Baltimore Orioles: The Night Bombs And A Record Burst In Air

The Baltimore Orioles came into tonight’s game just trying to close out their homestand on a positive note. They did that and then some, behind a so-so outing from Chris Tillman and a “bombs away” type of night from their offense. Tillman’s line: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 R,  3 BB, 3 K. Tillman was good enough to win, but he probably didn’t have his truly good stuff.

But in this case he didn’t need to have that. Granted Buck Showalter would have liked to have had him go deeper than six innings to avoid using too many relievers in a blowout, however at the end of the night the important part is winning the game. And the O’s did that and then some. 

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Manny Machado set the tone by hitting the second pitch he saw from Philadelphia’s Jerome Williams out of the ballpark. Following two walks and a base hit the bases were loaded, and J.J. Hardy‘s RBI-single gave the O’s a 2-0 lead. That lead grew quickly to 4-0 on Ryan Flaherty‘s two-RBI single, and following a wild pitch two more Orioles were in scoring position.

A second wild pitch from Williams would give the O’s a 6-0 lead, and end his (Williams’) night. As he tried to tag out the second runner at home plate, Williams appeared to strain his hamstring as he got caught in an odd position. If Machado’s homer set the tone for the O’s, that set the tone for Philadelphia. And incidentally, Machado started the second inning the same way he did the first – with a solo homer.

Jimmy Paredes would add his own solo shot in the second inning, as would the newly promoted Chris Parmelee (his first homer as an Oriole). Fast-forward to the last of the third with the O’s leading 9-0, and David Lough decided to join the homer parade with a three-run shot. I’m not sure when exactly it happened but somewhere between six and twelve runs the game officially got out of hand. 

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Luckily for Philadelphia, they did manage to put one across in the fourth on a Domonic Brown RBI-single. But not to be outdone, Chris Davis‘ solo homer in the last of the inning which came close to hitting the B & O Warehouse. It bounced on Eutaw St and hit off of a window. Travis Snider would add an RBI-double in the fifth, however Maikel Franco‘s two-run homer for Philadelphia in the sixth cut the Orioles’ lead to 14-3.

But Chris Parmelee had no urge to let Buck Showalter or anyone else have second thoughts of sending him back down. So he led off the last of the sixth with a solo homer, his second of the game. Tack on RBI-singles from Machado and Snider later in the inning, and the O’s led 17-3. Jimmy Paredes barely missed a grand slam in the eighth, but it ended up being a sac fly-RBI.

Courtesy of Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

However prior to that sac fly-RBI in the eighth inning, Ryan Flaherty launched a solo home run of his own. That was the eighth homer off of Oriole bats this evening, which set a new franchise record for team home runs in a game. So not only was it a huge win in terms of the margin, but literally a record-breaking night for the Orioles as a franchise.

What can’t be lost in the overall magnitude of the game was the effort of Chris Parmelee, who went four-for-six on the night with two homers. Parmelee of course had to be brought to the big league level, otherwise he could have opted out of his contract. Adam Jones was out of the lineup tonight due to a few bumps and bruises, but nothing serious.

The corresponding roster move for Parmelee was Wei-Yin Chen, who was optioned to Frederick. Chen however took to twitter to show his displeasure at the move, which was something that came off as curious – as well as unfortunate. The O’s have an off day on Monday, and it makes perfect sense given that and the fact that Chen doesn’t pitch well in Toronto. 

As if there wasn’t enough in this game, Philadelphia reliever Justin DeFratus was ejected following a homer for throwing far inside to J.J. Hardy. There was very little protest on DeFratus’ or even manager Ryne Sandberg‘s part in the wake of the ejection. To top it off, Ryan Flaherty’s record-breaking home run came off of position player Jeff Francoeur – who came into pitch for Philadelphia.

The O’s will now get on a bus and travel up to Philadelphia where they’ll open up a short two-game series against this same team tomorrow night. Ubaldo Jimenez will be on the mound for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Philadelphia’s Kevin Correia. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Will two NL games foul things up?

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