Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Tillman loses only his third game

Chris Tillman lost only his third game of the season last night as the Baltimore Orioles fell to Colorado, 6-3.

The Baltimore Orioles should probably just pack it in and go home – because Chris Tillman lost his third game of the season last night. I kid of course, however in the loss Tillman didn’t look particularly bad. As I said yesterday, it seems that Colorado and the O’s simply just match up well against each other. Tillman’s line: 5.0 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 0 BB, 4 K.

Tillman didn’t look particularly poor as I said, but he wasn’t as crisp as he normally is either. And that’s going to happen sometimes. He’s won the majority of his “in-between starts” (in terms of the outing being good or bad), so the pendulumn was probably due to tick the other way for once. Colorado’s starter Bettis also stymied Oriole bats for most of the night, which didn’t help Tillman.

Colorado took a 2-0 lead in the third when Gonzalez sent a ground-rule two-RBI double down the left field line. The ball bounced fair and then into the stands, which of course is why it was a ground-rule double. Later in the inning Story’s two-RBI single gave Colorado some padding, and they led 4-0.

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The thing that killed a lot of people about Gonzalez’s two-RBI double is the fact that it was the opposite way. Given that he’s a left-handed hitter, the O’s shaded him to right field. And go figure, he hit the ball to left field…right where they weren’t playing him.

Arenado’s RBI-double in the fifth ran the lead to 5-0. And later in the inning with a runner at third, Tillman uncorked a wild pitch and allowed a sixth run to score. Yes folks, maybe it wasn’t Tillman’s night. But let’s not start thinking that the Chris Tillman we’ve seen the entire season was a mirage and that the real Tillman came out last night. Hopefully most people know that’s not the case.

The O’s did mount a rally, however. Adam Jones smacked a two-run homer in the last of the fifth. That cut the lead to 6-2, and it went down to 6-3 when Mark Trumbo scored on a wild pitch in the last of the eighth. However it wasn’t meant to be for the O’s last night, and they went down in defeat 6-3 to Colorado. 

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Perhaps the highlight of the night (from the Orioles’ perspective) was Tyler Wilson coming in to relieve Tillman in the sixth. Not only did Wilson finish out the game (saving the Orioles’ bullpen a bit), but he pitched four perfect innings and struck out three. That’s pretty impressive, and I suspect that the coaching staff took notice. 

Next: Baltimore Orioles win a game of inches

The series with Colorado will conclude this evening with a rubber match. Dylan Bundy will be on the hill for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Colorado’s Jon Gray. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.