Outside of one exciting inning, the Orioles lineup had zero hits, and their gloves did little to support their pitching staff. It was an ugly—and deserved—loss.
One magic inning wasn’t enough as the Orioles bats were largely silent and their defense was putrid in a 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Rangers on Tuesday night.
This game was largely unwatchable from an Orioles fan perspective for much of the evening. The lineup was limp. The defense was gross. And the pitching was, well, OK.
The starting pitcher, Charlie Morton, was not bad in this game. In fact, given the circumstances—extremely hot weather and some shoddy defense behind him—he did quite well. The veteran righty seemed to have a little extra juice on his fastball, getting it up to 96 mph, and was competitive in the strike zone, although he struggled to put hitters away. Despite that, all of the damage against Morton came in the fourth inning.
He issued a walk to Corey Seager and then allowed a ground ball single to Marcus Semien to lead off the frame. After coaxing a pop out from Adolis García, Evan Carter drove in the first run of the game. Carter singled into right field. Ramón Laureano gathered the ball and fired home. It was a decent throw, but a bit up the first base line. Gary Sánchez maneuvered to make the catch on a short hop, but failed to come up with it. If he had, maybe he would have tagged Seager out at home. Instead, it was a 1-0 lead for the Rangers.
Josh Jung followed with a chopping ground ball to shortstop. A drawn-in Gunnar Henderson fielded the ball with no issue and threw home to try and nab Semien, who was running on contact. But it was a bad toss, pulling Sánchez away from home plate and allowing Semien to score with ease. Alejandro Osuna put a cap on the scoring with a sac fly to center field, driving in Carter. Kyle Higashioka later doubled in the inning, but it bounced over the outfield wall, preventing a fourth run from scoring, before Morton got out of the inning.
That fourth inning saw Morton throw 43 pitches. And while the 100 degree heat from first pitch may have died down a bit by then, it could not have been much better. The 41-year-old was worked, and it would have made sense if that signaled the end of his night. But he returned for the fifth inning for a 1-2-3 frame to wrap up his evening.
Texas scored their fourth run of the day against Keegan Akin in the seventh inning. Seager singled with one out, scooted to second on a ground out, and then came around to score on a García base knock into left field
Meanwhile, the Orioles bats struggled to do much of anything against…*checks notes*…someone named Jacob Latz. This was the third career start for the 29-year-old Latz. A late bloomer, he was a rookie just last year, and has largely worked out of the bullpen for the Rangers. But you would not have known any of that watching him pitch tonight.
Latz held the Orioles hitless through six innings. Their only two baseunners in that time were a pair of walks, one of which was wiped out by a double play. That’s not to say they were being overpowered by the anonymous Texas hurler. The Orioles had five exit velocities over 103 mph or greater, but those were converted into two line outs, two ground outs, and the aforementioned double play. It was a mix of bad luck and Latz pitching well.
But all good things must end. That includes this start by Latz. He lost his no-hitter with a lead-off single from Ramón Laureano in the seventh inning. Then he walked Henderson, which marked the end of his evening. Bruce Bochy opted for Chris Martin out of the bullpen, which would prove to be a very poor decision.
The next three hitters for the Orioles all did the same thing: hit dongs!
Gary Sánchez launched an Earl Weaver special into the left field bleachers for an Earl Weaver special to make it 4-3. Ramón Urías followed with a long fly ball down the right field line that just snuck out of the park to tie things up. And then Ryan O’Hearn obliterated a baseball to right-center field for the go-ahead bomb.
Finally, the Orioles bats were alive. In the span of five hitters, they went from being no-hit and shut out to leading 5-4. Talk about a swing of momentum. It doesn’t get much more extreme than that.
But momentum can often be irrelevant in baseball. Look no further than Gregory Soto’s eighth inning. He walked the first batter he faced on five pitches. Then Soto did little to keep the runner, Sam Haggerty, close to the bag. He proceeded to steal second base, and then third base. That put him in position to score easily on a long sacrifice fly and tie the score at five runs apiece.
The Orioles offense went right back to sleep in the eighth and ninth innings, failing to get a runner past first base. Likewise, the Rangers did nothing in the ninth. And the game went into extra innings.
Seranthony Domínguez was called upon for the Orioles. He struck out the first batter he faced. Then, with Haggerty at the plate, Domìnguez uncorked a wild pitch to move the Manfred runner up to third. That brought the infield in. Haggerty followed with a ground ball to the right side of the infield. Jackson Holliday collected the bouncer and threw home. Sánchez made the catch and laid a tag on the runner barreling home. “Out!” was the original call, but open review it was overturned, putting the Rangers ahead 6-5. The rest of the inning was stressful, but Domínguez limited the Rangers to just the one run, which isn’t a terrible outcome with the modern extra inning rules.
Unfortunately, the Orioles were unable to match the Rangers in the bottom of the inning. Cedric Mullins led off with a sac bunt to move the Manfred runner up a bag. It was probably an attempt at a bunt for base hit, but it didn’t get towards the third base line enough for Mullins to have a real shot at legging it out. After that, Dylan Carlson struck out and Holliday flew out to end the game.
The magical seventh inning papered over what was actually a horrific game for the Orioles bats. Outside of the seventh they had zero hits. They hardly had baserunners. It was ugly.
The defense was also a problem in this game. They were charged with just one error, but there were several head-scratching moments that may have been the difference in a one-run, extra-inning loss.
And we can’t let the bullpen off the hook entirely. Andrew Kittredge was wild. Akin got smacked around. And Soto appeared unaware of baserunners.
In general, they just weren’t good enough on the margins, and that is why they lost a game they could have won. That could be the story of this season as a whole.
These two teams will wrap up the series on Wednesday. No pitching matchup has been announced, but it sounds like Brandon Young could be called upon for a spot start for the O’s. Young just finished up a rehab assignment and then allowed one run across five innings in his return to Norfolk last week. He would be on regular rest for this one. First pitch is 6:35.