Not much support provided for Rogers
O’s rookie sharp in second straight start
SEATTLE – The nerves that accompanied Josh Rogers’ big league debut last week were gone Monday at Safeco Field. The Orioles rookie left-hander actually pitched better against the Seattle Mariners than he did in his first start six days ago.
But an offense that’s sputtered into September couldn’t hold up its end. In a 2-1 series openingloss, the Orioles managed just three hits, scoring their only run on second baseman Jonathan Villar’s second homer in two days.
After Villar’s fourth-inning homer, the Orioles had just two base runners the rest of the night. They also struck out 12 times total.
The loss marked the third time in four games that the Orioles have scored two runs or fewer. Including the Royals’ three-game sweep in Kansas City, the Orioles (40-98) have scored just eight runs in the first four games of their nine-game back-and-forth road trip that takes them to Seattle and then Tampa Bay.
Rogers (1-1) held the Mariners (77-61) to just two runs over 51⁄ innings. In his debut against the Toronto Blue Jays, he used his fastball and slider almost equally, but on Monday, he established his fastball early, unafraid of inducing fly-ball outs in Safeco Field’s vast outfield. Later in the night, he went to his slider more often.
Rogers retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before issuing back-to-back one-out walks to Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz in the fourth.
Ryan Healy then laced an RBI single into the left-center-field gap to score Cano but was thrown out at second attempting to extend the hit to a double. That turned out to be a big out, as Rogers was able to escape the inning on a groundout to first.
Mariners left fielder Cameron Maybin hit Rogers’ first pitch of the fifth inning into the rightcenter-field gap, hitting the warning track and then the top of the outfield wall near the 380foot sign before ricocheting to right fielder Adam Jones.
Maybin was speeding out of the batter’s box on the high fly ball and slid into third ahead of Villar’s relay throw. Two batters later, Dee Gordon’s sacrifice fly to left scored Maybin without a throw home from left fielder Joey Rickard.
After another triple in the inning by Mitch Haniger, Rogers induced a flyout from Jean Segura to end the frame.
Rogers left after a Cano groundout to start the sixth on his 80th pitch. He recorded four strikeouts, all of them swinging and three on his slider, and had just the back-to-back walks in the fourth.
Villar, whose fourth-inning solo homer off right-hander Erasmo Ramírez gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead, has accounted for all of the Orioles’ runs over the past two games. His solo homer was the team’s only run in Sunday’s 9-1 loss in Kansas City. On Monday, Villar turned on a 1-0 cutter from Ramírez, tagging a ball that hit off the right-field foul pole.
Ramírez (2-3) allowed just one other hit, a second-inning single by Tim Beckham, over 51⁄ innings. The Mariners bullpen accounted for 32⁄ scoreless relief innings, recording seven strikeouts. Closer Edwin Díaz struck out the side in the ninth.
The Orioles’ best opportunity to tie the game came in the seventh, when Beckham landed on second base with two outs on a botched fly ball by center fielder Dee Gordon. But Mariners reliever Nick Vincent struck out Renato Núñez on three pitches.