Orioles hit five home runs, stomp Tigers 12-3 in finale

The Orioles put on their own version of the MLB Home Run Derby on Sunday afternoon, and because there was an actual game happening, the result was very bad for the other team.

The O’s ended up totaling 12 runs, seven of which scored over five home runs early in the game. The Tigers managed only a single homer, scoring three runs total. Welcome to August baseball at OPACY.

Ubaldo Jimenez did his part, allowing nearly every Tiger he faced to reach base, but only allowing one to actually cross the plate. Ubaldo allowed 12 base runners in all, and ultimately finished the game with an odd final line of 5.2IP, 9H, 1ER, 3BB, 6SO.

It’s raining dongs! Hallelujaaaah!

Anibal Sanchez has not been particularly good for the better part of two seasons now. He even lost his rotation spot at one point in 2017, and the Tigers aren’t exactly flush with great starting pitching.

The Orioles scored eight of their 12 runs off of Anibal Sanchez, and seven of those runs were plated on five home runs by five different fellas. It was glorious, and here’s how it went down:

After a quick ground out by Adam Jones in the Orioles half of the first, Manny Machado slapped a single the other way, and Orioles 2017 MVP, Jonathan Schoop, sent a hanging slider into the left field seats. Dong #1, score 2-0.

Chris Davis came to the plate next and added a solo shot. He smashed a low fastball to his pull-side, notching the Orioles seventh pair of back-to-back home runs this year. Dong #2, score 3-0.

Still in the first inning, Trey Mancini stepped into the box, and thought to himself, “wow that all sure looks like fun,” so he joined the dongfest. Trey turned on a low fast ball, sending it screaming into the left field seats. This marked the first time that the Orioles homered back-to-back-to-back in 2017. Dong #3, score 4-0.

Annibal Sanchez got a little dong reprieve, as all the second and third innings would yield for the Orioles was an RBI double by Manny Machado. With one down, Joey Rickard singled, stole second, advanced to third on an errant throw on his steal attempt, and Manny Machado doubled deep. No dong, score 5-0.

No outs would be recorded by Sanchez in the fourth inning, with Joey Rickard re-starting the party with a leadoff dong. It wasn’t the biggest dong, but it got the job done. Rickard hooked a ball on a line just around the fair pole in left field. Dong #4, score 6-0.

Adam Jones shot a single back up the middle, and still with none down in the inning, Manny Machado would whip a glorious dong out to straight-away center. Manny’s dong was perhaps the most magnificent of the day, and it capped an offensive outburst to remember. Dong #5, score 8-0.

Ubaldo allows 12 baserunners, strands 11

Listen, especially for the Orioles rotation, I’ll take a start that gets the O’s into the sixth inning with only one run allowed. I’ll take it all season long, no matter how you draw it up. The thing about this game, though, is Ubaldo wasn’t really good—the Tigers just didn’t’ sequence their hits well against him.

League-average runners LOB (left on base) rate falls around 70% over an incredibly large sample size, over an incredibly long span of time. Whenever a pitcher majorly outperforms that number across a small sample—well that’s what we call “luck.” Today, Ubaldo Jimenez stranded 92% of the baserunners he allowed.

Jimenez kept the Tigers off the scoreboard for 4.2IP. Then Nicholas Castellanos hit a dong of his own. At this point, a solo shot by the opposing team meant next-to-nothing. It brought the score to a still one-sided 8-1.

Ubaldo did not throw any “clean” innings today. In fact, he allowed 12 base runners over 5.2IP. Castellanos was the lone Tiger base runner that scored—and that’s only because he hit the ball where only fans were playing. Nobody that reached against Jimenez today scored, unless they “reached” on a HR.

Ubaldo totaled a 2.12 WHIP (walks + hits per inning) on the day. That’s Chris Tillman production with (almost) Chris Sale results. That’s also 4 earned runs allowed over his last three starts now, and he hasn’t needed luck in the last two as much as he needed it today.

Predicting Ubaldo Jimenez is sort of like predicting baseball itself: a lot of the time it just sucks even though you never know when it will be good or even great, and just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it takes a sharp left turn.

Oh, Ubaldo.

Bullpens wrap things up

The O’s managed only three base runners off of Chad Bell in his 3.1IP, but tapped Joe Jimenez (no relation) and Warwick Saupold for four runs over a combined 1.2IP. In the eighth inning, CaJo doubled, Joey “Bae” Rickard singled, Adam Jones singled, and Manny Machado also singled—all back-to-back.

By the time Manny singled, there was nowhere for him to go without clearing some of the other birds off the bases, so CaJo and Joey Bae came home. Chris Davis and Tim Beckham both added RBI singles to cap the Orioles scoring for the day.

The Tigers managed a total of only two base runners over 2.1IP of Richard Bleier, but snuck across a couple of runs against Donnie Hart in the ninth. That made the score 12-3, and was promptly filed under “too little, too late.”

Tomorrow the Orioles will be out on the West Coast, with an ridiculous start time of 10:07pm EST against the Los Angeles Angels.

For today, however, your Baltimore Orioles were victorious at home over the Detroit Tigers to the tune of 12-3. Joy!