The O’s have fizzled away a lead of 3 runs or more on 10 occasions this season, including one game where they did it twice. They lost six of the nine games (and managed to win the one where they blew two 3+ run leads). Here’s a breakdown.
April 9 — The O’s led the Yankees 3-0 through 5, but after a short start by Miley (5 IP), the bullpen gave the lead away, with some help from some poor defense by Hardy and Schoop, and we lost 7-3. Wilson allowed 2 of the runs, Givens blew the save and O’Day took the loss.
April 26 — The O’s led the Rays 3-0 in the 2nd inning. Bundy gave up 2 in 6.1 IP, Tampa tied it in the 8th, but the O’s won in extra innings 5-4. O’Day was charged with a blown save but actually did a great job, coming in with the bases loaded and nobody out and getting two ground outs and a strikeout to allow only one run to score.
April 28 — The O’s led the Yankees 9-1 in the middle of the 6th, 11-4 in the middle of the 7th, but allowed 4 in the bottom of the 7th and 3 in the bottom of the 9th to allow the Yankees to tie it, and the Yankees won in the 10th, 14-11. Gausman and Nuno allowed 8 runs, Brach blew the 3-run save in the 9th, and Aquino lost it in the 10th.
May 10 — The O’s led the Nats 5-1 in the middle of the 6th and 6-2 in the middle of the 8th, but allowed 2 in the 8th (Asher) and 3 in the 9th (Brach) to lose, 7-6.
May 14 — The O’s led the Royals 5-0 in the middle of the 4th, but Gausman allowed 5 runs in the bottom of the 4th and the O’s lost 9-8.
May 16 — The O’s led 7-1 in the middle of the 3rd, but allowed 3 in the bottom of the 3rd (Miley) and 4 in the 7th to fall behind 8-7 on a grand slam off Brad Brach after Mychal Givens had walked the bases loaded. The O’s tied the game in the 9th, went ahead 11-8 in the top of the 12th but Hart allowed the Tigers to tie it up on 5 hits in the bottom of the inning. The O’s scored two more in the top of the 13th and hung on for a 13-11 win despite blowing 6 and 3 run leads in the game.
May 18 — The O’s lead the Tigers 3-0 in the middle of the 3rd, but Bundy allowed 3 in the bottom half of the frame and the O’s lost 6-5.
May 20 — The O’s led the Blue Jays 4-1 after 5 innings, allowed 4 runs in the 6th/7th to fall behind on a 3-run homer off Givens, but Welington Castillo bailed them out with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 7th and the O’s won 7-5.
May 22 — The O’s led the Twins 5-0 after two innings, 6-2 after four, but the Twins tied it up off Ubaldo in the 5th and went on to rout Tyler Wilson and the O’s, 14-7.
Notably, five of the nine games came in a nine-day span. In three of the games, the starting pitcher was solely responsible for giving up the lead, and in another three, the starters had allowed the opponent to chip away at the lead before the bullpen came in and gave it up. All in all, it’s been a group effort to lose these leads.
