Baltimore Orioles, Chris Davis back in the saddle again

Chris Davis’ go-ahead RBI-double led the Baltimore Orioles to victory over Cleveland, snapping a four-game losing streak with a much-needed victory.

The Baltimore Orioles and slugger Chris Davis came out of their Texas-sized swoon last night in defeating Cleveland 6-4. While they didn’t play a perfect game, they did enough to win. They also took their strikeout total which had been in the high teens for days, and lowered it to six last night. However while they were certainly more selective in when they would swing, they did exactly what I suggested yesterday: stayed aggressive.

Mike Wright showed some promise, however he was unable to make it out of the fifth inning due to a Cleveland rally. Wright’s line: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K. I found it interesting that Wright was lifted when he was. While the Cleveland rally was obviously getting to him, it was also early. Perhaps this is rhetorical, however is Wright possibly a candidate to be sent down when Gallardo returns?

The O’s jumped on the Tribe early on; Manny Machado gave them a 1-0 lead with an RBI-single in the first inning. Later in the inning with two runners on, Jonathan Schoop‘s two-RBI double gave the Birds a 3-0 lead. That was cut to 3-1 in the last of the second on a Uribe RBI-single.

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The lead narrowed further in the fourth on a Napoli solo homer, however it was the fifth that did Wright in. He loaded the bases with nobody out, and then gave up the tying run on Lindor’s sac fly-RBI. However after Wright left and the O’s turned to Bundy, they managed to end the threat. While Cleveland had the momentum at that point, getting out of that fifth inning with the game only being tied was as big of a thing that happened in the entire game for the O’s.

However it was obvious that the Birds were tired of losing, and perhaps even embarrassed at having been handled so well by Houston. With a runner on in the seventh, Davis split the outfielders with a shot to the gap and gave the O’s the lead back at 4-3. Later in the inning that lead expanded to 6-3 on Mark Trumbo‘s two-run homer. Cleveland’s Lindor would homer in the eighth to bring the Tribe to within 6-4, however it was the Orioles’ night and on they went to victory.

The win broke a four-game losing streak for the Birds, so it’s certainly a big one in that sense. However as I said yesterday, this team isn’t about to start winning games by playing someone else’s game. Small ball doesn’t work with regard to the makeup of this team. It may work fine for teams such as Houston or Tampa, but not this band of sluggers. So while they needed to be more selective in which pitches at which they were swinging, they also needed to keep swinging and being aggressive at the plate.