I was genuinely excited as I made my way to the yard and into my normal perch in section 17. As great as MASN's coverage of the Orioles is, today's game was to be nationally televised on FOX. As a result, the O's and Rays played today's game at 1 PM as opposed to the normal 7 PM Camden Yards Saturday night start time. It excited me to know that people around the country would get to catch a glimpse of the Buck-O's today from the yard. As you can imagine, it was a bit different of a feeling walking out after the O's dropped an 8-2 decision to the division rival Tampa Rays. This was a weird game in various manners. Bottom line however; the O's have not dropped five of their last six, due in large part to a lack of run support. However, part of any sport is taking advantage of your opponent's mistakes. Tampa's been good at that under Joe Maddon. They make your mistakes stand out and look like a horrible blemish. On the other hand, the Orioles couldn't do any of that today.
After Tampa scored a run in the first, the Orioles loaded the bases in the last of the second. At this point you're probably thinking that the O's are in good shape given that they were able to load the bases. However Brian Roberts' soft pop up in the infield not only put that idea to bed, but it also served as foreshadowing for the type of day this would be. Of course Evan Longoria also picked today to knock out his first HR of the season, this one of the three-run variety. After another three-run homer (by BJ Upton) and a tack on run, the Orioles put two runs across in the end of the game to close out the scoring at 8-2.
All in all, the O's walked ten times in today's game. Ten times! Let's say that again just to reiterate the point; ten times! On one hand, it's good to see guys working the count. I don't want that point to get lost in this diatribe, because it is a very important point. If they were rolling the ball over and making outs, we'd be complaining that they weren't making pitchers work. So if there's a positive to take away from this game, it's the fact that Oriole batters were making Tampa pitchers work. However the end result was still the same (outs). There's very little point in working the count and making pitchers work if you're going to strand those base runners. Even when it appeared that the O's finally had a two-run homer in their grasp on Wieters' shot in the eighth, Sam Fuld had to kill the rally by bringing the ball back from over the wall. (Incidentally, I want to make a point about the fans in left field that potentially could have been involved in that play. Orioles' radio play-by-play announcer Joe Angel said on WBAL that a fan could have shoved Fuld's glove out of the way and gotten the ball given that it was over the wall. I would say kudos to those fans for not doing something like that. I was happy to see that Oriole fans had enough respect for the game and for the opposition not to do something busch league like that and then try to justify it by saying the ball was over the wall.) Jeremy Guthrie wasn't his normal pinpoint self, however he once again didn't get the run support he needed. Tampa's a very patient team at the plate, and they will force you to throw the ball over. So what happens is that opposing pitchers are often pitching from behind in the count, and when they do throw the ball over the plate the bats of good hitters like BJ Upton and Evan Longoria are waiting.
One procedural aspect of today's game and baseball in general also managed to frost me on the Orioles' behalf this afternoon. It was announced before the game that MLB was suspending BJ Upton for two games due to his conduct with an umpire after being ejected on Wednesday. Upton announced that he was appealing the suspension because he "likes playing at Camden Yards." When you appeal a suspension you're allowed to play during the appeal process. Upton went 3-for-5 with three RBI in the game. So...what he basically was saying was that he wanted to pick and choose when he served the suspension. I agree with the premise that players should be able to appeal discipline that comes down from the league. Furthermore, it makes sense that if you're appealing a suspension you should be able to play during the appeal. However I think that Upton's comments are very telling. They tell me that he knows there's no basis for appealing the suspension, however he's doing it because he wants to play at Camden Yards. From the Rays' standpoint, that probably sounds like a move that's in the best interest of the team. However from the perspective of the Orioles it's kind of shaddy. We've all seen suspensions reduced or even dismissed on appeal. However I would say that if the league upholds the suspension, there should be an automatic addition of a game to the original term. This might dissuade guys such as Upton (who know that they're going to lose anyways) from appealing their suspension. If you remove Upton's numbers from the scorecard, the final would have been 5-2, however it seems to me that he comes across as a bit selfish by doing what he did.
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