masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgARLINGTON, Texas – With tonight’s 4-1 loss, the Orioles have slipped to 3 1/2 games behind the Rangers for the second wild card. They’ve also lost nine of their last 11 games.
The offense continues to sputter, scoring three runs or fewer in eight of the last nine games. It managed only three hits tonight.
Rangers left-hander Cole Hamels was exceptional, retiring 14 in a row and striking out 10 batters over eight innings. Combine him with cold bats and it’s a recipe for another loss.
“It’s…

ARLINGTON, Texas – With tonight’s 4-1 loss, the Orioles have slipped to 3 1/2 games behind the Rangers for the second wild card. They’ve also lost nine of their last 11 games.

The offense continues to sputter, scoring three runs or fewer in eight of the last nine games. It managed only three hits tonight.

Rangers left-hander Cole Hamels was exceptional, retiring 14 in a row and striking out 10 batters over eight innings. Combine him with cold bats and it’s a recipe for another loss.

“It’s both,” said manager Buck Showalter, whose club is two games below .500 for the first time since July 25. “It’s the big leagues. We’ve figured out to score off some of those people. But it’s been tough on our pitchers. They know that runs are going to be at a premium.

“I was looking and we haven’t scored enough runs to give them much room for error. We’ve got to turn that part of it around. It’s tough.”

The Orioles have struck out 26 times in the last two games and 37 in the last three.

“It’s been a challenge for us most of the year and will continue to be,” Showalter said. “You live with them if the run production is there, but it hasn’t been there. That’s a tough part of that.”

The Orioles had a shot early after loading the bases with one out in the second. The only run scored on Chris Davis’ two-out bases-loaded walk. Again, the Orioles failed to deliver a clutch hit.

“You’ve got to take a pop at him early before he can get in step,” Showalter said. “He doesn’t even throw 50 percent fastballs anymore, but he’s going to play off your agressiveness, and when you’re not swinging the bats well it’s a challenge.

“He’s good. That’s the type of people you get for what you give up and the type of commitment they made to him. “

Kevin Gausman fell to 2-6 after allowing four runs over 6 2/3 innings, including home runs by Shin-Soo Choo and Chris Gimenez.

gausman-back-gray-sidebar.jpg“It’s tough for me to fault many of our pitchers when you’re going out there knowing that runs are going to be at a premium, epecially with Hamels out there, and you compound that with some of our offensive woes right now,” Showalter said.

Said Gausman: “I thought I threw a pretty good pitch to Choo. I probably should have stayed away from him 3-1, but I tried to go fastball in. He put a good swing on it. It’s pretty short down the right field line here. He just kind of got me, I guess.”

Gausman was the latest starter to fall victim to a lack of run support. The trick is not putting added pressure on yourself knowing that runs will be scarce.

“I kind of knew that going into the night, especially with the guy I was facing,” Gausman said. “He’s been great all year and continues to be. He kind of settled in. I think he was a little sporadic early on, but he definitely settled in and put a pretty good start together.”

Said Showalter: “We’ve been struggling offensively and that’s compounded (by Hamels). That’s the type of guy you get for six prospects. He was good and we weren’t, so that’s a bad combination. We’re just not stringing much together offensively.”

The Orioles are reeling and the schdule continues to present nightly challenges.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Gausman said. “We like to win and that’s kind of what we’ve been doing the last couple of years, so to have a skid like this obviously doesn’t feel good. But we’re one hit away, one pitch away, and I think that’s the biggest frustrating thing.”

Second baseman Jonathan Schoop was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

“It’s really tough. Trying to go out and win and things don’t go our way right now,” Schoop said.

“(Hamels) was really good today. I tip my cap. I take my cap off to him. He threw the curveball for strikes, he threw a cutter. Everything was working for him today. He was really good today.”

The lost opportunity in the third inning proved to be the Orioles’ last gasp.

“It’s tough, but (everybody) wants to go in there and drive a run in and everybody wants to do it,” Schoop said. “Like I say, he was really good and you have to tip your cap to him.”

One bright spot was Dariel Alvarez’s throw to the plate in the second inning that cut down Adrian Beltre. The right arm comes as advertised.

“He’s kind of always like that down in Norfolk,” Gausman said. “He throws guys out left and right. He has probably one of the best outfield arms I’ve ever seen. Yeah, obviously that was huge. I don’t think Beltre looked at the scouting report on the outfielders before the game.

“Yeah, he’s definitely kind of a freak athlete. He swings hard and runs hard. He plays the game the right way. He has a really good arm out there in right.”

Showalter didn’t expect Alvarez to be nervous in the field.

“You don’t get a whole lot of nerves about something you know you do real well,” Showalter said. “He’s got a lot more than that. That was, ‘I got you out pretty easy here. I don’t need to really air it out here.’ He’s got plenty of arm and he doesn’t have to overthrow it. That was impressive. That’s a textbook throw.”