A Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts
The Baltimore Orioles painfully lost 6-0 to the Miami Marlins (43-51) in front of 34,332 fans at Camden Yards on Saturday. So many things factored into the loss, a questionable send from third in the first inning, an offense that went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position, a bullpen implosion and a bad read on a base runner at short followed by a horrible throw and drop in the ninth inning.
Rogers Should Sue For Support
Trevor Rogers (2-1) deserved better than what he got Saturday. The southpaw gave the Orioles a second quality start in as many days, allowing a run on two hits (singles) with a walk and a career high eight strikeouts over 6.2 innings. Interim Manager Tony Mansolino removed Rogers from the game after he allowed a two out single to Miami’s Dane Myers. In fairness, Rogers was at 99 pitches (68 K’s) and would have been facing Kyle Stowers for the third time; sometimes, however, you manage by feel and looks, not by the book.
Through the first six innings Baltimore’s offense generated four hits in support of Rogers and ran themselves out of at least one run in the first inning when third base coach Buck Britton sent Gunnar Henderson, who had doubled, home on a Ryan O’Hearn single; the send was so bad that the throw from Stowers was waiting for Henderson at home.
The Birds Didn’t Know What To Do With The Junk
Suppressing the Orioles’ offense was a player who was signed to a MiLB contract with an invite to Spring Training and made the Marlins’ roster, Janson Junk (4-1). Junk held the Birds scoreless for 7.0 innings and allowed 5 hits with 2 strikeouts and a hit batter. He retired nine straight batters between Ramon Laureano‘s second inning lead-off single and hitting Colton Cowser with a pitch to open the fifth. Junk needed just 85 pitches (59 K’s) to navigate the seven innings and ultimately earn the win.
Soto Was Not The Dude
Post-game, Ben McDonald said that Rogers was looking like that “dude”. If so, reliever Gregory Soto was the exact opposite of the “dude”. Soto relieved Rogers in the seventh and hit Stowers with a pitch before allowing inherited runner Myers to score on a Derek Hill RBI single and ultimately tagging Rogers with the loss. On the season, Soto had allowed 5 of 21 inherited runners to score.
The Bullpen Failures Continued
Seranthony Dominguez allowed a run on two hits in the eighth by giving up a double, throwing a wild pitch and giving up a RBI single. Scott Blewett allowed 4 runs on 4 hits, including a two-out, two-run homerun to Xavier Edwards, in the ninth. The real back-breaker came when Stowers scored from second base on a ground ball to Henderson at short.
Mansolino Fails To Fault His Team
Post-gams Mansolino said that he thought “Junk threw the ball pretty well” and in regard to having Soto pitch to Stowers “sometimes some decisions work out better than others and that one probably didn’t work out as well as some others we made recently”. He also added that even though he hadn’t talked to Henderson about the play at home that his guess was that “Henderson anticipated Stowers stopping” at third and that he got “ambushed a little bit” by Stowers; “just a weird, broken play” he said.
Mansolino sounds like and acts like a Little League coach as opposed to a MLB manager.
2025 Record: 43-51
Next Game: Sun. 7/13 @ 1:35 pm vs. Miami Marlins