Postgame comments from Brach, Trumbo and Cashner after O's win

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

May 09, 2018, 7:09pm

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It was a night when a few struggling or oft-criticized Orioles came through in a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.

First baseman Chris Davis hit a three-run homer. Mark Trumbo's two-run single in the eighth broke a 3-3 tie and Brad Brach closed out the win, pitching around a leadoff walk and error in the ninth.

Brach's ERA was up to 5.40 when he took the mound with that two-run lead. He walked Whit Merrifield, and Jonathan Schoop dropped a throw at second base that could have led to a double play. But instead two were on with no outs and a lead could have gotten away from Brach again.

Except it didn't. He got an out on a soft liner to short. He then elevated a couple of 95 mph fastballs to strike out Ryan Goins and Jon Jay and snap a seven-game losing streak.

"The leadoff walk is not what you are trying to do there with a two-run lead," Brach said. "And then got the groundball and they probably make that play 99 out of 100 times. Just wanted to pick up the infielders. I finally got that final strike and it was good to get that and secure the win.

"I think relief pitching, you get into a rhythm and it's kind of tough because you don't know when you will pitch. But no excuse. I haven't been pitching well and luckily it's in the past. That is the best thing about baseball - there's a game the next day. Just looking at the positives and hopefully will finish out the year really strong."

Brach needed 19 pitches to secure his fourth save in five chances and first since April 11.

"I had a little bit extra life on the fastball," he said. "I've had that the last two or three outings. My first outing in Oakland I started to feel a little something the last three or four batters. My mechanics started to synch up. Yeah, just had a little extra life. With Jay, looked like he was trying go through the hole there, so I knew if I threw something up and harder, he would swing through it. And luckily he did."

And on the night that the Orioles lost Darren O'Day to the disabled list - where he joins Zach Britton - the bullpen put up three scoreless in a win. Richard Bleier got the victory, getting six outs and he's now thrown 19 1/3 scoreless and his ERA for the season is now sitting at 0.40.

Trumbo lined Kevin McCarthy's 1-1 fastball to center with two outs in the eighth to snap the 3-3 tie. The ball left the bat at 107 mph and scored Manny Machado and Schoop for the lead.

"It felt great," Trumbo said. "Happy to come through. I think we played a nice game tonight. Did a lot of things really well and it went our way. I thought Chris had a really timely home run there. Cash (Andrew Cashner) threw the ball well for us. And we had a little late-inning rally. Nice win."

Trumbo's season didn't begin until May 1 and he's hitting .303 with three RBIs and four multi-hit games.

"I'm happy with it (the start to his year)," he said. "Like to lay off a few of the higher pitches obviously. But I've done a decent job when I've had pitches to hit and put them in play. I said over the winter that was a goal of mine. It's nice to see so far."

Cashner got a no-decision, throwing six innings allowing six hits and three runs. He threw 111 pitches and thought he made some progress tonight after going just 8 2/3 innings combined his past two starts. He was also part of ending a losing streak.

"I think that's big. I think for us right now, it's just win each day," he added. "It's just all we can do right now, and hopefully, that'll lead into some things. A big swing today by Chris. A big swing by Mark, and I think that, you know, the timely hitting is starting to come. We've just got to keep pitching and let the timely hitting work. I commanded the strikezone a lot better tonight than I did my previous outings. I've been fighting the front side of my delivery a little bit, but I finally made some progress with that."

The Orioles (9-27) have just two series wins all year. They'll go for their third here on Thursday night when the clubs end this three-game series which is tied at one win each.