Red Sox rub more salt on O's wounds
Some losses hurt more than others. Some losses just crush the soul and leave major league ballplayers shaken and disspirited and in need of many, many post-game beers. For the Orioles, the ugly 15-10 pummeling they took from the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards Monday night qualified as one of those nightmare losses.
How do you explain a team scoring 10 runs -- five in the fifth inning after they trailed by four -- and still kicking the game away?
How do you explain O's starter Brad Bergesen looking so good for the first two innings and then getting lit up for six runs (four earned) on eight hits with that batting practice fastball?
How do you explain a bullpen so ineffective that it gives up eight runs in the eighth inning, with Michael Gonzalez, Mark Worrell and Chris Jakubauskas blowing up like a refinery fire in their -- you'll pardon the expression -- relief roles?
Wasted was yet another homer by the red-hot Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy, who drove in three runs on the day he inked a new three-year contract extension. (You wonder if Hardy didn't watch that eighth-inning carnage and wonder if it was too late to be traded to a team with a brighter future. Like, say, the Houston Astros.)
Wasted were Nick Markakis, Derrek Lee and Nolan Reimold driving in two runs apiece.
No wonder Buck Showalter's hair has turned an even whiter shade of white. This is what happens when you manage the Orioles -- the stress and futility makes you age faster than the president of the United States.
It was another long, depressing night at the ballpark. And unless the Orioles get some pitching help in a hurry, we're likely to see quite a few more nights like this before the season is (mercifully) over.
Baltimore Sun photo of Buck Showalter by Algerina Perna / July 18, 2011
Comments
1) J.J. either has lost his mind or has no pride or confidence in his ability to play for a winner. 2) Please, please trade/release/demote Pie 3) FO must go, they obviously have no eye for ML talent. Hope I'm wrong on #1and #3
Posted by: bigbob | July 19, 2011 11:44 AM
It has become, quite simply, unwatchable.
Posted by: CTBird | July 19, 2011 12:43 PM
Great piece. I like the emotion in your column. It matches my frustration with this team. Our hitting is actually respectable, while the pitching could not be any worse.
Posted by: Andrew | July 19, 2011 1:10 PM
whats wrong with the picture...you have a outfielder sitting on the bench that is a great fielder with alot of speed but yet they still run pie out there...comon buck wake the hell up
Posted by: junkman88 | July 19, 2011 1:16 PM
I really do believe that Buck Showalter is going to do his best to see to it that this team does not suffer such lack of talent and depth next season. I look for him to work ridiculously hard to me even better prepared in 2012.
Jones, Hardy, Markakis, & Weiters are a really good core around which to build a winner.
bibbob is right, "The Pie Experiment" is over. I wanted him to win that job in LF, but he simply doesn't have enough talent to be an everyday player.
Posted by: dspedden | July 19, 2011 1:23 PM
Argh, the "relief pitching" is a relief for the other team.
Posted by: GlenW | July 19, 2011 1:39 PM
Kevin,
As Dan pointed out on his blog, Buck is and has been hamstrung. He is managing with one hand tied behind his back, due to the poor talent that surrounds him on the major and minor league rosters. He is playing the best of what Andy gave him. Rather than aquire a few established starters during his tenure, Andy wanted to get the job done by "growing the arms." Mind you, there is not one arm on the current staff that Andy has grown.
The bats he has bought were all passed on by 31 other teams. He brought over a left fielder from the cubs who would not even be on the roster of most major league teams, and who reminds me more and more of Jeff Stone every day.
The whole is a sum of it's parts, and the Orioles are an excellent example of that truism. I just hope the NFL lockout ends this week so we can have something to look forward to this year.
Posted by: Gil | July 19, 2011 1:44 PM
Someone needs to interview Connors to determine what he saw or did not see inO's pitching which caused his abrupt departure.His retirement was prescient
Posted by: gilgamesh1 | July 19, 2011 1:45 PM
After 14 years of losing,I am numb to any oriole losses or bad news.
Posted by: ron a | July 19, 2011 2:28 PM
I am beginning to think that any monkey typing random letters on a keyboard could do a better job picking pitching talent than the O's scouts and front office. Just random selection should find some talent somewhere while our pitching corps is ineffably, insufferably awful. And worst when the games are biggest.
Posted by: willycee | July 19, 2011 4:20 PM
Rest easy we just got some relief help in Phillips from the Rangers. He should fit in quite nicely with our bullpen!
Posted by: gshep | July 19, 2011 4:44 PM
I'm with Ron...it's been rough, yet I still check in as a fan everyday. I just tend to expect things to go wrong
Posted by: dave s | July 19, 2011 5:21 PM
Oriole Tragic!!!!
Posted by: Jason | July 19, 2011 6:00 PM
The Orioles pitching staff gives up crooked numbers when opposing batters keep fouling off pitches continually until frustration sets in. What ever happened to 4 foul balls and you're out.
Posted by: Jim Matthews | July 19, 2011 7:45 PM
Buck may be looking and feeling older, but not the President. He can just rinse in some Just for Men and have one of his aides print up another fake birth certificate that says he's younger than he really is.
Posted by: easywriter01 | July 20, 2011 12:08 AM
"The Orioles pitching staff gives up crooked numbers when opposing batters keep fouling off pitches continually until frustration sets in. What ever happened to 4 foul balls and you're out."
Never existed. Blame Angelos, that the Orioles are so bad we aren't even sure what the rules are...
Posted by: merne | July 25, 2011 4:07 PM
They orioles played last night?
Hmmm didn't know.
Posted by: Tad | July 26, 2011 1:15 PM