– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — Things continue to go from bad to worse for the sputtering Baltimore Orioles, but at least their latest sign of their disturbing downturn didn’t come on the first pitch of the game.
It was the second pitch, actually. Then almost every pitch thrown by Blake Snell afterward continued Baltimore’s misery.
Mike Yastrzemski hit the second pitch of the game out of the park to right field for the Giants, who went on to defeat the Orioles 10-0 inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Tuesday evening. Yastrzemski also had an RBI single as part of a two-run second inning, and Snell struck out 12 batters in six scoreless innings while allowing just one hit.
Since his return from the injured list on July 9 following a groin strain, Snell is 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA with 105 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings, a stretch that includes throwing a no-hitter on August 2 in Cincinnati.
“The guy’s unbelievable. He’s on top of it right now,” Yastrzemski said of Snell. “He’s a special pitcher. It’s pretty cool to see how dominant he can be.”
While Snell continues to roll, the Orioles continue to falter, now losers of seven of nine and have fallen four games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. Back on September 5, Baltimore was on top of the division by a half game, and had the division lead for much of the second half of the season despite their overall second-half struggles.
But the slew of injuries to their starting rotation earlier in the season and, now, to a number of position players over the past few months — Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, Grayson Rodriguez, Ramón Urías and Jorge Mateo to name a few — have caught up with Baltimore, as it has been outscored 46-18 since September 5. Tonight’s defeat was the third time in the last eight games where they have been shut out, and the O’s have scored only 21 total runs over their past 11 contests.
“[Snell] won a Cy Young last year for a reason, and he was just on tonight,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’ve been scuffling offensively, and we had a tough night.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s game, with photos taken by aLOST staff photographer Rodney Pierce. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 30 pictures in total.
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