Rookie manager Craig Albernaz, yet to establish himself in any way at the MLB level, and overmatched in many series he’s skippered, might need some tough love.

Maybe the faux baseball czar who hired him to be Puppet Manager No. 3 – Mike Elias – can call a press conference to tell the novice manager he needs to be mentally tougher with the decisions he makes and learn to fight through more adversity and learn from the nicks he keeps inflicting on his incredibly suspect baseball team. (But we all know Elias himself is the real culprit).

For once again Albernaz played a major role in another devastating defeat for his ballclub  – as the lowly Angels overcame a late three-run deficit to beat the Orioles, 7-6, in extra innings at Angels Stadium. The guy who thought publicly challenging a 21-year-old catcher who has been the unquestioned biggest bright spot on another moribund Baltimore baseball team has yet to show he actually belongs in the show, himself, with no feel or touch on instincts for when to remove his starter and how to handle his (admittedly poor) bullpen

It all ended with Pete Alonso’s two-out single scoring a run in the 10th – Angels reliever Chase Silseth made a tremendous play flipping a ball home to prevent further damage – as the Orioles mustered just two hits after the fourth inning. And in the bottom of the inning with a runner on third, Alonso never covered first on a grounder to second and reliever Keegan Akin was late to the bag and the tying run scored. Lumbering Nolan Schanuel ended up all the way on third and scored on a dribbler just up the third base line, with Samuel Basallo, 21, unable to put the tag on the winning run (he caught 10 innings in day game after a night game; second time pulling that double duty in four days)

“Defense in general,” Albernaz said of what needs continued work on this team. “We didn’t help ourselves at all, three errors today and we also had seven walks. That’s not a good recipe to win baseball games.”

Nope. But that plus a lightweight skipper is a pretty apt description of The Elias Way.

A team hardwired for fielding failure by a front office that is pathetic in player development and instilling fundamental baseball, is 38-44 in no small part because Elias and Albernaz are not good at their jobs. And Albernaz yanking rookie starter Trey Gibson (just 66 pitches) after just four innings despite starting to dominate the Angels lineup – and with the Orioles’ bullpen collapsing – is where this game started to get away, resulting in a 4-6 West Coast trip.

“Fresh bullpen,” is how Albernaz explained, dubiously, the quick hook, “and they jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Trey was grinding through the early innings and kind of turned it on the last two.”

Gibson did yield a two-run bomb to Jorge Solar in the first, then showed maturity in sloughing that off and then slicing up the Angels. He struck out five, using his entire arsenal and not leaning too hard into any specific offering; he also had a 50% called strike/whiff rate on his sinker, which he did throw more than any other pitch. Gibson was blowing 98mph past a dazed lineup, oozing confidence while leaping off the mound after punchouts.

The cub manager – who wishes his rookie campaign was going half as well as Basallo’s – opted instead to mix and match relivers and he failed.

Once Albernaz went to Rico Garcia, who has been falling apart all month, in the 8th with a 5-2 lead you could sense the dread (you could sense it in Jim Palmer’s voice on the MASN broadcast as soon as Gibson was yanked). Garcia gave up a leadoff double and then a single and walk with two outs, leaving with the Orioles down, 5-3. Andrew Kittredge entered and promptly walked Denzer Guzman (who struck out three times previously) to load the bases and Wade Meckler singled to tie the game.

Garcia has allowed eight earned runs and four home runs in eight innings pitched this month. “He’s not as efficient as he has been,” Albernaz said, not grasping the gravity of the journeyman reliever’s decline. Ryan Hesley was able to navigate a clean 9th – a rarity for him – and Akin, not very athletic, came a play at first from bailing the manager out. Baseball Gods had other ideas.

Sammy Tried To Save The Day

Basallo shook off the 1pm start after working late Tuesday, smashing a 432-foot, two-run homer to center off Angels ace Jose Soriano’’s best pitch, a splitter that he had surrendered one extra base it off all season. He followed that up with a two-run homer to right in the third and Alonso drove in the other runs; those two went five-for-nine with six RBIs, the rest of the lineup was four-for-28 after being no hit through five innings by a rookie on Tuesday.

Basallo has been one of the Orioles top three hitters since May 1 and is carrying a heavy load with Adley Rutschman often injured. He now has 249 plate appearances with 12 homers and 35 RBIs with a .782 OPS, while catching 316 1/3 innings. Rutschman has 228 plate appearances with 8 homers and 40 RBIs and a .787 OPS (but well below .700 since May 1); a real front office would deal him by the trade deadline with his contract up after 2027.

“Without Sammy hitting those two home runs we wouldn’t be in the game,” noted Albernaz, who one suspects will chose his words more carefully about his kid catcher from here on out.

Bird Seed

Blaze Alexander was back in the lineup after fouling a ball off his knee a few nights ago … Jackson Holliday did not start or play the field still nursing a groin issue he picked up on the road trip and struck out as a pinch hitter … The Orioles are 16-25 on the road.

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