Baltimore Orioles, Manny Machado, swept out of the Bronx

Going into this series we said that Manny Machado and the Baltimore Orioles needed to avoid being swept in New York. Yet with this afternoon’s tough 9-3 loss, that’s exactly what happened. The O’s now trail New York by seven games in the AL East. While the season is far from over, this makes the road all the more tougher.

Ubaldo Jimenez had a tough outing today, not even being able to make it out of the third inning. Jimenez’s line: 2.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 2 K. Jimenez loaded the bases right off the bat, however recorded two quick outs and appeared to be on his way to pitching out of the jam. However Chase Headley‘s bases-clearing three-RBI triple gave New York an early 3-0 lead. Did Gregorious added an RBI-single as well before the end of the inning.

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There wasn’t one thing that went the Orioles’ way in this game, from bounces to rolls. If the O’s put a shift on, NY batters hit against it. If they tried to dump one into the gaps, NY fielders ran it down. That’s generally what happens when things aren’t going well for you.

Chris Davis got the Orioles on the board in the top of the second with a solo homer. However Jacoby Ellsbury answered with a solo shot of his own in the last of the inning, and a Stephen Drew RBI-double in the third ran the score to 6-1. Tack on a sac fly-RBI by Jacoby Ellsbury, and the Orioles trailed 7-1 after three. Two innings later Ellsbury added a two-RBI double to open up a 9-1 lead for NY.

Courtesy of Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The only good news of the day for the O’s was that the bats came somewhat to life before the end of the game – from the standpoint of home runs, that is. J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado each added solo homers in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 9-3. However there was little that the Orioles could do at that point, as the game had been out of control for some time.

The concern from the Orioles’ standpoint is that this team is struggling at exactly when they were starting to turn it on last season. And in fact, this time around it’s New York that’s starting to turn on the afterburners in a sense. Having said this, the Orioles really need to step it up moving foward from this point. The post season isn’t out of reach, but they need to ensure that they remain competitive…

…and the best way to do just that is to make a move. If in fact they’re serious about being buyers (which I still believe that they should be), they should make that purchase right now. Don’t see what the market yields, don’t let it ride, just make the move. Because at the current rate if they wait until the deadline to make a trade it’ll already by too late. And that would truly be a travesty in that they would have bought so late that their new purchase couldn’t help them out. In other words, they would have given away valuable chips for nothing.

The Orioles will now head to Tampa this evening where they’ll open up a three-game series tomorrow night. This will be the Orioles’ third series in Tampa this year, but only their first since opening week in which they were classified as the visitors. (Hey cut me a break – just wanted to add some levity!) Chris Tillman will make the start for the Orioles tomorrow night, coming off of course his best outing of the season. He’ll be opposed by Tampa’s Chris Archer. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

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