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CHICAGO – A post-trade deadline world involves a lot of moving pieces.
The Orioles will take chances on waiver claims and young talent, hoping to find diamonds in the rough.
Who knows if Ryan Noda will be a flier that becomes a piece. This afternoon, though, he was a ninth-inning hero. One of two, but we'll get to that.
With the O's down 3-2 and down to their final out, Noda brought Colton Cowser home to tie the game at three.
But the heroics, and the good feelings it brought, were short lived. The Cubs walked it off in the ninth, and the Orioles fell 5-3.
The takeaway from this series, though, isn't one properly summarized by "a series loss." Yes, the Orioles dropped two of three out in Chicago this weekend. But a minus-two run differential at Wrigley this weekend tells a different story.
"Really a good series even though we lost two of three," interim manager Tony Mansolino said postgame. "We came in to play a World Series-caliber team, and you lose the first one, 1-0, and you have the big game in the second game, and won one, and today you put yourself in a position to win the second one in Game 3."
After a trade deadline at which the Orioles dealt away four bullpen members and a piece of the starting rotation, Baltimore pitched very well against a Chicago lineup poised to make a postseason run. Five Cubs regulars have an OPS of .820 or better.
Trevor Rogers tossed an eight-inning complete game on Friday, and all in all, the O's surrendered just nine runs in the series.
The problem, though, is that Baltimore’s bats couldn’t find a rhythm, putting up just seven runs in this three-game weekend set.
"The guys swung the bats good, a lot of hard-hit balls, a lot of loud outs for us today," Mansolino added. "The balls didn’t go our way."
Wrigley Field, with its packed afternoon crowds, isn’t the easiest place for a young opposing pitcher. For Brandon Young, it - along with the incredibly talented Cubs lineup he had to face - was his next test as he tries to settle into the big leagues.
The significance of pitching here wasn't lost on Young, though.
"It’s awesome, it really is special," he said. "First time being here, the crowd, atmosphere, the weather. Pretty cool."
In Young’s last outing, he delivered a gem against the American League East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, tossing six innings and allowing just two earned runs.
To start this afternoon’s contest, his defense didn’t help him out.
Michael Busch, Chicago’s leadoff batter, sent a lazy fly ball to right field. Under it was Jeremiah Jackson, who got the start in right for the second consecutive day after appearing in just seven games in right in his minor league career. But Jackson dropped the ball, and Busch was in scoring position to start the game.
A few batters later, the Cubbies took advantage.
After a Kyle Tucker sacrifice bunt, Seiya Suzuki brought Busch home, and it was 1-0 Chicago.
But the Cubs didn’t stop there. Errors tend to compound.
Carson Kelly walked to put two runners on, and Ian Happ rocketed a double down the line to score Suzuki. Jackson did fire a nice relay to Jackson Holliday at second, though, and in turn, Holliday delivered a strike to home plate to cut down Kelly. But after just one inning of play, Chicago had a 2-0 lead.
"Yeah, I mean, that’s baseball," Young said. "It’s gonna happen. I’ve gotta forget, flush it, go after the next guy and throw my next pitch."
In the third, the Orioles got one back.
Through the first two games of the series, the O’s had only scored in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game. Today, they got on the board a bit earlier.
With runners on the corners and one away, Gunnar Henderson grounded into a fielder’s choice, but beat out the potential double play at first base. The result was a run, and it cut the Cubs’ lead in half, 2-1.
Adley Rutschman led off the fourth inning with a double, and Baltimore was threatening to even the score in the middle innings. Jackson nearly scored Rutschman, but a sliding play from the ever-reliable shortstop Dansby Swanson resulted in an out and kept the score right where it was. Still, though, Rutschman was at third with one away, and a single from Cowser plated him.
New ballgame, 2-2.
The inning really could’ve been bigger. The three outs that the Orioles recorded came on batted balls hit 107.1 mph, 105.5 mph and 106.4 mph. Baltimore’s two hits were hard-hit balls too, but neither eclipsed 100 mph. Baseball.
After a tumultuous start to the afternoon, Young did well to settle into things. The right-hander didn’t allow a run, earned or otherwise, for the rest of his day.
"I think continuing to attack and get ahead, and just knowing that I don’t have to make the perfect pitch with two strikes, I think that’s the biggest thing," the right-hander noted. "I think I got 0-2 on a few guys, and I just remember getting 1-2, 2-2, 3-2 like right away trying to make the perfect pitch instead of just going after them."
The outing was shorter than he would’ve liked, as the rookie ran into some trouble in the fifth. With runners on the corners and two away, he was pulled in favor of the newly acquired Dietrich Enns. The left-hander struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong with just three pitches to get out of the jam.
Enns found himself in a jam of his own in the next inning, though. With two outs in the bottom half of the sixth, the Cubs strung together three straight singles to put another run on the board and take the lead.
The second half of the season will provide plenty of opportunity for bullpen arms like Enns to make names for themselves. The left-hander allowed one run before exiting for Kade Strowd, who induced a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the seventh.
Strowd was sharp the rest of the way, too, keeping the score at 3-2 entering the ninth inning.
In the top half of the frame, Cowser led things off with a double down the line. With nobody out, Dylan Carlson lined to left, and Cowser couldn't advance. Coby Mayo came about a foot away from tying the game, but struck out a few pitches later.
Into the box stepped Noda, recalled from Triple-A Norfolk this morning.
The former Athletic sent a line-drive single to right, scored Cowser, and tied the game.
"It’s a spot you dream of as a kid, right," Noda remarked. "Ninth inning, two outs, guy on second, down by one. Just trying to do a team at-bat, doing anything I can to get that guy in. Fortunately, today he left something over the middle of the plate and I capitalized on it."
That good feeling wouldn't last for long.
After Dansby Swanson reached on an error, Justin Turner entered the game and hit a walk-off homer off Keegan Akin in the ninth, and that was all she wrote.
Overall, though, the new-look bullpen handled themselves well all series. The ninth is an unfortunate time for a slip-up.
“I think they did great," Mansolino said of the 'pen. "For the most part, they threw up zeros the whole weekend, minus the home run by J.T. there at the end of the game, who’s done that a lot in his career in bigger moments than that. Minus the swing right there, you have to feel good about the way the guys handled themselves.”
The month of August doesn't get much easier for Baltimore, as the O's now head to Philadelphia for a three-game series against the Phillies. From there, teams like the Mariners, Astros and Red Sox populate the schedule.
The Orioles' offense is now missing some key pieces after the deadline, but has to find a way to get back on track.
