Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Tillman royally flushes Kansas City

The Baltimore Orioles got perhaps the best performance out of Chris Tillman this year and defeated Kansas City 4-0. The O’s won the series with a sweep.

Some will look at the Baltimore Orioles and starter Chris Tillman last night and think ill of them. In effect, last night’s 4-0 defeat of Kansas City was the coup de grace of beating up on a hapless team. Of course if you want to harken back to Tuesday night, one could argue that the Birds literally “beat up” on a hapless team. Last night’s loss was Kansas City’s seventh straight.

Tillman was incredibly strong, pitching into the eighth inning. TIllman’s line: 7.1 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K. That’s a pretty amazing stat line if you think about it – zero walks and nine strikeouts. Tillman is quietly turning into a power pitcher with great control, and he showed it last night.

The O’s loaded the bases in the fifth inning, and Ryan Flaherty‘s two-RBI double gave them a 2-0 lead. It also left two runners in scoring position for the O’s, who kept the pressure on. Adam Jones‘ sac fly-RBI ran the score to 3-0, and Hyun-Soo Kim‘s RBI-single gave them a 4-0 lead. 

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And that’s you’re ballgame, folks! The rest of it boils down to pitching. Tillman started to struggle a bit in the eighth, after eclisping the 100 pitch mark and then some. Kansas City ended up loading the bases, however Brad Brach was able to pitch out of it. Brach also ended up pitching the ninth, and ended up with a five-out save.

Of course the Orioles sweeping Kansas City isn’t the big story in this series – Tuesday night’s brawl is. The Orioles have resigned themselves to the fact that Manny Machado is probably going to  receive a suspension, although presumably he’ll appeal it once it’s handed down. Assuming he does, he’ll still be able to play during the appeal. So I wouldn’t expect him to be out of the lineup in the immediate future (serving a suspension at least).

Contrast that with Kansas City, who insists that Ventura did nothing wrong. Ventura himself said that he didn’t think he should be suspended at all. Interesting to say the least, however somehow I’m not thinking that MLB is going to view Ventura as the defenseless victim he seems to feel he is. Time will tell.

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Here’s a concern for the O’s, however. They now go to Toronto, which is another team that seems to be able to push their buttons. They generally don’t play well at Rogers Centre, which of course is compounded by the fact that Toronto seems ready to show them up publicly whenever they can. The O’s need to be aware of that, and not allow themselves to get baited into another conflict.

I’m not suggesting that Toronto would start another fight similar to what we saw in the Kansas City series, just because the Orioles might be in the fighting mood. That would obviously negatively affect Toronto as well. However they’re a team that likes to pitch the Orioles inside. The Birds just need to be aware of that.

Next: Batimore Orioles: Accountability must exist in Kansas City

The four-game series begins tonight at Rogers Centre. Tyler Wilson will be on the mound for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Marcus Stroman. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.