No Time For Sherrill Bashing
It's easy to find a scapegoat in the O's last two losses. It's George Sherrill of course, who suffers two blown saves, while the O's fall to 41-40, instead of finishing the first half 43-38.
But keep in mind that seldom does one player account for a win or loss.
On Sunday, the Orioles scored just two runs in 12 innings. Had they scored 6 or 7, Sherrill would have enjoyed the game from the pen and never warmed up. Monday, the O's led 5-1 and gave up three runs of the lead before Sherrill even got in the game.
To me, the key inning was the top of the sixth. Right after getting a 5-1 lead, the Royals got two back and knew they were still in the game.
This is not to take blame away from Sherrill. As he said, closers make headlines, good and bad. He is a big reason the O's have had such a solid one-run record. And as soon as he stops hanging sliders, he'll be back saving games again.
Dave Trembley probably wouldn't hesitate to use him tonight, but after the last two days, it would probably be a nice break if the O's had a sizable lead and didn't need to close any games for a few days.
I think Sherrill is too mentally tough for this to derail his solid season.
As for those second guessing his throwing a slider, Sherrill did that too after the game. But remember, it's almost never the pitch selection that beats a pitcher, but the location. If Sherrill had bounced his pitch, as intended, Olivo might have chased it, and the game would have been over, 5-4--O's win.
For two days in a row, Sherrill faced reporters and answered every question.
Check out his postgame interview in last night's GameBlog:
O's fall to Royals, 6-5, on Jose Guillen RBI single in 11th [link]
He will remain this team's closer, as the O's can't make dramatic bullpen changes now, and his 26 successes overshadow a few failures.
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