On Sunday, the Baltimore Orioles lost their fifth in a row, as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated them, 3-1.
They have lost their second straight series and fell to 23-20.
Have things gotten bad for the Orioles? No. They are pretty resilient and seem to not get too high – or too low; however, at times, they have been beating themselves.
The pitching was not horrible for Baltimore, and actually Chris Tillman put forth a nice effort on the afternoon; however, the Orioles lost thanks to the impressive Matt Moore, who upped his record to 8-0 and a stingy bullpen.
Yes, the Orioles were not helped out by Matt Joyce’s controversial home run to right field in the sixth inning that was reviewed by the umpires; alas, in the end, the offense could not solve Moore.
By the way, Joyce’s disputed home run was indeed a legit one.
If the right field wall only had a more padding on that portion of the wall to match the rest of it, Joyce’s show would have been a double – or perhaps a long single.
The Orioles hit balls hard and squared them up … but they always ended up into the hands of Tampa Bay fielders. They just did not make the most of their scoring chances, as they only went one-for-seven with runners in scoring position. As well, the Orioles left five runners on base.
That won’t get you anywhere when you are facing a pitcher of Moore’s caliber. Baltimore's only run came off a Jones' RBI-single in the fourth inning.
Moore went seven strong innings, gave up and earned run on five hits. He struck out three.
Tillman – who took the loss for Baltimore – went six innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He actually had a good start for the Birds; however, he might have needed to pitch close to a flawless game to give his team any shot of winning on Sunday.
The Orioles have the New York Yankees in town for the next three days. Hopefully Oriole fans and can send members of the Bronx Bombers off to Summer Camp New York
The New Yorkers surprisingly lead the American League East with a 27-16 record. Everyone predicated their demise because of old age and injury, but they seem to find ways to just keep winning year after year.
The Orioles face C.C. Sabathia tonight. We all know that he has dominated the Birds throughout his career and they have yet another test in front of them.
