Bird Watching - Orioles In Second Place Chasing The Blue Jays, And I'm Officially Worried About Chris Tillman's Injury
The Orioles had a nice bounce back game last night against the Astros, scoring 13 runs on 18 hits. Birds got multi-homer games from J.J. Hardy, and Chris Davis (9/27, 4 HR since August 10th), with Mark Trumbo, Manny Machado, also joined the homer parade. This win was nice to see after getting swept in their shitty 2-game series against Boston. That series loss dropped them to 6-6 on the season against Boston, and into third place for the first time this season. Luckily their stay in third place only lasted about 20 hours, with the win last night, they jumped back into a tie with the Red Sox at 67-53, 1.5 games behind Toronto.
It was nice to see the offense bounce back, they still aren’t hitting like they were in June, and not as consistent, but this is a good sign. 6 homers on the night, Hyun-Soo Kim went 4-5, everyone was hitting. Most of these guys are only one at-bat away from turning it around, like with Chris Davis all year, we are just waiting for him to break out, and it looks like he could be making improvements, home runs onto Eutaw Street on back-to-back nights is something to take notice of. Trumbo setting his career high in homers with 42 games left is another good sign, he seems to hit homers in bunches, four in his last seven games, he is another bat that should be coming around. The offense is still averaging under 4 runs a game since the break, and they’re running out of games. They have to get more consistent hitting and can’t keep scoring three runs or less and except to compete in the A.L. East with these big lineups. 1-9 the Orioles lineup is just as scary as the Sox or Jays, no reason they shouldn’t be scoring runs at that same pace.
The Boston series was shitty on all accounts, O’s couldn’t hit, Mookie Betts continued to murder the Orioles and reminded us why he is going to be one of the best players in baseball for the next 10 years, Chris Tillman was scratched and moved to Saturday (more on that later), and his replacement, Dylan Bundy, had his first shaky start for the Birds since the end of June. And then then rain came. Wednesday nights game was called in the middle of the 7th, with the Orioles down 8-1. Everyone knew it was going to pour that night, but no one figured it would be this much, check out these videos sent to me of inside Camden Yards during the rain delay.
I hate people. I also hope that kid gets staph infection for running around barefoot in a ballpark that is being flooded.
Decent Rick Dempsey impersonation, but I wouldn’t have hated to see him lose all the skin on his chest for sliding on wet concrete. Anyways, this is why the game was cancelled, and why Travis Shaw was complaining about the plane not being able to take off after the game. It was insanely stupid that the Sox had a day game after a night game all because the Lions had a preseason game in Detroit that night. Sucks that Boston got held up, but there was nothing the O’s could do. Calling the game due to weather during the game is on the umpires, as always, blame them.
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Chris Tillman injury
All of Orioles twitter felt their heart stop when they heard Buck say that Chris Tillman would be pushed back to start on Saturday, instead of Wednesday, due to shoulder discomfort he felt Friday morning after his last start. Tillman said it was something he had never felt before. Well that sounds just fantastic. Ace of a mediocre staff, having a career year, feels something he has never felt before. Sounds like it was just a little soreness, and according to my Frederick Keys media game softball teammate, Jon Meoli, Tillman threw on flat ground in front of bullpen coach, Dom Chiti, and is okay to make his start on Saturday.
A little rest in the dog days of August never hurt anyone, but this is probably something to keep an eye on. This injury just popped up out of nowhere, even though Buck said they had talked with Dylan and Tillman about it on the plane ride back from Oakland. These injuries that pop up out of nowhere scare the hell out of me, and more times than not, have a knack of coming back later on. Rest Tilly whenever he wants, they need him deep in September and into October. IF this turns out to be something that lingers, say goodnight to the good guys, the O’s just don’t have the pitching depth to rebound from a loss of a 15 game-winner. I’m sure all Orioles fans will be keeping a close eye on Tillman during his start on Saturday.
Upcoming
Friday, August 19 vs Houston- Wade Miley (7-10 5.23) vs Collin McHugh (7-10 4.70)
Saturday, August 20 vs Houston- Chris Tillman (15-4 3.46) vs Mike Fiers (8-6 4.66)
Sunday, August 21 vs Houston- Yovani Gallardo (4-4 5.18) vs Dallas Keuchel (7-12 4.76)
Monday, August 22 vs Expos- Dylan Bundy (6-4 3.36) vs Stephen Strasburg (15-4 3.59)
Tuesday, August 23 vs Expos- Kevin Gausman (4-10 4.11) vs Reynaldo Lopez (2-1 4.37)
Wednesday, August 24 @ Expos- Wade Miley (7-10 5.23) vs Tanner Roark (13-6 2.81)
Thursday, August 25 @ Expos- Chris Tillman (15-4 3.46) vs Max Scherzer (12-7 2.95)
I’m expecting to see tons of people at the park on Saturday for Crush Davis and Samson bobblehead giveaway, as well as for the Nats series. First 2 in Baltimore, second 2 in DC. Battle of the MASN Cup, keep the cup in Baltimore, the same place it has been since ’07.