Orioles swept by the Angels with an ugly 12-3 loss on Thursday

Another night, another rough outing for the Orioles. With the loss, the Birds move to 8-23 on the season and get swept by the Angels in California to kick off the west coast swing. In a game like this one, there’s not much you can do but turn the page and hope that tomorrow is a better day.

The final score tells you just about everything you need to know about this game. If you care to relive the game or read the details, they are below.

If not, the Birds will be back in action tonight against the Oakland Athletics in a series that one would think has to go better than this one.

The recap

From the beginning, this game had trouble written all over it for Orioles starter Chris Tillman. After walking Ian Kinsler to kick off the bottom of the first inning, Mike Trout welcomed Tillman to California by blasting a triple to right-center, quickly giving the Angels the first run of the game. The problem wasn’t quite the Trout triple, rather that it was merely the beginning of a truly brutal outing for Tillman.

Justin Upton followed Trout’s at-bat with a double, quickly driven in just two batters later courtesy of a Shohei Ohtani single. If that weren’t enough, Andrelton Simmons’ double to make it 4-0 was just salt in the wound. Luis Valbuena singled, making it 5-0 Angels and making it six of the first seven LAA batters to reach base. Before Tillman could even get a pair of outs, the Angels were halfway to ten runs.

The O’s starter would eventually get out of the frame with no more damage against, but not before the only crooked number that the Angels would need was posted.

To add more insult to injury, Tillman would continue to get shelled to kick off the second inning. Kinsler doubled and was promptly scored by Trout, who laced a single into center for his second RBI of the night and the Angels’ sixth run of the game. That would mark the end to Tillman’s outing as he gave way to Miguel Castro.

Two batters into Castro’s night, Albert Pujols collected his 2,999th hit of his career, ripping a double down the left-field line. It would score two, making it 8-0 Angels and closing out the book on one of Tillman’s worst nights as an Oriole.

His final line looked like this: 1 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, BB, 0 K.

That’s not quite what you’re looking for out of one of your starters.

Castro’s night didn’t look much better, as he helped yielded a four-spot in the fourth inning to give the Angels a 12-0 edge. After some command issues (that included recieiving a chorus of boos after hitting Pujols on what could have been hit number 3,000), Simmons and Valbuena collected back-to-back two-RBI hits against Mychal Givens to tack on four more runs in a nightmare that just wouldn’t end.

It took until the top of the sixth inning for for Orioles to make noise — and by noise, that means collect a hit. Trey Mancini singled with one out against Angels starter Jaime Barria and actually began somewhat of a rally. With two outs, Manny Machado, Adam Jones and Chris Davis all singled to put a very, very small dent into the lead. Davis’ eighth RBI of the season made it 12-2 Angels — not exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s better than getting no-hit or shut-out.

Outside of a Machado RBI single, there wasn’t much else to speak of on this night. The Orioles bullpen ultimately settled down and held the Angels in check the rest of the way, keeping the score from getting uglier toward the end. Pujols didn’t get to #3000 on the night, but the Angels did plenty of damage to capture the sweep.

Now 8-23 on the season, the Birds will begin a series with Oakland tomorrow night. It’ll be Andrew Cashner on the mound for a 10:05 p.m. ET first pitch.