Orioles: Missed opportunities are an understatement from Friday night

The Orioles set the tone early, but then squandered all of it late. Tempting Father Baseball is a cruel thing, and the O’s paid on Friday night.

The game was barely underway on last Friday, when both Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo got back to back hits to leadoff the game. Then the Orioles speedsters pulled off a massive double steal to put runners in scoring position early. From there, frustration was the name of the game all night.

You cannot temp the baseball gods and think you can get away with it, for long at least. So far this season, the Orioles have been doing just that. According to teamrankings.com, the O’s are dead last in the Major League when it comes to players left on base (LOB).

Through the first month of baseball, the O’s have seen highs, lows, joy, pain, and honestly, every emotion in between. Even with the leaving so many runners on base, they have been enjoying success, well, it appears that those missed opportunities have reared their ugly heads, as it all came to fruition last evening.

Orioles: Missed opportunities are an understatement from Friday night

After the 1st inning woes, their wasted chances pushed on way into the late innings of Friday nights game in Detroit. It all began, with loading the bases in the 7th inning, only to leave them all there and remaining scoreless.

After back-to-back home runs by Trey Mancini and Anthony Santander to begin the eighth, cutting a four-run deficit in half, the Orioles loaded the bases for the second straight inning but couldn’t push across another run. From there, things looked up, but only just.

If the O’s were looking to finish the game with a bang, they had the perfect opportunity. How often have you grown up playing ball in your head, or in the backyard, and you came up to the plate, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded? Both Ramon Urias and Rylan Bannon had that shot, but both failed measurably.

The game of baseball can be a fickle beast, and last night Father Baseball reached out and struck the Orioles down. On the other side of the beast, is the one that can help you, and you can a chance night in and night out. The O’s go again, and let’s all hope that they can get on the right side of luck, and take advantage of those chances from here on out.