The Morning After - O's vs Astros, Game 2

Well this sucks. With a second consecutive one run loss in Houston, the Birds have dropped the series to a team whose record was 16-28 prior to this three game stretch versus the Orioles. Hopefully, the players have short memories and the O's win tonight to avo
id the sweep.

Not to overlook the impending Cleveland series, (not a political post, so don't read into it). but the Orioles' offense needs to right itself before a critical series at Oriole Park next week against Boston. To say that the Red Sox are on fire is like saying Donald Trump's having a bad hair day

Boston has pulled away from the O's to take sole possession of first place in the A.L. East by two games. While the Birds are 4-6 over the last 10 games, the Red Sox are 7-3 during that same clip.
I feel like each time I check the scores, those damn Red Sox are putting up double digits on their opponents. In 22 games in May, they've scored at least seven runs in 13 of those contests...ugh! On the season, they have a  run differential of +78...in comparison, the O's hold a +22 in that category.

I've made no secret about my disdain for that team, and it's annoying fans. I mean, how can you not want to smack a dude wearing a Pedroia jersey at
a July game...between the O's and Twins?!?  And do I really need to say anythng about David Ortiz?  Hopefully the O's bats take to some home-cooking and find the ball a lot in that series.

But I digress. Let's focus back on last night. Here are a few thoughts/observations/opinions:

1) Orioles have truck out 37 times in TWO games...ouch!

2) Birds' usually stellar defense committed four errors...the most since September 30, 2015

3) Three game losing streaks ties the team's longest such stretch of the season

4) Pedro Alvarez should NEVER touch a glove

6) Only Oriole to not strike out was Hyun Soo Kim. For a guy who rarely - and I mean rarely - plays, Kim had an impressive outing at the dish last night, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, a single and a BB. He runs very well for a big guy. One of his doubles lead off an inning, but the Birds
stranded him at second. Kim's put in a lot of work with the coaches, and in adjusting to the game in the U.S.  I give him credit for preserving...it has to be challenging to be effective on such little playing time

5) Buck looked and sounded pissed in the postgame interview. He also announced that Kim will start in tonight's finale. To soon to panic, but Joey Rickard should be a little concerned about his every day role if Kim keeps contributing.

6) Did I mention that Pedro Alvarez should NEVER touch a glove...NEVER. Throw his glove in Lake Houston.

O's wrap up the Houston trip tonight at 8:10 p.m. Hopefully a solid Gausman shurts down teh Astros, especially Valbueno, and the bats give him run support.

Let's. Go. O's!

Morning After Opinions - O's vs Houston

The Birds dropped their second consecutive game in this current road trip as Houston’s Carlos Correa snapped an 0-15 slump with a single to center field with the bases loaded in the 13th inning to score the game winner.

O’s starter Chris Tillman continued a solid run by recording a career-high seventh consecutive quality start. He remains 6-1 (Bundy got the loss), with a 2.61 ERA over 10 starts.

On offense, Pedro Alvarez gave us a taste of what the O’s were hoping for when they signed him, homering off Doug Fister in the fifth, and Manny Machado continued his MVP caliber season with a bomb in the sixth.

All things considered, here’s a few of my thoughts about last night:

1) O's can't squander a great pitching performance like the one Tillman turned in - 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R

2) Has Manny Machado’s homer in the sixth landed yet? That blast is best summed up by a quote from the legendary Crash Davis of Bull Durham fame:

"...anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don’t you think?"

3) Matt Wieters stole a base. Matt Wieters legitimately stole a base…not one of those player indifference steals either. It included a slide and everything.

4) Dylan Bundy is struggling, and while I cringed watching him intentionally walk two guys to get to last year's Rookie of the Year, you need to set up a force at home. With no outs. It's a gamble

5) Sticking with Bundy, the 2011 first round pick (4^th overall) has a 6.75 ERA over his last seven games. During that time, he’s giving up 16 hits while allowing eight runs.  In his last three appearances, Bundy has given up seven runs on nine hits in just 4.1 innings of work. This is worrisome.

6) The 13 innings showed how much having Kim on the roster is a liability. Buck clearly has no confidence in him, so the team is weakened by not having a pinch hitter or pinch runner to turn to in needed situations. Bigger picture, it’s a guy who they won’t use taking up a roster spot. While his average is high, he can’t get the ball out of the infield. 

7) The aforementioned pinch hitting scenario reared its ugly head in the 13th when the O's themselves had bases loaded with two outs. Rickard needed to be pinch-hit for, but there was not a "Delmon Young-type” option on the bench, so Buck had to stick with Rickard…who is 8-for-41 in his last 10 games and was 0-for-5 last night before his 12th inning double. With his average plummeting to .259, it may be time to shake up the order and give Reimold more starts in LF.

Fortunately, baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. The Birds get a chance to get back on track tonight as Tyler Wilson (3.68) takes the mound for the O’s, with Collin McHugh (5.13) getting the start for Houston. First pitch is at 8:10 p.m.  (MASN and 105.7 The Fan).

They're Not Just Words

Let me begin by saying that I’m not the perfect guy. The current me, a 43-year old father of two, cringes when I look back at some of the things done by the early 20s version of me. I’m particularly glad that social media did not exist in my younger days, as reminders of my less than stellar choices on occasion would live in perpetuity. That said, I also hate a few of the behaviors that social media enables keyboard warriors to carry out.

Two Chicago-area sportswriters, Julie DiCaro and Sarah Spain, experience the aforementioned daily as women working in the sports world. The website Just Not Sports asked the two women to participate in what had to have been an incredibly uncomfortable experience, listening to men read aloud some of the nasty tweets each received on Twitter. The purpose was to raise awareness of the type of online harassment of female sports reporters. The segment was tough to watch, and I can sum up the content of those tweets with one word — embarrassing.

The online harassment of these women ranges from explicit name calling and profanity, to wishing physical harm, even death, to each woman. Why? Because they are just doing their jobs in covering sports?

The hate-filled tweets about these two specific women were read to their faces; not by the men who actually wrote the garbage, just random guys. While the two sportswriters already knew about the tweets, the men involved were visibly disturbed as they read them for the first time. Many even struggled to read the tweets out loud, and some apologized to the women…apologized for the civilized males who don’t condone what the women were subjected to through the keystrokes of a few petulant guys. Several of the posts even stooped as low to mock DiCaro being raped. A few “milder” examples of the tweets read:

“I hope your boyfriend beats you.”

“You need to be hit in the head with a hockey puck, and killed.”

Excuse me? Hey pal, it’s 2016. Come out of your caves and get a clue!

Over the course of my career in sports, I worked daily with media on all levels and throughout the country. Some of the smartest, most professional and knowledgeable journalists that I worked with were female. It feels ridiculous even writing that previous sentence. Like I’m justifying that women can work in sports; or saying, “Hey, they were pretty good at their jobs, for women.” That could not be further from the truth.

Whether I was working with Liz Clarke at The Washington Post, or ESPN’s Shelley Smith, they were good sportswriters — NOT good female sportswriters.

We’ve all heard the jokes or comments about women having no business covering pro sports. But when I’m watching a broadcast, reading an article or following a game on the radio, I want whomever is delivering my sports to me to be knowledgeable. That’s the only qualifier I care about…period!

Perhaps this online harassment of female sportswriters troubles me even more today since I’m the father of two little girls. Maybe my irritation stems from seeing my two girls in these women, and knowing there’s a good chance they’ll encounter such situations over the course of their careers. Or could it just be that I have no patience for treating people with such over the top disrespect? One thing I do know: the dad (and I’d like to think, decent guy) in me would like to chat with the keyboard warriors who penned these tweets. But that wouldn’t happen since it would require them to flex their virtual muscles in person.

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The above piece first ran on April 27 at RussellStreetReport.com