Opponent: California Angels
Outcome: L
Score: 5-7
Streak: L1
Record: 46-86
Rank: 7th
GB: 29
The Orioles made a trade before the game today, sending veteran outfielder Fred Lynn to the Tigers in exchange for three players to be named later. Lynn had joined the Orioles as a free agent prior to the 1985 season after 10 years playing with the Red Sox and Angels. He played OK for the Birds but he was frequently injured during his almost four seasons with the team. The most games he ever played in a season for Baltimore was 124 in 1985. He had been one of my favorite players when he was with the Red Sox - the first year I followed baseball was 1975, the season in which he became the first player to ever win the Rookie Of The Year and MVP awards in the same season (Ichiro Suzuki is the only other player to do it) - and I was sad to see him leave the Orioles but I understood the move. He would spend the 1989 season in Detroit before returning to southern California in 1990 with the Padres for the final season of his career.
"Later" in the case of the three players the Orioles received for Lynn turned out to be September 9th when it was announced that they had received catcher Chris Hoiles and pitchers Cesar Mejia and Robinson Garces from Detroit. Neither Mejia or Garces ever played in the majors - in fact each of them only spent one season in the Orioles' organization (1989) and both were out of baseball (at least as active players) after 1990. Hoiles on the other hand became the regular catcher for the Birds during most of the 90's and was elected to the Orioles Hall Of Fame in 2006.
Tonight's game was exceptionally frustrating. The Orioles would get 16 batters on base tonight behind 14 hits and two walks but would only score five runs. They managed to only have six guys left on base however. How did they achieve this feat? They grounded into four double plays and had a runner picked off.
The Orioles came out of the gate swinging this evening. Joe Orsulak led off the game with a double and Brady Anderson followed with a bunt single. A Cal Ripken sacrifice fly brought Orsulak in with the first run of the game. After Eddie Murray popped out, Anderson stole second which allowed him to score on Larry Sheets' single. Jim Traber then connected for a two run home run to make it 4-0. Terry Kennedy followed with a single before Rene Gonzales grounded out to end the inning.
Orioles starter Jay Tibbs pitched very well over the first six innings of the game. He walked one batter and gave up two hits but ended up only facing one batter over the minimum through six innings due to Jim Eppard of the Angels grounding into two double plays. Unfortunately as I mentioned before the Orioles were having similar offensive issues of their own. A Cal Ripken lead off single in the third was immediately erased when Eddie Murray ground into a double play. In the fourth the Birds got two on with one out when Kennedy and Gonzales had back-to-back singles but Bill Ripken hit into an inning ending double play. The fifth inning was exceptionally egregious. Orsulak led off the inning with a single but was picked off of first immediately by Angels starter Wille Fraser. Anderson then walked but Cal Ripken followed with a ground ball to shortstop that the Angels converted into their third double play in three innings. The Orioles had gotten a single and a walk in the inning and yet still managed to finish the inning with having only sent three men to the plate.
Things fell apart for the Orioles in the bottom of the seventh. Johnny Ray broke up Tibbs' shutout by leading off the inning with a home run. Wally Joyner followed with a single and after Brian Downing popped out Chili Davis his a single as well to chase Tibbs from the mound.
Sometimes when a team makes a defensive replacement you'll sometimes hear announcers talking about how the ball will find the new guy. I'm not sure I've heard it with pitchers before but the ball found new Orioles reliever Doug Sisk - the first batter he faced (Tony Armas) hit a ground ball that Sisk fielded and made a bad throw to first on. Armas was safe and the bases were now loaded. Eppard made up for hitting into two double plays by lining a two RBI single. Orioles manager Frank Robinson pulled Sisk from the game and replaced him with Mark Thurmond who hit Jack Howell with a pitch to load the bases back up. Out went Thurmond and in came Mark Williamson. Dick Schofield greeted the new pitcher with a two RBI single to put the Angels up 5-4. Williamson managed to get Mark McLemore to line out and Ray to fly out to end the inning. The Angels sent 10 men to the plate and scored five runs on five hits, an error and a hit by pitch.
The Orioles came back in the eighth. George Hendrick had come in to play left field this inning and the ball immediately found him - Cal Ripken lined a shot into the gap between left and center field that Hendrick somehow misplayed. Cal ended up at third and was given credit for a double and Hendrick was charged with an error that allowed Cal the extra base. After Murray had a shallow fly out Pete Stanicek (who had replaced Sheets in left the previous inning) singled to score Cal with the game tying run. But Jim Traber grounded into the Birds' fourth double play of the evening to end the threat.
Joyner led off the Angel's half of the eighth with a double and moved to third on Downing's ground out. Williamson issued an intentional walk to Davis to set up a double play but Armas foiled that plan by lining a double to put the Angels back on top. After Darrell Miller (who had run for Eppard in the previous inning) struck out for the second out Williamson issued his second intentional walk of the inning - this time to Jack Howell. This loaded the bases for Schofield who was able to work a walk to force in a run and extend the Angels' lead to two. Finally Williamson got McLemore to fly out to end the inning.
The Orioles would manage to get a couple runners on base in the ninth but they failed to score. On the plus side though they at least failed with out the benefit of yet another double play.
The loss brought what had been the Orioles best month by far of the season to an end on a sour note. The Birds almost managed to break even in August, going 14-15 on the month. They actually outscored their opponents 120-117 this month. Unfortunately they would not sustain this improvement over the final month of the season.
My friend Steve had moved from Delaware to Boston without having introduced me to Sabra, the woman that he thought I should meet. But he gave me her phone number and told me that he told her that I would be calling. I'm a fairly shy person and the thought of cold calling someone like this terrified me but I called her this evening and she turned out to be very nice. We ended up talking on the phone for almost two hours and set up a date to go out to dinner on Friday up in Delaware.
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