Cashner is effective, but offense sputters again
TORONTO — The Orioles’ two road wins over the NewYork Mets this past week might have given them some false confidence that they’re a team that can consistently eke out victories in lowscoring games. But after Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, manager Buck Showalter noted that that’s not how this team is built.
“We’re not going to sit there and try to win 1-0 and 2-1 ballgames all year in the American League East,” Showalter said. “It’s just not a good combination.”
Andrew Cashner gave the Orioles their eighth quality start in the past nine games, continuing a recent run of rotation success that they hasn’t been able to capitalize on. The club has won just two of those nine games.
The Orioles had just five hits Friday night, three of them coming from right fielder Craig Gentry. The rest of the lineup was 2-for-28.
After winning two games this week in New York while scoring two runs or fewer, the Orioles are now 3-25 when scoring two runs or fewer.
Andrew Cashner, who grinded his way through a six-inning, three-run outing, hasn’t received much run support this season. He entered the night having received just 1.58 runs of support per start, the lowest among Orioles starters. Even though he’s given the Orioles a chance to win on most nights, his better starts have often gone to waste. The Orioles are 3-10 in games Cashner has started.
“Yeah, you can definitely see the record, it definitely shows,” Cashner said. “But for me, I try not to look at that too much. For me, it’s all about executing pitches and giving my team a chance to win every night. I think that is kind of the one thing I’ve done over the course of my career. I’ve kept my team in the game and given us a chance to win every night.”
The Orioles (19-43), losers of nine of their past 11 games, managed just two hits in seven innings against Toronto left-hander J.A. Happ, their only run coming on a botched double-play ball.
“Cash gave us a major league outing,” Showalter said. “He gave us a chance, even without the command he usually has. He kept us in the game; we just can’t generate much offense. I’m not going to take anything away from Happ. He’s been good for a long time. It’s a double-edged sword — a good pitcher and we’re not swinging the bats well.”
Said Gentry: “The [starting pitchers] are doing their job and that’s all we can ask. Just have to keep fighting and hopefully it turns around sooner than later.”
Cashner (2-8) allowed a pair of solo homers, including one in the second inning on a 3-0 count to Russell Martin. Randal Grichuk homered in the fifth, marking the first homers Cashner had allowed in four starts.
“It has always been down the foul lines,” Cashner said of the homers. “It’s been tough. I hate giving up homers more than anybody. But it’s just one of those things where you just have to keep grinding and execute better. Maybe if I execute better early in the count, that doesn’t happen.”