Losing streak reaches five as Lance McCullers pitches four-hitter

Losing streak reaches five as Lance McCullers pitches four-hitter
The Houston Astros do what they do. They struck out a lot and hit home runs. Lately what they do includes beating the Baltimore Orioles. Rookie right-hander Lance McCullers pitched a complete-game four-hitter and Houston hit three solo homers to top Miguel Gonzalez and the Orioles 3-1 tonight at Minute Maid Park. With their fifth loss in a row, the Orioles fall to 23-29 on the year and to a season-worst six games under the .500 mark. They are now five games out of first place. The 21-year-old...
Continue reading

O's game blog: Orioles look to break losing streak tonight at Houston

O's game blog: Orioles look to break losing streak tonight at Houston
On Friday night, the Orioles posted a 2-1, walk-off win over Tampa Bay to improve their record to 23-24. They had won four of six games and were 8-5 over the last 13 to move within one game of first place in the American League East. Were the Orioles starting to make their move? Since then, they have lost four in a row and three games in the standings. Tonight, as they play the third game of a four-game series at Houston, they are 23-28, 4 1/2 games out of first place and now just 1/2-game out...
Continue reading

Adam Jones on his reduced strikeout rate and a look back at last night

Adam Jones on his reduced strikeout rate and a look back at last night
Like his team, Adam Jones got off to a hot hitting start in April, but his bat trailed off in May. When Jones was going through a torrid hitting stretch earlier this year, some analysts felt one reason for the hot bat was improved plate discipline for the Orioles center fielder. There was some justification in saying that. This year, Jones' walk rate is up a bit and his strikeout rate is down significantly. Strikeout rate is the percentage of a times a batter strikes out among all his plate...
Continue reading

O's lose lead and game at Houston, fall five games under .500

O's lose lead and game at Houston, fall five games under .500
The Orioles have reached a low point for their 2015 season. They have fallen five games under the .500 mark for the first time with tonight's 6-4 loss at Houston. The Orioles fall to 23-28 and are 0-4 since a walk-off victory at home on Friday night. There was much frustration with this one. They lost a 4-0 lead. They got just two runners on base after the second inning, and one was via a walk. They made another baserunning mistake when Travis Snider apparently lost track of the outs and was...
Continue reading

O's game blog: Mike Wright gets the start as Orioles take on Houston

O's game blog: Mike Wright gets the start as Orioles take on Houston
As the Orioles look to find some offense tonight at Houston, they face a pitcher that has been quite effective over his last 20 starts. Right-hander Collin McHugh (5-2, 4.24 ERA) pitches for the Astros against the Orioles tonight. While his ERA is over 4.00 this year, McHugh is 12-2 with an ERA of 2.98 over his last 20 starts, dating to Aug. 1, 2014. The 12 wins are tied for second-most in the majors in that stretch. The Astros won a franchise-record 11 straight starts made by McHugh from Aug....
Continue reading

Draft talk: A look at the O's draft pool and players they've been linked to in mock drafts

Draft talk: A look at the O's draft pool and players they've been linked to in mock drafts
The 2015 First-Year Player Draft is now less than a week away. It all begins Monday night at 7 p.m., when MLB Network will televise picks made from Round 1 through Competitive Balance Round B. The draft then resumes Tuesday, June 8 at 1 p.m., with Rounds 3-10, and then on Wednesday June 9 at noon with Rounds 11-40. The Orioles have the 25th pick in Round 1 and they have four of the first 102 picks as they also select 36th, 68th and 102nd. They have 11 picks over the first 10 rounds. Orioles...
Continue reading

O's lose lead as Houston scores four in seventh to take series opener

O's lose lead as Houston scores four in seventh to take series opener
The Houston Astros lead the major leagues in runs scored from the seventh inning on this year. The Orioles found out the hard way about that tonight. Down 2-1, Houston scored four times in the last of the seventh off three O's pitchers as the Astros rallied to beat the Orioles 5-2 in the opener of a four-game series and seven-game road trip. The Orioles fall to 23-27 and tie a season-high by falling four games under the .500 mark. Since their walk-off win on Friday night, they are 0-3. Chris...
Continue reading

O's game blog: Orioles look to break three-series road losing streak at Houston

O's game blog: Orioles look to break three-series road losing streak at Houston
After playing just three road games over a 20-game stretch since May 11, the Orioles begin a two-city, seven-game road trip tonight at Houston. This is the first time this year they are playing outside the Eastern time zone. A loss tonight and the Orioles would match a season-high at four games .500. They begin the road trip with a 23-26 record after losing the last two days to Tampa Bay. The Yankees and Rays are tied for the American League East lead at 26-25, with the Orioles in third place,...
Continue reading

More ninth-inning magic at Bowie and other minor league notes

More ninth-inning magic at Bowie and other minor league notes
The Double-A Bowie Baysox pulled off more ninth-inning magic Sunday. For the second time in May, Bowie won a game with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Bowie entered the last of the ninth down 4-1 to Harrisburg and pulled within 4-2 on Brandon Snyder's single. Then Quincy Latimore hit the slam to give the Baysox the dramatic win and complete a five-run rally. The slam came as Bowie was down to its last out. The 26-year-old Latimore, a fourth-round draft pick of the Pirates in...
Continue reading

With an ERA of 5.94, will Chris Tillman be able to turn it around?

With an ERA of 5.94, will Chris Tillman be able to turn it around?
Chris Tillman is now 2-7 with an ERA of 5.94 and he has already lost one more game this year than he did over 34 starts in 2014. Tillman's current ERA is higher than it was at any point last year, when it got as high as 5.20 on June 5, and it hasn't been this high since April 17, 2013 when Tillman had an ERA of 7.07 after his third start of that season. What is going on with the Orioles' opening day starter from 2014 and 2015? Is he hurt? He said he felt fine physically and mentally after...
Continue reading

Tillman on his struggles, Machado on the offense after loss to Rays

Tillman on his struggles, Machado on the offense after loss to Rays
For the first time in his career, Chris Tillman has a six-game losing streak. He also has an ERA of 5.94, creating some concern about the Orioles' opening day pitcher for the last two years. Tillman gave up nine hits and six runs (five earned) in today's 9-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. He threw 93 pitches and falls to 2-7. That is one more loss than he had all of last year. You can rule out a physical issue, said Tillman. I asked him if he is 100 percent. "I feel good, yeah. I do....
Continue reading

Chris Tillman suffers his seventh loss as Rays get series finale

Chris Tillman suffers his seventh loss as Rays get series finale
It might have come down to the fifth inning today. The Tampa Bay Rays got runs out of their two-out rally, while the Orioles got none. Tampa Bay scored four times in the inning to break a 2-2 tie and beat the Orioles 9-5 this afternoon in front of 36,945 sun-splashed fans at Camden Yards. The Orioles lost the series, two games to one, and fall to 23-26 for the season. They produced a walk-off win Friday night, but lost the next two days. This ends a stretch where the Orioles played 17 of the...
Continue reading

O's game blog: O's host Rays in series and homestand finale

O's game blog: O's host Rays in series and homestand finale
The Orioles host the Tampa Rays this afternoon to wrap up an eight-game homestand and a 20-game stretch where the Orioles will have played 17 games at Camden Yards. The Orioles are 4-3 on the homestand and 10-9 in the 20-game stretch that began on May 11 with the Orioles 5 ½ games out of first place. The Orioles are 23-25 overall, 15-11 at home, 15-16 against the American League East, 4-3 on Sundays and 13-15 in May. The Orioles will have a losing month regardless of today's result. A win...
Continue reading

In Camden Yards visit, Brooks Robinson introduces high school stars, talks Orioles

In Camden Yards visit, Brooks Robinson introduces high school stars, talks Orioles
It is always a great day when Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson is at Camden Yards. And so it was on Thursday when No. 5 paid his latest visit. He had some business to attend to, but he also took a few minutes to talk about the Orioles. Brooks was at the Yard to head up a press conference and to introduce the players for today's Brooks Robinson High School All-Star Game at Oriole Park, which will follow the Orioles' 1:35 p.m. game against Tampa Bay. The game has been hosted by the Orioles and...
Continue reading

Steve Clevenger and Wei-Yin Chen comment after O's loss to Tampa Bay

Steve Clevenger and Wei-Yin Chen comment after O's loss to Tampa Bay
The Orioles have been shut out four times this year and three have come against Tampa Bay. Today, the Birds were blanked 3-0 as Erasmo Ramirez pitched seven scoreless innings on three hits. Steve Clevenger went 2-for-3 today and the rest of the O's lineup went 1-for-26. "He was changing eye levels, working up and down," Clevenger said of Ramirez. "He used that changeup and slider just off the plate. He made us put the ball in play and we just didn't swing it well today. He makes you put it...
Continue reading

The bats were quiet again: Rays blank Orioles at Camden Yards

The bats were quiet again: Rays blank Orioles at Camden Yards
For the Orioles, it was yet another day where their offense came up short. Tampa Bay starter Erasmo Ramirez pitched seven scoreless innings as the Rays beat the Orioles 3-0 in front of 38,177 at Camden Yards. If they were hoping to build on last night's walk-off win, getting shut out was not the way to do it. The Orioles have been blanked four times this year, three times by the Rays. They have scored two runs or less 11 times in the past 20 games. Only once today did an O's runner even...
Continue reading

O's game blog: After 8-5 stretch, the Orioles are one game out of first

O's game blog: After 8-5 stretch, the Orioles are one game out of first
So, after they have won four of six games and are 8-5 over their last 13 games, is this the beginning of a hot streak for the Orioles? Fans have thought that before and it didn't happen. After last night's win, the Orioles are back within a game of .500 at 23-24. A win today would bring them back to .500 for the first time since May 5 when they were 12-12. Back on May 11, the Orioles were 13-16 and had just ended a six-game stretch where they went 1-5 on the road against the Mets and...
Continue reading

With his back to the wall, O'Day went for the strikeout (plus other notes)

With his back to the wall, O'Day went for the strikeout (plus other notes)
Darren O'Day said sometimes you do go for a strikeout. Take the top of the ninth inning last night: the game was tied 1-1 with Tampa Bay, and O'Day gave up two singles and hit a batter to load the bases with no outs. Then Steven Souza Jr. came up. He had homered earlier in the game. "Yeah, a sac fly can score a run there," O'Day said. "You have to be able to strike a guy out once in a while when you are in the bullpen. So yeah, either strikeout, double play or pop up would have been good...
Continue reading

Hardy on winning hit, O'Day on his escape act and more from the clubhouse

Hardy on winning hit, O'Day on his escape act and more from the clubhouse
The Orioles were 0-16 this year when scoring two runs or less until tonight's 2-1, walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Rays. J.J. Hardy began the night batting .194, but he ended it getting mobbed by his teammates after his single provided the winning run and broke a 1-1 tie in the last of the ninth. He hit a 1-0 pitch from Steve Geltz into left, pinch-runner Everth Cabrera scored and the celebration was on for 45,505 at the Yard. "Just see the ball and put a good swing on it," Hardy said....
Continue reading

Walk-off win: O's top Rays on Hardy's single in last of the ninth

Walk-off win: O's top Rays on Hardy's single in last of the ninth
After a strong starting pitching performance and amazing escape act in the top of the ninth, the Orioles' offense did its part in the bottom of the ninth. J.J. Hardy's two-out RBI single gave the Orioles a 2-1 win walkoff win over the Tampa Bay Rays in front of a loud sellout crowd of 45,505. This was Buck Showalter's 400th win as O's manager and the Orioles' second walkoff win of the year. The first was April 25 versus Boston. Travis Snider led off the winning rally with an infield single...
Continue reading