Yesterday, a piece of the future of the Orioles – potentially a great piece of the future of the Orioles – made his much-anticipated debut of the premier league.
In a perfect world, Ryan Mountcastle would have been welcomed in Baltimore by thousands of raging, cheering fans at Camden Yards, instead of a sad piece of pre-recorded audience sound on the PA system. That did not happen, thanks to COVID-19.
And in a perfect world, Mountcastle’s debut would have thrown up an inspiring, feel-good, victory from an Orioles ball club in desperate need of one.
That did not happen either. Because the 2020 Orioles can just save outside.
The Orioles’ losing streak stretched to six games with another confirmed loss to last-place Red Sox, 8-5, because an enormously early hole proved too deep to dig out.
Let’s get to the good game first, starting with Mountcastle leading the Orioles out of the dugout at the top of the first … only, they did not follow him exactly.
Oh, you pranksters.
At the bottom of the second inning, Mountcastle stepped up to the plate for the first time as a big leaguer. So how did that first at-bat go for Ryan Mountcastle, the man who is offensively good at everything except walking? The man who asked the minors about his lack of record discipline? The man with last year running it 4.3% percent? Man … OK, I think you see where I’m going with this.
Yes, Ryan Mountcastle luts a walk in his first record appearance in the big leagues! He fell in the count 1-2 to Colten Brewer, but fell off a pitch and then patiently pulled the next three out of the stretch zone for the free pass. Woo! 1,000 OBP, baby! If he retired now, that would be a record. (Please do not leave now.)
Mountcastle’s second appearance was almost unsuccessful. With one striker on board and one out in the fourth, Mountcastle swung on all three of Brewer’s fields, fouling one and whiffing on the other two, for a quick strikeout. Puppy.
That at-bat, sadly, was fairly representative of the approach of the entire lineup against Brewer on this night. When the game began, MASN broadcasters Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald talked about how Brewer was probably just used as an opener – because he only made one previous start in 77 MLB appearances of career – and tends to running a lot of hitters (5.6 career walks per nine). And, indeed, a better team could have put together some rallies against Brewer and get him out of the game after maybe two innings.
The Orioles were not that team. Brewer dominated them so closely that he was able to work four full innings, the longest exit of his career. His control problems did not really materialize; he issued two free passes but threw 50 of his 71 pitches for strikes. Colten Brewer was just going to be a stopgap until a better solution came; instead, he used to be the solution, thanks to the unreasonable misconduct of the Orioles.
Besides, is there a pitcher on the Brewers named Colten Red Sox? These are the things I think about.
Back to Mountcastle, whose third at-bat in the sixth came against rookie lefty Darwinzon Hernandez. He saw two pitches and took a big swing at each, missing the first and passing the second to Kevin Pillar in right field for a flyout.
Beyond Mountcastle there is not much to say about the first six innings of this game, which were not the least competitive. The start made for the Orioles was John Means, who was only ticketed to save three or four innings because the O’s stopped his work pressure. Means showed flashes of his excellent 2019 self – including a perfect first pitch of six pitches, in which he raised his fastball to 95 mph – but fell victim to a few home runs, a solo from Xander Bogaerts in the second and a JD Martinez two-run blast in the third. Means extended the game to three innings and 44 pitches, giving him four hits and three runs. His season ERA is 10.13.
Once long relief Jorge Lopez got involved, things got out of hand. He coughed a three-run homer to Rafael Devers in the fifth, then a Michael Chavis two-run single through an introduced infield in the sixth. That made it an 8-0 match. “Yeah, not a whole go for the Orioles well,” McDonald complained after another Red Sox hit. That could easily sum up O ‘baseball this whole week.
That 8-0 deficit remained at the bottom of the seventh when the Orioles finally started making noise. Against veteran lefty Josh Osich – who was an Oriole in the spring training for about a month in 2019 – the Birds basked back-to-back at home by Pat Valaika and, surprisingly, Cedric Mullins, with each landing in almost the same section in the empty left-field seats. The Mullins explosion was his first in the bigs since 2018 and his first ever as a right-hander.
The next innings saw the Orioles rise again, with Mountcastle playing a prominent part. When one was up and two out, Mountcastle Osich worked for an eight-touch bat, exchanging several loud foul balls before Osich gave up and threw the ball four. Those are two walks for Mountcastle! As Brown pointed out on MASN, Mountcastle only had two games last season at Triple-A – out of 127 – in which he drew two walks. And now he has done it in his first MLB game.
The next catch, Chance Sisco, made Osich pay, sweating an opposite field, three-run homer to the left. Similarly, the Orioles’ one-time deficit of eight runs was cut to 8-5.
Unfortunately, it was too bad, too late, and the O’s could not make out the rest of the hole. Despite the Red Sox having traded closer to Brandon Workman in the middle of the game, Matt Barnes dropped in for the ninth inning, allowing a leadoff-colored single to Mullins (who quietly hit .324, by the way) before putting the next three hitters in order.
With that, the Orioles fell below .500 after two games and no end in sight for their downfall. Welcome to the big one, Ryan. It can be a long year.
