Orioles Lineup Is Meek Again In 3-1 Loss To Start Vital Road Trip

Brandon Young has been the salvation in an Orioles starting rotation that is among the worst in the sport by any metric. Not because he is special, but because he is not awful.

Young is their only starter with a truly effective fastball and he understands how to pair the four-seamer with his two-seamer and he’s only had one truly brutal outing all season. Tuesday, at the start of a critical 10-game West Coast trip, Young presented himself quite well again, but he doesn’t get paid to hit, so he and the Orioles lost, 3-1, at T-Mobile Park with Mariners starter Logan Gilbert stellar for seven innings.

Baltimore’s allegedly potent offense was inept away from home again – as has been the norm -dropping their third straight game (failing to score more than three runs in any of them after scoring seven runs in three straight games). The Orioles are 12-21 on the road, and 16-24 against winning teams, and 34-40 on the season. They are a product of the fugazi baseball exec who built them, Mike Elias,

This was Young’s fifth straight solid outing with him using this big ballpark and a wind that was blowing in and getting more flyball outs than had been the norm. Young has allowed three earned runs or less in eight straight starts and, most improbably of all, he pitched into the seventh inning for the fifth-straight time.

"BY did more than enough for us to win the game," manager Craig Albernaz told reporters after the game. "He kept us in the game."

A rotation that entered this series with an unthinkable 5.55 ERA on the road, allowing an.808 collective OPS, and is sending struggling ace Kyle Bradish to the mound Wednesday against a lineup that bludgeoned him in Baltimore last week desperately needed Young to continue his ascent.

Young’s fastball – the league was batting just .134 off it entering this start -worked well again Tuesday; he threw it 40 percent of the time and yielded just one hit off it. The splitter, however, a key to his recent ground ball surge, was not sharp; he threw it 22 times and picked up a single called strike with it and no whiffs. He induced just six swing and miss all night – he does not have elite stuff – but battles and has largely overachieved.

"The goal is to minimize damage," Yoiung said of an outing in which he was often behind in the count and lacked great commane, "and keep them off the barrel and make pitches when I need to."

He gifted Seattle a run with the loss of control in the third – two walks and a single – and left in the seventh after a groundball ate up Blaze Alexander at third and top prospect Colt Emerson singled to left on a line drive. Grant Wolfram, a lefty who cannot get out lefties with his pedestrian stuff, faced second and third after a sac bunt, then walked light-hitting JP Crawford and paid for it big time.

Former home run king Cal Raleigh, just back from the Injured List, smacked a line drive to left scoring two runs, and that lead would stick. Why would you go to Wolfram there coming off an off day to start a make-or-break road trip? Because that's what you get when Elias fails to consider any experienced managers and picks a new puppet for the job.

"The biggest thing that really hurt that inning was the walk to JP," Albernaz mustered in defending his bullpen decision, I guess.

Let's be clear - Albernaz has been every bit as bad as his team.

Quiet Bats Again

There would be no rally tonight. You see, Gilbert was absolutely dominant. He's been bad all season at home. but did whatever he wanted Tuesday whenever he wanted it.

Taylor Ward’s leadoff double – he thought it was leaving the park but the wind had other ideas – was as good as it got. As has often been the case the middle of the lineup – Gunnar Henderson (.708 OPS) and Pete Alonso – couldn’t do anything to move runners, before rookie Samuel Basallo’s knocked Ward in with a savvy at bat where he stayed within himself.

Then Gilbert retired 16 straight hitters without breaking much of a sweat. The Orioles were at their chasing, and whiffing worst; Gilbert struck out 10 (he owned them in two starts this season despite looking shaky early in the first in both), gave up just the two hits and walked one.

"It's unbelievably frustrating," Henderson said of his season-long funk.

Bird Seed

The Orioles activated closer Ryan Helsley from a prolonged stint on the Injured List and sent slumping reliever Anthony Nunez to AAA … Injured starters Dean Kremer and Cade Povich are set to begin minor-league rehab starts … Injured starter Chris Bassitt received an injection in his back and is scheduled to begin a throwing program … Injured outfielder Dylan Beavers will begin a rehab assignment soon as well … The Mariners placed Orioles-killer Randy Arozarena, who bashed their staff again last week in Baltimore, on the IL before the start of this series. He has a .309/.363/.552 slash (.915 OPS) with 17 homers and 50 RBIs in 67 games against the Orioles .., Adley Rutschman had caught just once in the last 10 days with a hamstring issue but was back behind the plate Tuesday against his hometown team.

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