Orioles blow 4-run lead
Offense manages just one hit after second inning; losing streak at four games
HOUSTON — It would be easy to pin their 6-4 loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night on one unlucky bounce, but as the Orioles’ record dropped to a season-low five games below .500, their current slide cannot be attributed to just one thing.
The Orioles have been dealing with injuries all season. And while reinforcements will arrive this week as catcher Matt Wiet ers and righthander Bud Norris are expected to come off the disabled list, manager Buck Showalter wondered aloud before Tuesday’s game whether he’d have a full deck at any point this season as shortstop J.J. Hardy is again on the mend.
Injuries aside, it’s evident that at this point in the season this year’s team doesn’t have the same mojo as last season’s division champion. And because the injuries have given them a small margin of error, the losses are starting to pile up. TV: Radio:
INSIDE:
Not only did the reeling Orioles (23-28) lose their fourth straight game Tuesday night, but they dropped to a season-worst five games under .500.
The beleaguered offense couldn’t shoulder the blame Tuesday — the Orioles ran out to a 4-0 second-inning lead — but they had just one hit, Delmon Young’s one-out single in the ninth, after the second.
Rookie right-hander Mike Wright was staked to that early lead but couldn’t hold it as he suffered through the worst outing of his brief major league career.
Wright, who had allowed just three runs over his first three major league starts over a span of 191⁄ innings, yielded five runs in an ugly third inning.
The inning snowballed on Wright after Preston Tucker’s sharp grounder to second baseman Steve Pearce — a ball that would likely have produced an inning-ending double play — took a ridiculously bad hop, skipping over Pearce and into the outfield, enabling the Astros to score the first run of the rally.
Two pitches later, Astros designated hitter Evan Gattis crushed a 1-0 curveball from Wright over the high fence in left field for a three-run homer. Within a span of three pitches, the Orioles’ fourrun lead vanished.
After Wright lost the lead, he also lost his composure. Houston third baseman Luis Valbuena, a .196 hitter, followed Gattis with a homer to right field to give the Astros a 5-4 lead. As Valbuena’s second home run of the series sailed into the seats, Wright angrily yelled at himself as he stepped up the mound.
After batting around in a fourrun second inning against Astros starter Collin McHugh, the Orioles had just one hit over the final seven innings.
Meanwhile, the Astros (33-20) added an insurance run in the eighth off reliever Oliver Drake when — with runners at first and third with one out — Chris Davis made a diving stop on Marwin Gonzalez, but his throw home was late to get Valbuena at the plate.
Before Young’s ninth-inning single, their only base runner in that span was left fielder Travis Snider, who drew a one-out walk in the fifth, but was doubled up after Adam Jones lined out to center in a costly base-running blunder.
After the second inning, the Orioles were 1-for-22 with one walk.
After Pearce got the Orioles onto the board with a one-out RBI single to right, Ryan Flaherty hit a two-run triple that sailed over center fielder Jake Marisnick and up Tal’s Hill, giving the Orioles a quick 3-0 lead.
Two batters later, Manny Machado lined a single to left that scored Flaherty and gave the Orioles a four-run cushion.
After the Orioles rallied in the top of the second, they continued to build momentum as Wright worked his way out of a basesloaded jam by inducing a 5-4-3 inning-ending double-play.