Rays 4, Orioles 3
The Orioles’ Hanser Alberto scores past Rays catcher Michael Perez in the first inning Wednesday. The O’s lost, 4-3, after Mychal Givens allowed the go-ahead home run in the eighth to Michael Pérez.
On a night in which professional athletes refusing to play across the country made it fair to wonder whether the Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays were meant to play at all, the game was ultimately one the Orioles simply weren’t meant to win.
Mychal Givens, perhaps the Orioles’ best reliever this season, allowed a home run in the eighth inning to light-hitting catcher Michael Pérez to account for the difference in a 4-3 loss in St. Petersburg, Florida.
But the game, which delivers the Orioles to the halfway point of the 60-game season at 14-16, might have come at a turning point for sports in culture.
Beginning with the Milwaukee Bucks, several professional sports teams decided not to play so as not to bring attention away from Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man shot in the back several times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday.
Before the game, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said he was told of the Bucks striking on his way to do a pregame video conference session with the media. Not long after, the entire NBA playoff bubble was shut down for the night.
Listening to Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers speak about the shooting on Tuesday night was “incredibly powerful,” Hyde said, noting that it was a “tough time” for everyone.
“It’s a difficult world we’re living in right now,” Hyde said. “I think that we talk to our players a lot about what’s happening. We represent it with the T-shirts that we wear for batting practice a lot of the time. Those were issues that we talked a lot about while we were home on Zoom meetings during the pandemic, as well as during summer camp. Those conversations still continue. I’m going to support all of our players. I’m going to support all of our players in freely thinking how they want to feel. These are important topics that our country is going through right now.”
Hyde didn’t indicate that there were any conversations that would have prevented the Orioles and Rays from playing, though they were already close to beginning the game when it was reported that the Brewers and Cincinnati Reds wouldn’t play.
Sloppy start
Perhaps the turmoil around the sporting world contributed to a sloppy start Wednesday.
The Orioles took an early lead when leadoff man Cedric Mullins bunted for a single and came around when Hanser Alberto grounded a ball through the right side of the infield and under right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s glove.
Alberto ended up on third base and scored when Renato Núñez hit a chopper to shortstop. The throw came home but sailed to the backstop to allow Alberto to cross safely, though it bounced back to the catcher Núñez was thrown out after rounding first and not making it back in time.
Mullins wasn’t punished for throwing to the wrong base on a double by Joey Wendle in a scoreless first inning for Asher Wojciechowski, but second baseman Brandon Lowe (Maryland) tied the game with a two-run home run in the third.
As is now their custom, the Orioles wasted plenty of chances early. The Rays scored a run off Tanner Scott in the fifth, and the Orioles got it back with a runscoring single by Anthony Santander.
But the sixth pitcher of the game, Givens, allowed a home run to light-hitting catcher Michael Perez to put them down for good.