More solid pitching, but O's come up short by one run at Oakland

OAKLAND – The theme remained unchanged for Tuesday’s game between the Orioles and Oakland Athletics. For Baltimore, that means yet another low-scoring game where its pitching excelled but the Orioles hitters could not get many clutch hits.

Throw in some exceptional defense by Oakland and this night ended with more frustration and another close loss for the Orioles. 

The O’s did take an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, and great outfield defense robbed them of more in the second. And right-hander Chris Ellis, making his season debut, became the latest O’s starter to give the team a big effort.

But when Seth Brown doubled in two runs in the A's sixth inning, Oakland moved ahead and went on to win 2-1.

The Birds (3-8) have scored just 23 runs for the season and have been held to two or fewer in eight of the 11 games they've played so far in 2022. They are 0-2 to start this road trip and 0-5 in road games.

The Orioles had not scored in the first inning before tonight, but this time took a 1-0 lead on Trey Mancini’s RBI groundout off A’s lefty Cole Irvin. Cedric Mullins drilled a ball to deep center to start the game but had nothing to show for that 100 mph drive that was caught. But then Anthony Santander smoked a 96 mph single and moved to third on Ryan Mountcastle’s left-center gap double. That ball was blasted 112 mph as Mountcastle picked up his second extra-base hit of the year. Mancini’s bouncer to second scored the game’s first run.

In the Baltimore second, two outfield defensive plays by the A's added to the Orioles' frustrations on offense. Oakland center fielder Christian Pache made a remarkable catch in right-center with one on and one out. He leaped into the wall on the drive off the bat off Kelvin Gutiérrez. The ball popped out of his glove but came back down in it as he completed the great play. One batter later, Jorge Mateo’s liner to right was run down by Billy McKinney.

The expected batting average on the Gutiérrez drive was .620, and on the Mateo ball it was .570. The actual batting average was .000 for both. The Orioles hit five balls 100 mph or more in the first two innings with little to show for it.

But Ellis gave the O’s a strong outing, keeping the A’s off the board over 4 1/3 innings on four hits. He walked three and fanned two on 62 pitches. Using mostly a sinker-cutter combo, Ellis stranded five runners over the first four innings.

He took the mound for the fifth still leading 1-0, and the A’s got a hit and error to put two on with one out and right-hander Mike Baumann came on. The big guy got a huge double play grounder to end the frame with the O’s still clinging to their lead. McKinney bounced into the 4-6-3 double play on a 2-2 fastball.

Baumann’s clutch pitch allowed Ellis to finish without allowing a run. His ERA is now 2.12 in seven career Baltimore starts.

Orioles starting pitchers have been exceptional in recent games. They have allowed one earned run or none in five straight and seven of the last eight games. They have a rotation ERA of 0.76 the last five games and 1.30 the last eight games.

But tonight, after Baumann’s great escape in the fifth, the A’s got the lead against him in the sixth. After a one-out single and walk, Seth Brown lined a two-run double to right on an 0-1 curveball as the A’s moved ahead 2-1.

A half-inning later, the O’s middle of the order could not tie it or put Baltimore ahead. With two men on, Mountcastle grounded into a force at second and then Mancini fouled out. Through seven ups, the Orioles were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Oakland defense was just stellar tonight. The Orioles hit nine balls in this game at 100 mph or more and Oakland turned seven of them into outs. 

Game time change: The A’s announced tonight a time change for tomorrow’s game, which was scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m. PDT but now will start at 3:07 p.m. PDT. That, of course, means a 6:07 p.m. EDT first pitch for the third game of this series.

The weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday is not great in the area, and the A’s and Orioles will move up the game to try to get it in. The scheduled fourth game of this series is set for Thursday afternoon at 12:37 p.m. PDT.