Andrew Cashner Out-Duels Masahiro Tanaka As The Orioles Win In The Bronx
I thought that second Orioles win would never come, but here we are. Adam Jones, Trey Mancini, and Andrew Cashner played the role of spoilers in New York last night as the Orioles won the series opener, 5-2. It really was a pitching duel until the 7th, as both Cashner and Masahiro Tanaka were absolutely cruising. Love to see a win like this over a team of this caliber, especially after getting their tails whipped in Houston.
Cashner made his first and only mistake to Aaron Judge, guess what Judge did with that mistake pitch? Put it about 400 feet into the seats in right-center. Orioles were down 1-0 heading into he 7th. They were struggling to put anything in play against Tanaka and you had that feeling his night was close to being over, even though his pitch count was pretty low. You figured the bullpen would be coming on soon. Jonathan Schoop lead off the inning with a single and was on base when Adam Jones decided to take the game into his hands. Jones hit his third homer of the year that just barely got over the fence.
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O’s had everything they wanted, momentum, a lead, and Tanaka on the ropes. Chris Davis then grounded out, because that is what Chris Davis does, and Tim Beckham found himself on first after a base hit. Just like that, Tanaka was out. Colby Rasmus welcomed Chad Green with a single, and then Anthony Santander laced a ball double to right and scored Beckham. Trey Mancini stepped in after a Chance Sisco strikeout and decided he wanted to join the party. A base hit by Trey scored Rasmus and Santander and the O’s went up 5-2.
Love seeing that type of inning from the O’s. Bloop and blast to get you on the board, and then just good, fundamental hitting for some insurance runs. It was good enough for the win because of Andrew Cashner. Cashner was fantastic tonight, and matched Tanaka pitch-for-pitch. This was huge for Cashner because he was god awful in his first start, last night in the cold Bronx, he was MUCH better.
6 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 5 strikeouts, and 3 walks was Cashner’s line, quite a turnaround from his 3 HR game against Minnesota last Saturday. Cashner was huge tonight, just a fantastic outing against an unreal lineup. He made one mistake, and Judge made him pay. Really liked that bounce back outing from Cashner. Mychal Givens came on in the 7th and gave up a run before being replaced by Darren O’Day. O’Day did his normal Houdini stuff, getting out of a bases loaded jam after hitting Didi and Sanchez, and Brad Brach worked the ninth for his first save of the season. Gotta give it up to all the guys who toed the rubber tonight, holding this Yankees team to 2 (tw0) runs is a feat, I wouldn’t count on holding them down much longer.
Love breaking that 5 game losing streak by beating the Yankees, never gets old. The Orioles have already won half as many games in Yankee stadium in 2018 that they did in 2017!! Nice to see a game where the offense produces, starter makes a good start, and the bullpen doesn’t piss down their legs. Obviously the key to the game was keeping the top of the Yankees lineup in check, Gardner, Judge, Stanton, Didi, and Sanchez combined to go 2 – 16 with 4 strikeouts, and 3 walks. That was huge.
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Tonight’s game matches up Kevin Gausman and C.C. Sabathia. Let’s see if the Orioles can make it 2 in a row against the Yanks.