The O's suffered a really tough 8-7 loss at Fenway to the Red Sox last night. 8-7 isn't a tough one per se, however when you had a 6-0 lead in the sixth it's pretty unacceptable. The Red Sox have a certain swagger which is borderline cockiness about them, especially when they play at Fenway. This translates over to their fans, who start to get excited when they get a runner on base because of how quickly the game can change at "the Fens." This was a weird game all-around, which happens sometimes in MLB. It rained all day in Boston yesterday, ceasing just enough for the game to start on time at 7 PM in a steady drizzle and 48 degree weather. So much for the boys of summer, right?! It definitely had the feel of a late season game towards the end of September or even the beginning of October.
Even in a game where it appeared that he didn't totally have his best stuff, I felt that Chris Tillman pitched a heck of a ballgame given the nasty conditions. Tillman's line: 5 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 K. As I've said in the past, save for the occasional no-hitter most pitchers will get themselves in trouble over the course of a start. This game was no exception for Tillman. It's how you work your way out of trouble that is the deciding factor on whether you're good or not. Tillman managed to get the tough outs when he needed them throughout his start. He was lifted after the fifth inning (after throwing only 88 pitches), and Buck Showalter revealed after the game that Tillman had woken up yesterday morning with back stiffness which visibly bothered him in his final inning of work. That's not good news for Tillman, especially with a looming roster move after the return of Brian Matusz.
Speaking of injuries, first baseman Derrek Lee left the game after the third inning with a sore left oblique and was replaced by Jake Fox; Lee is listed as day-to-day. This stuff about injuring obliques is fairly serious; we all saw how long J.J. Hardy was out. Hopefully Lee is back in the lineup at some point this week, however one would hope that the O's are mulling over some contingency plans if not. Unfortunately for the Orioles, they don't start traveling to NL parks (where they'll lose the DH) until next month. (They do play the Nationals this weekend, but at Oriole Park where both teams will have a DH.) Otherwise they could stick Luke Scott at first and put Vladimir Guerrero in the outfield if Lee needed a few days off. I will say that if this requires DL time for Lee, I hope that the O's bring up a first baseman such as Brandon Snyder from the minors to fill the hole so as to begin molding a first baseman of the future.
They say that death comes like a thief in the night; in situations like this that's also how losses to the Red Sox come at Fenway. I will say that in the top of the fifth I noticed third base coach John Russell held Matt Wieters at third base in a situation where I felt he could have potentially scored. I agreed with that decision from the perspective that there was no reason to pile on (something I might add that the Red Sox have never seemed to mind doing). I firmly believe in the unwritten rules of the game, and there's no reason to rub salt in the wound. (Do I still feel that way? Absolutely.) That aside, Boston can creep up on you when you have a big lead. They start with a few base hits, and suddenly it's 6-2. A few hits off the green monster later, and it's a one-run game. One really positive thing for the Orioles was that Mark Reynolds hit another one out of the park. He's creeping slowly towards the Mendoza Line; he's now hitting .191. Before you think to yourself that he hit it in the sandbox that is Fenway Park, he hit it to dead centerfield (the deepest part of the yard). As Mike Flanagan said on MASN, it was "no cheapie."
With the O's leading 7-6 in the last of the ninth, we saw a script unfold as it has many times. I noticed this morning that a lot of fans were calling out Kevin Gregg on message boards and blogs. I don't blame Gregg for the loss; it's a team effort. He shouldn't have even been in the game closing it out if you figure that the Orioles had a six-run lead at one point. Furthermore, in my opinion he got squeezed on what should have been several called third strikes. But that's how it goes when you play the Red Sox at Fenway. Even ol' blue seems to buy into the allure of that monster in front of him. Gregg is accountable for his work no doubt, but let's not allow him to shoulder the entire blame when Michael Gonzalez surrendered four runs. Reynolds and Luke Scott also committed errors which led to runs. On a positive note, Koji Uehara was superb in his one inning of work last night.
This all makes tonight's game a must-win for the Orioles. The season won't be off it's hinges if they lose, and all will not be lost in terms of the standings. However psychologically this is the kind of game that kills a team. Whereas you could point to the Tampa series as the start of great offensive output for the O's (which continued at Fenway last night), you might point to this game as the start of a long losing streak. None of that matters if they can win tonight. Luckily Zach Britton is a sinkerballer, so perhaps that takes away the green monster as a potential target for Boston hitters.
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