, which Chris Davis could not pick out of the dirt. Not the easiest play in the world, but could have easily been considered an error. Refsnyder scored on the flub.

Miley ended up battling through five innings of work. He allowed those four earned runs on five hits, four walks and four strikeouts. His ERA with the Orioles is 7.15. Not ideal.

Missed opportunities

It was a nightmare at the plate for many of the O’s hitters today, especially with runners in scoring position. In the first inning, singles from Adam Jones and Manny Machado gave the Birds two men on with one out. Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo then struck out to end the inning.

In the second inning, Steve Pearce led off with a walk and eventually made his way to third base, but couldn’t make it home.

The O’s finally got on the board in the fourth inning. With runners on first and third, Pearce grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Trumbo from third. A Matt Wieters hit by pitch gave the Birds two runners on with one out. But the earlier run was all they would get as Jonathan Schoop struck out and J.J. Hardy grounded out.

It was the fifth inning where the Orioles should have really put up a crooked number, but of course they didn’t. Jones singled and then came around to score on a Pedro Alvarez double. At this point, Luis Severino replaced starter Michael Pineda. After a Machado strike out, Trumbo and Davis both walked to load the bases with one out. Again, a big chance that the O’s would blow. Pearce struck out and Matt Wieters grounded out. Gah!!!

The Machado strike out was especially annoying because the pitch he swung at for strike three was a slider about three feet off the plate. It was never even close to the zone and it was on a 3-2 count. What should have been a baserunner turned into an out.

Shut down

In the late innings, the Birds failed to put up much of an offensive attack together. In the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings, they combined to go 1-for-13, with Davis notching a single in the eighth. It was Severino, Tommy Layne, Adam Warren, Tyler Clippard and Dellin Betances who combined for five innings, one hit, two walks, six strikeouts and no runs to shut the Orioles down. Severino came away with the win and Betances got a save.

For the Yankees, their offense tailed off after Miley left the game, but did manage to extend their lead in the top of the ninth inning. With Oliver Drake pitching, Tyler Austin got on and reached second after Trumbo misplayed Austin’s fly ball in right field. It was a relatively straightforward play, but Trumbo isn’t out there for his defense. The runner moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Gardner.

Tomorrow

The O’s head to Tampa to begin a three-game set with the Rays at Tropicana Field. Game one will feature Ubaldo Jimenez (5-11, 6.46 ERA) against righty Matt Andriese (6-6, 4.19). First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. on MASN.

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