Last night was oh so close to being magical. The Yankees went down early on against the Braves, giving the Orioles a nice chance of re-taking the AL East lead. Meanwhile in Houston, the O’s snagged a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning, had already gotten into the Astros’ bullpen, and still had Grayson Rodriguez on the mound. Things were lining up well!
But then, disaster struck. Rodriguez surrendered a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, Jacob Webb and Dillon Tate were putrid in relief, and the Orioles lost. You cannot blame the offense though. They put up a valiant effort to come back, scoring seven times in the eighth inning and out-hitting the Astros 18-11 on the night. It just was not enough to overcome a horrific game for the hurlers.
Unlike some other fan bases, we won’t panic over a single nightmarish evening. It’s one game, and it’s something that is bound to happen over a long season.
And even if you are down about it, you won’t have much time to sulk. The Orioles are back at it this afternoon at 4:10 with Corbin Burnes on the mound. While that doesn’t guarantee a win, it should have you feeling pretty good about the O’s chances in any instance, especially with the bats swinging as well as they have the past few days.
Before we move onto the links of the day, I just wanted to feature Gunnar Henderson, because that is never a bad idea. His three-hit, two-homer night has pushed him into sole ownership of the highest bWAR (5.8) and fWAR (5.5) in all of baseball.
While there is still half of a season left, the race for AL MVP is turning into a two-horse race between Henderson and Aaron Judge. At the moment, Judge still has the slight edge in a number of offensive categories, but it’s close. When you factor in base-running and defense—two areas where Judge is simply fine while Henderson is tremendous—the current leader becomes obvious.
