Wednesday 8/19 O's

Tillman’s secondary pitches looked outstanding and he was able to throw his curve or change-up on any count. As he was quoted in the Sun this morning, he simply needs to do a better job of throwing first pitches for strikes down in the zone. He threw a lot of first pitch strikes which is great, but I think all three homers hit off of him last night were on the first pitch. At least Zobrist and Upton’s were, b/c the Rays broadcast nearly missed both with all their jibber jabber in between innings.
The Rays made a number of big plays, but none bigger than Bartlett’s attempted catch on Izturis’ line drive with the bases loaded, picking up the ball and gunning down Wieters at the plate. Kudos to Wieters for actually holding at third to make sure the line drive gets through the infield. It was just a bad break, right after we got a big break when Pie’s dribbler hit a crease in the Tropicana rug and Niemann was unable to make a play at first. Another critical play was similar to the play Crawford made in this year’s All-Star game, as he made a great catch in the 7th on Pie’s long ball to the left field wall with Wieters on 1B after a walk (not that he would have scored unless Pie got an inside the park HR!). The bottom line is that The Rays made pitches and plays when they had to, and deserved the win. This isn’t a game that I get upset about though, as we had some chances and played a solid ballgame.

The only criticism I have is leaving Tillman in the game to start the 7th. He had thrown 100 pitches and given up a handful of hits and 2 runs. Why not take him out of the game and leave him a really nice start? Makes no sense whatsoever to me, and the point was driven home as Upton drove the first pitch of the bottom of the 7th well into the left field seats. Enter Trembly to pull Tillman. Come on Dave, protect this kid!

Aside from the pitching, which I truly believe will come around and we’ve seen the start of it, the other terribly glaring deficiency with this team is a lack of HR hitters. Now I will assume that Reimold and Wieters both continue to develop power, but neither are going to be a 35-40 HR guy, as far as I can tell. This goes back to my suggestion last year to sign Adam Dunn. Not that we needed a DH, but we need someone who hits HR, and his K’s don’t kill you all the time as they are better than a double-play, right? Anyway, I am not sure he was or is the answer, but we need more power in the middle of this line-up. The Angels, Yankees and Rays have killed us this year with the long ball. Quick and easy runs, and we see so few of them with the O’s. I am not sure how this can be addressed in the off-season without trading a lot of talent, but it’s a major concern. We just don’t score enough runs.
Here’s hoping Matusz throws a nice game tonight and we get a win. Go O’s