The Baltimore Orioles lost Friday night’s game with the Washington Nationals by a score of 4-3. A look at the line score may have one shaking their head and asking how?! The Orioles outhit the Nationals 14 to 5 but the team’s strikeouts (15) surpassed the number of hits. A deeper look shows more of the how; the Birds left 15 men on base and went 4 for 15 with runners in scoring position. Moreover, the Orioles managed just two extra-base hits; singles and strikeouts were the themes for the game.
The first two innings for the Orioles said alot about the current state of the team. Three consecutive singles with one out loaded the bases in the first before the frame flamed out with a swinging strikeout and a strikeout looking. With all the talk by the broadcast team prior to the series beibg that the “struggling” Nationals coming to town would be good for the Orioles “turn around”, it was puzzling to see them go station to station in the inning. A lead-off double by Jackson Holliday (3 for 5, 2B, RBI) was wasted by three straight swinging strikeouts in the second.
The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning, knocking Washington’s MacKenzie Gore from the game, only to see a strikeout looking end the threat.
The third inning was the inning that could have blown the game open. Back-to-back doubles by Adley Rutschman (3 for 5, 2B, R) and Ramon Laureano (4 for 4, 2B, R, RBI) resulted in a run. A Ryan O’Hearn (2 for 3, 2 BB) single and a Ramon Urias (0 for 3, RBI, BB) walk loaded the bases. Holliday singled to plate the inning’s second run and keep the bases loaded. Two swinging strikeouts ended that rally.
Urias hit a RBI sac fly in the sixth, accounting for the team’s third run.
Ryan Mountcastle went 1 for 5 with a run scored while Jorge Mateo went 1 for 4 with 2 stolen bases.
Late game mental lapses kept the Nationals in the game and ultimately led to their victory. Leading 2-1 after five innings, Rutschman non-chalantly retrieved a passed ball on a steal attempt at second, allowing the runner, Nasim Nunez to reach third. He scored on a single two batters later. Pitching in the seventh, Gregory Soto (0.2 IP, K, BB) threw the ball into the outfield attempting to get the runner out on a fielder’s choice; rather than have a runner on first with two outs the Nationals had runners on second and third with one out. Fortunately, Bryan Baker (0.2 IP, 2 K) struckout two to end the inning.
Washington’s James Wood tied the game at 3 with his eighth inning homerun.
In the ninth, with one on and one out, Felix Bautista (0-1) didn’t get to the base before the runner on a groundball to first and then lost track of the runner on base, hesitated o throw home, allowing the ultimate winning run to score from second.
Bautista, who allowed 1 run on 1 hit and walked 2, took the loss.
The broadcaster’s jinx struck in the ninth as well. With Holliday on first, Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald bragged that Washington’s Kyle Finnegan prevented just 4 of 44 runners from stolen bases in his career and that Keibert Ruiz was poor at throwing runners out (74 of 375 in career). Of course Holliday was caught stealing on a strikeout-throw out double play.
To make matters worse, former Oriole Jorge Lopez was credited with the win, his sixth with no losses.
Lost in all of this was the start by Cade Povich. Despite running out of gas in the sixth, Povich allowed 2 runs on 3 hits (HR), walked 2 and struck out 9 over 5.2 innings.
Manager Brandon Hyde‘s post-game press conference was telling. When asked about Bautista’s misplay he replied that he hadn’t seen the replay to know what happened. Replay, really, how could he be in the dugout on the first base side of the field and not know what happened! Is this a sign Hyde has checked out on the season? If so, that may partially explain the team’s uninspired play at times.
2025 Record: 15-28
Next Game: Sat. 5/17 @ 4:05 pm vs. Washington Nationals
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