No helping hand
Bullpen fails to hold lead for Jimenez in 7th as Orioles lose 3rd straight
HOUSTON— Leaning against the railing of the visiting dugout at Minute Maid Park in silence, all Orioles right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez could do Monday evening was watch one of his best starts of the season go to waste.
Jimenez, who had held the Houston Astros to one run on three hits through his first six innings of work, received a surprisingly quick hook from manager Buck Showalter after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh after his 91st pitch of the night.
He walked off the mound with a one-run lead, but saw usually dependable reliever Brad Brach blow the lead and the Astros rally for a gut-punch four-run seventh inning, handing the Orioles a 5-2 loss.
The Orioles (23-27) lost their third straight game and tied their season-worst four games below .500 as they opened a seven-game trip to Houston and Cleveland that is now becoming a critical point in their season.
The Orioles were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Monday and are 1-18 this season this season in games in which they’ve scored two runs or fewer.
Jimenez retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before he allowed Preston Tucker’s one-out double in the fourth, which was Houston’s first hit of the game.
He went into the seventh inning having allowed just one run — Luis Valbuena’s solo
homer in the fifth — and six base runners (three hits, two walks, one hit batter) while striking out eight before Chris Carter singled to right to begin the inning.
As Valbuena stepped to the plate, Showalter immediately pulled Jimenez in favor of Brach, who had allowed just one run over his previous 10 innings, posting 12 strikeouts and two walks in that span.
Brach walked Valbuena, then allowed a first-pitch single to pinch hitter Hank Conger, who entered the game batting just .156, to load the bases.
Brach fell behind leadoff hitter George Springer 3-0 before allowing a game-tying RBI single up the middle. He then fell behind Jose Altuve 3-1 before Altuve hit a sacrifice fly to center field that gave the Astros a 3-2 lead.
After Tucker walked to load the bases again, Tommy Hunter allowed a two-run single to right, but Tucker was thrown out at third by right fielder Delmon Young to end the inning.
Chris Davis snapped a1-all tie in the sixth inning with a one-out double off the right-field wall, scoring Adam Jones from second base.
That chased Astros starter Brett Oberholtzer from the game, but right-hander Will Harris prevented any further damage, stranding two base runners in scoring position when he struck out Steve Pearce and induced a fly ball from Caleb Joseph.
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning on Ryan Flaherty’s stand-up triple. Flaherty laced a ball into the right-center-field gap that rolled up Tal’s Hill in center field, allowing Pearce, who drew a leadoff walk, to score from first.
But overall, the Orioles displayed plenty of flaws Monday. Besides stranding two with runners in scoring position in the sixth, Manny Machado hit into a rally-killing double play in the third after the Orioles’ first two hitters in the inning reached.
David Lough singled to open the fourth, only to get picked off first moments later.
Astros shortstop Marwin Gonzalez robbed Machado of a run-scoring hit with two outs in the fifth and Flaherty on third. Machado hit a ball up the middle that Gonzalez gloved, spun and threw to first in time to get Machado.
Even though Jones returned to the starting lineup as the team’s designated hitter after missing the previous two games with a mild left ankle sprain, the Orioles were without shortstop J.J. Hardy, who sat out with left side soreness.
Hardy’s absence was glaring, especially in the fifth inning. Following Valbuena’s homer, Ji- menez hit catcher Jason Castro with a pitch. Gonzalez then hit a sharp grounder to first that appeared to be an inning-ending double-play ball, but shortstop Everth Cabrera dropped the ball on the turn.
Two batters later — with two on and two out — Altuve singled to right, but Young rifled a pinpoint throw home to throw out Gonzalez to end the inning.