A Tale Of Two Games
There was an aura surrounding Oriole Park st Camden Yards Saturday night. To begin with, the team celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the night in 1995 when Cal Ripken Jr broke Lou Gehrig‘s record for consecutive MLB games played. Celebration and nostalgia were everywhere in the ballpark as the numers 2131 hung on the warehouse, graphics from that night 30 years ago were shown on the scoreboard, Ripken rode around the warning track in a vintage red Corvette and the start of the iconic lap around the Yard was recreated by Bobby Bonilla, Rafael Palmeiro, Al Bumbry and Ripken himself.
The rain many had forecast for the evening even stayed away except for some intermittent drizzle during the later innings.
The game itself, a 4-3 come from behind win by the Baltimore Orioles over the Los Angeles Dodgers (78-64), even had an aura of its own. Dodgers starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was in the midst of pitching a no-hitter; he faced 27 Orioles batters, striking out 10, walking 2 and threw a wild pitch, and thanks to a third inning double play, reached 26 outs by pitching to one batter over the minimum. Needing one more out for the no-no, Yamomoto faced Jackson Holliday and with the count at 2 balls and 1 strike, threw a 94.7 mph cutter that the 21 year old second baseman deposited 362 ft to right-center for a no-no breaking homerun.
Having thrown 112 pitches (70 K’s), Yamamoto exited the game and with him any LA aura because in the span of two relievers, 25 pitches and 5 batters, the Orioles went from potential no-hit victims to perpetrators of an improbable comeback in front of 42,612 fans.
Jeremiah Jackson greeted Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen with a double to center field. Jackson gave way to pinch-runner Daniel Johnson before Gunnar Henderson was hit on the left foot by a pitch. Back-to-back five pitch walks to Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser loaded the bases and knocked in a run, respectively. Las Angeles manager Dave Roberts called on Tanner Scott to maintain a one run lead and end the game except Emmanuel Rivera had other ideas. Rivera hit the third pitch he saw straight up the middle for a 2-RBI walk-off single.
With the loss the Dodgers’ NL West lead shrunk to 1.0 game over the San Diego Padres (77-65).
Lost in all of this was the effort of starter Trevor Rogers. Spoiled by his season-long quality, it was surprising to see him put in a pedestrian, albeit good start. The southpaw allowed 2 runs on 8 hits with a walk and 6 strike outs over 5.1 innings, ending a streak of 10 quality starts. It also ended a streak of 7 games with 1 or less runs allowed.
Albert Suarez (1-0) pitched the final three innings and was credited with the win.
On a down note, Samuel Basallo left the game in the fifth inning after taking a foul ball off the top of his right hand. That injury compounded what was a rough night for the catcher as he fouled a ball off of his right shin during a second inning at bat.
2025 Record: 66-76
Next Game: Sun. 9/7 @ 1:35 pm vs. Los Angeles Dodgers