Orioles Report 7/18

 

Photo: Sarah Stier/ Getty Images

With post All-Star action kicking off on Friday, we've got a mini Orioles update for y'all this week. Great showing of baseball overall for the boys in this report, outside of a few bad relief appearances. But what's new...

Record since Last Orioles Report: 3-1

Overall Record: 57-36

Grilled Marlin

The Birds came out of the break with a date at home against Sandy Alcantara. Good Dean showed up to Camden Friday night though, going toe to toe with the reigning NL Cy Young winner, allowing just two hits and one earned run over six innings while striking out eight. When Kremer is on, he's easily our best starter.

But Adam Frazier was the man of the evening! The second baseman went 3-4 at the dish, unloading two dingers and driving in four, single handedly providing the necessary offense to win this one. Felix Bautista quickly got over his All-Star Game hiccup, striking out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth en route to his 24th save. 5-2 Orioles.

Kyle Gibson was on the bump for the middle game of this series, doing what he tends to do: eat between 5-7 innings, with one really ugly one somewhere along the way. It was the second where he struggled Saturday, giving up four runs to dig the team into a hole early. But Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo (huh?!) came through in the bottom of the frame, with an RBI single and two-RBI triple, respectively, cutting the lead to one. 

Bryan de la Cruz drove in one to put Miami up 5-3, setting the stage for some Baltimore dramatics. Anthony Santander would sandwich RBI singles around a Gunnar Henderson solo homer to put the home team up 6-5 going into the eighth. Cue Yennier Cano and Felix, the best 1-2 in the league, to lock down the rest, securing a comeback victory.

Kyle Bradish has firmly established himself as a starter in the majors. He hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in a game in almost two months now, lowering his ERA to a sharp 3.05 in the process. He went 7.1 scoreless Sunday, striking out eight and allowing just three hits to the Marlins. Shut. Down.

Anthony Santander stayed hot, hitting a two run home run to drive in Adley after an RBI double of his own. James McCann and Gunnar added runs later on a productive outs, building a 5-0 lead that the Birds would ultimately need in the ninth. Eduard Bazardo tried his damnedest to blow things in the final frame, giving up three runs before Danny Coulombe had to come in and record the final two outs. Surely the last time we'll see him in the orange and black for the foreseeable future. Break out the brooms y'all, 5-4 O's.

Game One of Three vs. the Dodgers

Grayson's back! The kid started things out really strong, showing some ridiculous off-speed stuff and pumping his fastball over 100 for much of the first two innings. The offense provided some support early too, with Gunnar legging out an RBI triple and a rope of a home run by Adley Rutschman in the fifth to pull ahead 4-1.

Rodriguez struggled a bit the second and third time through lineup though, giving up four while failing to record an out in the sixth. Bryan Baker relieved him...and promptly walked Jason Hayward after being ahead 0-2, setting up a grand slam by Dodgers' shortstop Chris Taylor, batting a stout .214. The long ball also came on an 0-2 count. Baltimore wouldn't recover, falling 6-4 and snapping their eight game win streak.

Farm Report

-Three innings of shutout work by Justin Armbruester Friday, striking out five in three innings of relief

-Two more long balls and three RBI over the weekend by Connor Norby. Definitely reminds me of an young Jonathan Schoop: bombs out of the second base position

-Strong AAA debut for Coby Mayo, going 1-4 at the dish, driving in one on a first inning walk and two more on a seventh inning double 

-Pham was sharp for again for Bowie Saturday, lasting four hitless/scoreless innings, punching out one along the way

-Jackson Holliday had three hits in that same game, slashing for clean .500 batting average in his first week of AA action

Photo: Patrick Cavey

-John Rhodes brought the Baysox back on Sunday, knocking in the game tying run in the bottom of the seventh before walking things off with another RBI single two innings later. It was far from his best performance of the short series though, which he kicked off with a three home run Friday night

-Aberdeen came out of the break with a fifteen run explosion, headlined by a 4-6 day from Max Wagner and a five RBI performance from Creed Willems

-A familiar name to the farm report lately: Daniel Lloyd hasn't allowed an earned run over his last eighteen innings. The former Gamecock has been locked in this July

-Nice weekend of work by Dylan Beavers, collecting three RBI on four hits-- three of which going for extra bases

-Adam Crampton and Stiven Acevedo had at least one hit in each of Delmarva's three games this weekend, with the latter delivering two multi-hit performances

-Zack Showalter and Deivi Cruz combined for complete game with eight strikeouts and one earned run in a shortened makeup game Sunday-- a 2-1 Shorebirds win

-Edgar Portes was the man of the hour in the earlier game that Sunday, allowing just one run in five innings of relief with six K's

Concluding Thoughts

One game out of first in the AL East! Our Orioles have firmly declared themselves as a team to be reckoned with this upcoming postseason. Whether it's out of the wild card position or as divisional champs, they'd need to absolutely crater to miss the postseason at this point. 

I just knocked on wood.

I've now gotten on board with some exorbitant spending for long-term pieces. No need to shell out our prospects for the sake of making moves, especially for premium-priced rentals, but if there's a starting pitcher or elite bullpen arm with years of control on the market, Elias would be prudent to make some calls. 

Monday reiterated to us what we all knew though: Rental or not, a middle relief arm is essential if we want to seriously compete. Should be some cheap options in play, a la Josh Hader?

The farm is bubbling up against the ceiling with talent, as there's really nowhere conceivably for a Connor Norby or a Joey Ortiz to fit in right now on the major league roster. There will be trades made in the coming weeks, with some beloved prospects being shipped away before donning a jersey in Camden Yards. I truly just hope that they're moves with an eye still on the future, not just going for broke because we're in a surprising position to do so.

I trust Mike Elias to make the right calls. He has so far during his tenure as GM, no reason to go off the rails now. What an exciting position to be in though! The beer, it's icy. Cheers Birdland!

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@Choppinglines

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