O's offense falls flat in Houston series opener (Bowman debuts)

The Orioles just can’t seem to get rolling again. On a night where their bullpen allowed no runs or hits, they still lost 6-0 in the Houston series opener. Their offense has produced six hits the last two games.

Right now, they look like a second-division club with a lack of runs, hits and unfortunately fire and passion too.

Maybe the next win and a night of fire and passion is right around the corner. But right ahead of this club is six straight games versus Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In the last six games, the Birds have scored 20 runs, but nine of them came in one game. In those games they have five hits or less four times and three hits or less three times.

During the six games the O’s are batting .167/.245/.323/.568 as a team and have gone 2-for-27 with runners in scoring position.

Last night they had a streak of 16 straight games with a homer end.

Starter Corbin Burnes allowed six runs (five earned) in 5 2/3 innings. Burnes has an ERA of 8.71 his past four games. He has allowed five, three, eight and six runs in those games. He gave up four runs or more once in his first 22 starts and now that has happened in three of the last four.

Now 1.5 games back in the AL East, the O’s have lost three of four, five of seven and seven of 11 games. They are 16-17 since the All-Star break.

Houston (69-58) is now 12-3 its past 15 games and has won nine in a row on the road. Houston was 61-39 its past 100 games heading into Thursday’s game.

Bowman's wild ride in 2024 season: New Orioles reliever, right-hander Matt Bowman, from Chevy Chase, Md., has seen a lot since the New York Mets drafted him in the 13^th round out of Princeton in 2012.

He had Tommy John surgery on Sept. 16, 2020. He had not pitched all that year and then did not pitch in 2021 or 2022. The first year was due to the TJ rehab and that ’22 season was also impacted by a wrist issue.

Back on Dec. 10, 2015, he was a Rule 5 draft pick moving from the Mets to the St. Louis Cardinals. He then saw his first major league action, and it went pretty well. He was 2-5 with a 3.46 ERA in 59 relief appearances for St. Louis in that 2016 season. Those were the second-most appearances by any pitcher taken in the 2015 Rule 5 draft behind Toronto’s Joe Biagini (60 games) and Bowman had ranked sixth among NL relievers with a 62.1 ground ball percentage.

Move to this year and his transactions page really got messy. He has spent time with but also been designated for assignment by Minnesota, Arizona and Seattle. He signed with the Twins in January, and they also later re-signed him July 4 after he had been cut loose by the Twins, D-backs and Mariners. They released him Aug. 12 and three days later the O’s signed him.

His career with this organization has started with three scoreless and six strikeouts at Triple-A Norfolk and last night he got four outs in his O's debut. He threw 1 1/3 scoreless with a strikeout on 14 pitches. His two-seamer averaged 92.3 mph and he got two whiffs on seven swings by Houston batters, both on sweepers.

One thing the Maryland native learned this year, he said, was try to give your team what they want from you, but you also have to be true to how you pitch as well. Conform, but to a point.

“The switch from the Twins to the Diamondbacks I found a little difficult," he explained. "You get to a new org and things are slightly different and sometimes you want to do what the org values. And you try to turn yourself into that. I think, realizing what your individual identity is, is sort of something that I’ve learned. And then if you want to try and blend yourself into what they want, you have to merge those two roads, but you can’t hop over to their road immediately.”

A well spoken thought, one not surprising from a Princeton economics grad. A reporter wondered if that degree from that school helped him understand the business side of baseball well.

“I’m sneaky old. I’ve lost a step in that department,” quipped Bowman.

Pregame Thursday manager Brandon Hyde echoed what he said about his bullpen after Wednesday's game - he's searching for outs.

“Just keep throwing guys out there in situations you hope that they can handle. Like I said, we are looking to try and close games out and have guys with scoreless innings. I know it’s been a challenge right now but I’m hoping we can turn the corner on it. We have guys with some really good arms down there that we feel are really close. So, hopefully we can start putting some zeros up out of the ‘pen.”

On this night they got that, but for the Orioles another loss was still the final result.