The Orioles' bats haven’t shown much life the past two nights at Oakland Coliseum, where there's a drowsy atmosphere playing against a last-place team in a mostly-empty, cavernous stadium nearly 3,000 miles away from home.
OAKLAND, CALIF. — The Orioles' road woes continued in their second straight one-run loss to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night, 2-1, in front of an announced crowd of 13,573. Another A's sinkerballer proved to be this homer-happy lineup's Kryptonite as rookie right-hander Zach Neal held the Orioles to just two hits over 5 1/3 innings. Neal induced 12 ground ball outs, as the Orioles continually hit the ball harmlessly into the infield grass.
The Orioles (63-49) have lost 10 of their last 14 games on the road and are now 24-32 away from Camden Yards.
Oakland hasn’t been friendly to them With a loss in either of the series’ final two games, the Orioles will have dropped their eighth series in their last 10 trips there.
Orioles starting pitchers have recorded quality starts in each of the first five games of this three-city, 10-game road trip, but the Orioles are just 2-3 in those games.
“There’s nothing different going on from when we scored 10 runs over in [Chicago] a couple days ago,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “You’ve got to tip your hat to them, too. They pitched well. And you know you’re going to get a lot of different looks here.”
Center fielder Adam Jones, who provided the Orioles’ sole run of the night with a solo homer in the fourth inning, pointed out that despite the loss, the O’s remained tied with (actually percentage points ahead of) the Toronto Blue Jays atop the American League East standings. The Blue Jays lost to last-place Tampa Bay 9-2 on Tuesday.
“Still in first place, right?” Jones said. “…. As an offense we’re unable here in this park to get things going consecutively, back-to-back-to-back, so come out tomorrow and do it all over again.”
The Orioles have scored three runs or fewer in five of their last seven games and plated just three total runs over their first two games against an A’s team with the highest starters’ ERA in the American League (5.18).
Making his second Orioles start, trade-deadline acquisition Wade Miley held the Athletics to two runs on five hits over six innings as the O’s wasted their second straight quality start in Oakland.
The Orioles hadn’t seen Neal before Tuesday, and the rookie used the unfamiliarity to his advantage. He retired the first nine Orioles batters he faced before Jones’ homer opened the fourth. The Orioles' only other scoring threat came in the sixth, when Jonathan Schoop hit a leadoff double off the bottom of the left-center field wall.
Schoop moved to third one batter later, but former Oriole Liam Hendriks stranded him there, inducing an infield popup from Jones and fielding a comebacker off the bat of Hyun Soo Kim to end the inning.
“Tip your cap to [Neal], he kept the ball down,” Jones said. “It’s not like he struck us out. Just kept hitting ground balls and balls right at people. Tough luck, kind of the same thing as last night. Both of them sinkerball guys kept the ball down. Tip your cap and move on.”
Jones singled to open the ninth against A’s closer Ryan Madson, but Kim hit into a 1-6-3 double play to clear the bases. Manny Machado drew a two-out walk, but slumping Chris Davis struck out to end the game.
Miley a hard-luck loser: Miley ran into trouble in the third inning when the A’s posted three straight one-out hits against him. After Marcus Semien and Jake Smolinki singled, former Oriole Danny Valencia slapped 1-1 pitch the other way into right field for an RBI double.
Khris Davis then swung at the first pitch of his at-bat, hitting a fly ball to right field that scored Smolinki for a sacrifice fly to give the Athletics a 2-0 lead.
“Felt pretty good,” Miley said. “As the game went on, I felt better. I wasn’t able to command the ball great early, but I was able to kind of find it later on. Wieters did a good job. Once again, we’re learning each other and he did a great job calling that game. The third inning just kind of got away. Didn’t execute …and that’s where they beat us at.”
Miley left the game after issuing a leadoff single to Ryon Healy in the seventh, but right-hander Mychal Givens dodged any further damage, stranding two baserunners when he induced an inning-ending groundout from Yonder Alonso.
Miley said he felt more settled in his second start since joining the Orioles in a trade deadline deal with Seattle.
“Definitely,” Miley said. “I mean, I still have the jitters going in just like every start, but yeah, it felt a lot better. I felt more relaxed and was able to make pitches at time rather than the nerves get in the way. It was good.”
Jones hits No. 22: The Orioles' lone offensive highlight of the night was Jones’ solo blast in the fourth inning on a 2-2 fastball from Neal that Jones sent into the left-field seats.
Jones, who had two of the Orioles’ three hits, is 11-for-22 over his last five games.
Jones’ 1,404 hits with the Orioles put him in sole possession of 10th place on the team's all-time hit list, passing Al Bumbry.
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