Orioles swept in doubleheader, pick up loss number 115

The Orioles played two games today as their season comes to a close, and guess what? They lost both of them! To read the details of the game one loss, check out Ben Hansford’s recap. If you want a rundown of game two, which the Orioles lost 5-2, read on. You might as well, you’re already here.

The nicest thing about this game, for me, was seeing all of the fans in the stands cheering for Adam Jones. He got a nice ovation by them when coming to the plate and MASN showed us fans throughout the game with signs celebrating Adam. Adam thanked them with two hits, a walk, and a nice defensive play in right field. It’s possible that tomorrow will be the last game Adam Jones plays in as an Oriole, so expect even more love to be lavished upon him then. He deserves every bit of it.

Rookie pitcher Yefry Ramirez made his final appearance of 2018 and despite some troubles managed to pitch six full innings, the most of his brief major league career. Like Dylan Bundy in game one, Ramirez tallied a quality save with six innings pitched and three earned runs allowed.

The first of those earned runs came in the very first inning when Myles Straw hit his first career home run. Yes, Myles Straw is a real person! I looked it up to be sure. His first inning at bat was the fifth MLB plate appearance of his life, and he hit a dinger.

I checked out Straw’s minor league numbers to see if maybe he was a prolific power hitter before being promoted to the majors. He was not. In four minor league seasons, Straw has just three home runs! I guess that should be embarrassing for the Orioles to give up a home run to this guy, but on the list of embarrassing things that have happened to the Orioles in 2018 it’s really pretty minor.

After pitching solid second and third innings, Ramirez kind of fell apart in the fourth. He loaded the bases on two singles and walk, and then with two outs in a tie game he walked in the go-ahead run. Oh, Yefry.

Ramirez hadn’t thrown over 100 pitches this season, but he got that chance tonight. Unfortunately just as he topped the 100-pitch mark, he gave up a solo home run to Brian McCann. He got the final out to complete six innings, but it would have looked a lot nicer if he had given up just the two. Oh well. Does it really matter?

Ramirez’s final pitching line was 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. In his final start he got his ERA below 6 at 5.92. So....that’s something.

On offense, the Orioles were not great. They briefly tied the game at one in the second inning but were kind of blundering even as they did so. With runners on first and second with one out, catcher Austin Wynns hit a single to right field. Tim Beckham scored from second base but Wynns got caught trying to go to second on the throw and was tagged out.

The second run of the game for the Orioles came in the seventh inning when they were still down just two runs, 3-1. With one out, they loaded the bases, then sent pinch hitter Corban Joseph to the plate. Seriously. Joseph was at the plate when Lance McCullers let loose a wild pitch that allowed the second run to come in to score.

That put them down by just one run with two runners in scoring position and just one out. Surely they could tie the game! Haha, yeah right. They did not.

After Yefry Ramirez, Mike Wright came on in relief and did Mike Wright things. He pitched around a hit and a walk for a scoreless seventh, then got two quick outs in the eighth before falling apart. A two-out single from McCann, who runs like he needs back surgery, set the table for Jake Marisnick’s 10th home run of the year. That gave the Astros a 5-2 lead. After giving up a double, Wright finally got out of the inning. He went on to pitch a scoreless ninth after the damage was done.

Orioles lose, 5-2, for the 115th loss on the season. Tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. these two teams match up for their final game of the 2018 season, after which the Astros will go to the playoffs and the Orioles will mercifully go home for the winter.