OK, in case you missed it, the Orioles were up 6-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against Texas this afternoon. Jorge Julio, presumably in the game because B.J. Ryan had pitched in four straight games, got the first two outs but walked a batter. Then he gave up a Hank Blalock double to make it 6-4, then a David Dellucci homer to make it 6-6. He gets replaced by Tim Byrdak, who gives up a single, then Grimsley comes in and gets an out to end the ninth.
Then, the Orioles send up Newhan, Surhoff and Eric Byrnes in the 10th, so you know it's going to be a short inning. Newhan magically singles, then Surhoff sac bunts him over, then Byrnes pops out and Luis Matos grounds out. Inning over. We get to see Jason Grimsley face Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano and Kevin Mench.
And that's all he saw because he didn't get any of them out. A short inning for a different reason. Teixeria doubled, they intentionally walked Soriano, then Mench singled to knock in Teixeira. Game freaking over.
How hard is this? One out before three runs = win. One is less than three. This should be easy.
This is how I'm sure it went:
Sam Perlozzo: "Hey Jorge, you've got two outs. Don't give up three runs to choke on the lead."
Jorge: "Que?"
Sammy P: "Crap."
Really I can't blame Grimsley SO much, because he was facing the heart of a tough order, but I would have liked him to make it take more than three batters, thank you very much. Not a chance. Grimsley is a model of efficiency. As are most sinker-ballers -- just in a different way.
So the question that begs to be asked here is, can you believe teams actually WANTED Jorge Julio at the trade deadline? I can't. But I sure can believe he's stuck in an Orioles uniform.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment