masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe minutes that passed after the final out today didn’t alter the Orioles’ perception of the check-swing call that gave Tigers right fielder J.D. Martinez new life in the eighth inning.
New life that killed the Orioles’ chances of extending their winning streak to eight games.
You know the rest of the story. Martinez and Miguel Cabrera homered on consecutive pitches from a frustrated Darren O’Day, and the Tigers avoided the sweep with a 6-5 win over the Orioles before an announced crowd of…

The minutes that passed after the final out today didn’t alter the Orioles’ perception of the check-swing call that gave Tigers right fielder J.D. Martinez new life in the eighth inning.

New life that killed the Orioles’ chances of extending their winning streak to eight games.

You know the rest of the story. Martinez and Miguel Cabrera homered on consecutive pitches from a frustrated Darren O’Day, and the Tigers avoided the sweep with a 6-5 win over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 37,890 at Camden Yards.

Rather than O’Day striking out the side, Martinez stayed in the box with the count full. First base umpire Mark Wegner didn’t ring him up on the appeal from plate umpire Jeff Kellogg.

O’Day had been scored upon only once in his first 16 appearances and surrendered one home run in 14 1/3 innings.

showalter-close-with-sunglasses.jpg“It’s unusual because he’s such a good pitcher. He has been and will be,” said manager Buck Showalter. “It’s more unusual to see the swing called a no-swing. I’m surprised the home plate umpire didn’t call it. It was that obvious. But after the fact, Darren, I’m sure he’s disappointed.

“They’ve got two guys (Victor Martinez and Nick Castellanos) leading the league in hitting and our pitchers have done a great job of holding those guys down for four days. It’s tough. They left a lot of people out there.”

As his session with the media continued, Showalter said he wouldn’t even use the term “check swing.” That’s how badly Wegner missed it.

“They called one not even as much on (Joey) Rickard earlier,” Showalter said. “Same guy. It’s a tough call, that’s why you see so much inconsistency with it evidently.

“It’s something we could get right. Obviously, there’s so much discrepancy with it back and forth, It’s obvious the human eye has trouble with it. I’m sure somewhere in the future we’ll fix that. Not in my time though, I’m sure.”

O’Day was fuming afterward, telling reporters that Wegner “absolutely embarrassed himself.”

“I have a great relationship with a lot of umpires,” he said. “Some I consider friends. They have a tough job. It’s a judgment call. But that was pretty egregious.

“I’ll take that loss. It’s under my name in the box score. But that was terrible, terrible.”

(More of O’Day’s quotes will appear in Steve Melewski’s blog)

O’Day, however, took responsibility for the next two pitchers, as Showalter knew would happen. The frustration didn’t lead to poor location.

“That would be the easy thing to say, but Darren’s a guy who’s a consummate professional when it comes to emotional things,” Showalter said. “There’s nothing you can do about a missed call. He’ll lament the other part of it. We could have done some other things for it not to matter. It’s just frustrating. You don’t know what would have happened with Zach (Britton).

“Did some good things, though, today. Saved a run with Nolan (Reimold) backing up a throw to third base from right field that would have made it a different score. Ended up getting out of that inning because he was where he was supposed to be. Little things I try to take out of it.”

Kevin Gausman was out of sync all day and allowed four runs and a career-high 10 hits in five innings.

“In some ways it was one of his better outings in that he didn’t have command like he normally does, the stuff he’s been carrying, to keep it intact and get a lot of big outs with people on base. Kept us engaged in the game,” Showalter said.

“I think they were doing a good job against Kevin as much as Kevin was not pitching with his normal success. But he was three outs from getting a win today and that would have been a real good reminder to all of our guys to stay engaged and keep pitching.”

Gausman left the bases loaded in the second and third innings or it would have been a lot worse.

“He’s actually made strides in that area,” Showalter said. “The first two or three times out he was carrying plus stuff with command, and there’s going to be some days when it’s a day game, a hitter-friendly team, as good an offensive team as there in our league that’s mad as a hornet’s nest trying to get it going. He fought his way through it. That’s why I say in some ways that’s as impressive an outing as the other ones have been.”

Tyler Wilson wasn’t used out of the bullpen today and will start Thursday afternoon against the Mariners.