Baltimore Orioles, Ubaldo Jimenez with a tough night in Detroit

The good news for the Baltimore Orioles is that Ubaldo Jimenez was the one who gave up all of the team’s runs tonight. That might well sound strange, but given Jimenez’s body of work this year, one can probably chalk this up to just a clunker of a start. Jimenez’s line: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 5 K.

Pitchers will have starts like this over the course of the season. And in fact, it might well have been something that the O’s could have overcome – if not for the fact that the offense continued to piecemeal runs together one-by-one. The O’s were 1-for-14 with RISP tonight, which will not get the job done. Not by any shake of the imagination.

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Courtesy of Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports

The Orioles were trailing right off the bat when Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer off of Jimenez in the first inning. However even at that time, it looked as if the Birds might well stay in the game. Jonathan Schoop‘s RBI-single in the top of the second cut the lead to 2-1. Little did we know that would be the sole Oriole hit with a runner in scoring position.

Detroit expanded their lead back to two on Anthony Gose‘s RBI-double in the second, however in the fourth Chris Parmelee‘s RBI-groundout brought the Birds back to within 3-2. And that’s where Detroit started pouring it on. Jose Inglesias’ three-run homer in the last of the fourth inning left the lead at 6-2 in Detroit’s favor. It also broke open the game, which stayed wide open following J.D. Martinez‘s solo shot in the fifth to run the score to 7-2.

The Orioles would cut the lead to 7-3 as Chris Davis reached on an error in the seventh which scored a run. The Birds would threaten in the ninth, however Davis got called out on strikes with two on and one out – on a pitch that was well outside. Matt Wieters would then ground out to end the game.

You can’t go 1-for-14 with RISP and expect to win. Now having said that, the Orioles’ bullpen shut Detroit down. Not one of those seven runs was charged to a reliever. Very notably, Tommy Hunter and Brian Matusz were intregal in shutting Detroit down and giving the offense a chance to get the team back into the game. 

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The Davis strikeout in the ninth inning also stuck out to me. In no uncertain terms, the pitch was way outside. However given the Orioles’ inability to score of late, that’s not a pitch location that he should take and assume it’ll be called ball four. At a moment when the team needs base runners to stay alive, that was a situation in which he needed to swing the bat.

The series continues tomorrow night with game two, which will bring Chris Tillman back to the mound. He’ll be opposed by Detroit’s David Price. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

Next: Baltimore Orioles, Ubaldo Jimenez start with a new beginning

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