Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Wright loses with hard luck

Mike Wright was in essence a hard-luck loser as the Baltimore Orioles fell to Kansas City, 6-1.

I know what you’re thinking; how can the Baltimore Orioles fall 6-1 and here I am saying that Mike Wright is a hard-luck loser? Well folks, in essence, he is. Wright’s line: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 0 BB, 4 K. But again, how can a guy who gave up five runs be a hard-luck loser?

Wright was basically left in for one out too many – and in fairness, the Orioles couldn’t have known that he was running on empty with as good as he threw this afternoon. You also have to keep in mind that Kansas

City began their big push today in the way that they normally do…with a fluky play. That’s been their MO for some time.

The O’s actually led early as Mark Trumbo hit an RBI-single in the first inning. However Kansas City evened things up in the last of the fourth on a Gordon solo homer. Two innings later, they took a 2-1 lead on a solo homer off the bat of Hosmer.

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But it was the seventh inning where things unraveled for Mike Wright. Granted Kansas City already had the lead, and all things being the same the Orioles couldn’t push more than one run across. However Gordon reached base on an infield single behind first base. As I said above, they win games on plays like that. That’s not to their detriment or fault by any means, but they take full advantage of the opportunities that they’re afforded – by fate, if you will.

Gordon would score on an RBI-double by Colon, which only turned into a double by virtue of the fact that Rickard tried to gun the runner down at home plate. Speaking for myself, I don’t think it’s totally fair to blame players for trying to cut down a run at home – especially in a game which to that point was very close. However had Rickard just allowed the run to score, a runner would have stayed out of scoring position.

The Orioles paid for that a moment later when Butera’s RBI-double gave Kansas City a 4-1 lead. They would also tack on RBI-singles from Moustakas and Cain. And there’s your ballgame, folks. With the loss, the O’s dropped two-of-three this weekend in Kansas City.

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The Orioles will need to make a roster move at some point between now and tomorrow night’s game in Tampa, which will be started by Kevin Gausman. So unless someone else is injured, a pitcher that’s probably doing fairly well is probably slated for triple-A. Unfortunately it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it was Mike Wright. That’s not to say that he doesn’t belong in the big leagues, but the fact is that he has options.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis with a career high four hits

As I said, the Birds will now head to Tampa for three games, and Gausman will make hjs first start of the season at Tropicana Field in the opener tomorrow. He’ll be opposed by Tampa’s Chris Archer. Game time is set for just after 7 PM tomorrow night.