After misplays from Anthony Nunez and Coby Mayo allowed the Pirates to tie the game in the 8th, a Nick Yorke walkoff single in the 9th doomed the Orioles to their second straight loss in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
Despite being tied at 2-2 heading into the bottom of the 9th, manager Craig Albernaz turned to close Ryan Helsley to bring the game to extras. After starting the inning by getting Brandon Lowe to ground out to second, Helsley left a fastball over the plate to Bryan Reynolds. The former All-Star smashed a line drive to deep left field that sailed just over Dylan Beavers\u2019 glove for a one-out double.<\/p>\n
After intentionally walking Ryan O\u2019Hearn, Yorke came to the plate looking to end the game. With the count knotted at 2-2, Helsley fired a fastball at Yorke\u2019s knees that seemed to catch the bottom of the zone. However, home plate umpire Dan Iassogna incorrectly called it a ball, and the Orioles were out of challenges after a failed challenge in the top of the 9th from Gunnar Henderson. The very next pitch, Yorke lined a single to left field to bring home Reynolds and walk off the O\u2019s.<\/p>\n
While the 9th inning stung, the real pain point for Birdland came in the 8th. Albernaz gave the rookie Nunez his first high-leverage opportunity of the season, sending him in for the penultimate frame with Baltimore up 2-1. The first batter Nunez faced reached base when Marcel Ozuna dribbled a ball up the third base line that Mayo failed to field cleanly. The O\u2019s 3B somewhat redeemed himself on the next AB, throwing out new Pirates star Konnor Griffin on a grounder as pinch-runner Yorke went to second. Spencer Horwitz then grounded out to second to put the tying run at third.<\/p>\n
Pirates manager Don Kelly then pinch-hit former Ray Jake Mangum for No. 9 hitter Joey Bart. The slap-hitting outfielder chopped a ball into the triangle between the pitcher, 1B and 2B. The grounder barely evaded Nunez\u2019s glove, allowing Mangum to reach and Yorke to score the tying run.<\/p>\n
The O\u2019s held that lead for most of the game thanks to a two-run rally in the 4th. With the game tied at 0-0, Gunnar Henderson led off the inning by lining a hanging CB into right field for a single. Adley Rutschman then singled sharply up the middle to move Gunnar to third. Dylan Beavers followed Rutschman\u2019s lead, attacking a first-pitch splitter from Pirates starter Carmen Mlodzinski and sending it to center field to bring home Gunnar. After Mayo walked, another rocket single from Leody Taveras gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Throughout most of the afternoon, it looked like two runs were all the O\u2019s would need thanks to starter Shane Baz. The right-hander had dominated the Pirates in his only previous outing vs. Pittsburgh and continued that dominant streak Saturday in PNC Park.<\/p>\n
Early on, it looked like we might see a repeat of his up-and-down Orioles debut. Baz walked leadoff batter Oneil Cruz on a 3-2 fastball, replaced him with Brandon Lowe on a fielder\u2019s choice and then gave up a single to No.3 hitter Bryan Reynolds. Instead of unraveling, however, Baz locked in; he punched out Ryan O\u2019Hearn on a 3-2 fastball up and away, before striking out Marcell Ozuna looking on a fastball away.<\/p>\n
From there, the former Pirates first-round pick entered cruise control against his former employers. He sped through the 2nd inning on only 11 pitches, getting a groundout from baseball\u2019s No. 1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, a soft lineout from Spencer Horwitz and a flyout by Nick Gonzales. Baz was even more efficient in the 3rd, setting down Joey Bart, Cruz and Lowe just eight pitches, including making the Pirates CF look silly on a knuckle curve for the right-hander\u2019s third strikeout.<\/p>\n
The only blemish on his record came in the form of an unearned run in the 4th. Pitching with a 2-0 lead, Baz allowed Reynolds to reach on a tapper down the first base line, which the Orioles\u2019 pitcher fielded but couldn\u2019t get out of his glove in time.<\/p>\n
The former Oriole O\u2019Hearn followed that E1 with a hard single to right field. Both runners advanced on a groundout to Coby Mayo at third, who bobbled the grounder, forcing him to only take the out at first. After Baz hit Griffin to load the bases, Horwitz flicked a well-located curveball into left for a sac fly. Baz then got Gonzales to softly line out, ending the scoring threat and preserving a 2-1 Orioles lead.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old started to show some signs of fatigue in the 5th. After striking out Bart looking with another excellent knuckle curve, and getting Cruz to fly out, Baz issued two walks on 10 pitches to put the tying run at second. O\u2019Hearn couldn\u2019t play hero agains the O\u2019s, though, sending a towering fly ball to center for the final out of the inning.<\/p>\n
Perhaps unexpectedly, Baz returned for the bottom of the 6th, having already thrown 83 pitches. He picked up his fifth and final strikeout of the afternoon on another well-spun curveball to Ozuna. After getting Griffin to ground out to Mayo, Baz looked to finish off his quality start against Horwitz. Instead, the Pirates 1B would slice an automatic double into the left field bleachers to chase the Orioles starter.<\/p>\n
After Rico Garcia came in and got the last out of the 6th, it closed Baz\u2019s line at 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 3 BB and 5 K. While he only managed to get one more out than in his debut, the Orioles\u2019 newest flame-throwing Texan showed the quality of pitching that earned him his recent $68M\/5 years extension.<\/p>\n
The bullpen arms followed Baz\u2019s up until the 8th inning. Garcia walked the first batter he faced in Gonzales, but got Bart to roll over a slider to end the scoring threat. Lefty Grant Wolfram was equally cool under pressure; after giving up a single to Cruz to lead off the 7th, he struck out Lowe and Reynolds before getting O\u2019Hearn to ground out.<\/p>\n
The offense was not a particular bright spot either for the Orioles, as the bats only went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. However, given the late-inning meltdown by the pitching and defense, the offense will dodge most of the blame.<\/p>\n
The Orioles will once again try and salvage the third game of an already-lost series tomorrow afternoon, when Chris Bassitt takes the mound on Easter. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35pm ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After misplays from Anthony Nunez and Coby Mayo allowed the Pirates to tie the game in the 8th,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,4871,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-664054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles-scores-standings","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116350330042396015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}