The Baltimore Orioles dropped the series finale in Houston on Sunday, losing by a score of 3-1. Taking two out of three from the Astros is good but Sunday’s loss hurt because of the way it played out.
Keeping pace with the previous two starters for the Orioles, Austin Voth (4-2) gave the team a quality start. The right-hander allowed 1 run on 1 hit while walking 3 and striking out 4 over 6.0 innings. Voth left the game after walking Alex Bregman to open the seventh inning.
The run Voth allowed as well as the loss that was hung on him were due to failure by the bullpen, mainly Bryan Baker. Baker faced five batters and allowed a double and two singles to finish with a line of 1 run allowed on 3 hits with 1 strikeout in two-thirds of an inning as well as allowing his inherited runner to score.
Joey Krehbiel didn’t fare much better. He allowed a Bregman homerun among 2 hits while striking out 1 and hitting a batter over 1.1 innings.
In fairness, the Orioles ran themselves out of an inning twice. The first came in the third inning when Anthony Santander (1 for 4, 1 2B, 1 run scored) flew out to center with Robinson Chirinos (1 for 2, 1 BB) on second and Cedric Mullins (1 for 3, 1 BB, 1 SB) on first. Chirinos was doubled up at third when Mullins tagged up and he didn’t.
The second baserunning gaffe came in the fifth inning when Jorge Mateo (1 for 3) doubled, looked bach briefly and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. The Orioles did lose their challenge of the tag on the play.
The Orioles lone run came in the ninth when Santander, who had doubled, scored on an Austin Hays (1 for 4, 1 RBI) single.
Adley Rutschman went 1 for 4 with a stolen base.
2022 Record: 67-60, 1.5 GB the third Wild Card spot
Next Game: 8/30 @ Cleveland @ 6:10 pm