Rubber Match Goes to Twins

Good evening O's fans. It was not a good afternoon for the Orioles at the yard. The weather was beautiful but the results were not. The Twins came to Baltimore and took 2/3 from the O's. This was a series that the Orioles needed to win. They end up dropping the last two games of the series after the great game on Friday, both by one run. They have already lost 1/3 of their total one run losses last year. They were 29-9 last year and are already 0-3 this year. You can look at this in two ways, they are 3-3 but all of their losses are by one run. Today was a game that did not look like the Orioles that we know, there was fundamental lapses and non hustle plays. In the fourth inning after getting a 3-0 lead, they let the Twins right back in it. Jason Hammel walked two hitters and with two outs Hammel gets the fly ball that he needed but Adam Jones lost the ball, tried to tell Reimold but neither could recover in time and the ball drops between them and two runs score. The O's were never able to get anything together offensively and the Twins chipped away and in the 7th inning got a two out base hit from Aaron Hicks who was 1-25 on the season and took the lead for good 4-3. I have to call out Adam Jones as much as I love him. There were two plays today where he did not hustle. One was on a fly ball, the inning after he lost a ball in the high sky, he was jogging down the line and Aaron Hicks fell down and did not catch the ball and instead of being on 3rd with one out he only got to second. The other was a ball he hit back to the mound and was jogging down the line, meanwhile the ball was juggled and dropped and he was still out by 20 feet because he was not running. That is not the Adam that I am used to seeing. Though Reimhold can not stay on the field, when he does play he hustles out every play which is how he got hurt today trying to beat out a double play ball. You have to hustle out every play, you have to play every transaction at 100 %. The O's go on the road to Boston and New York and then come home for the Rays and Dodgers. I know it is early but they would've been much more comfortable with some breathing room at 4-2 rather than 3-3 heading into Boston coming home for their opener after crushing Toronto today 13-0. This is a big stretch for the Orioles with the teams they have to play coming up. This is a tough schedule upcoming and they are going to have to bring that swagger they always have to win through this stretch. Today's performance was not something I am used to seeing from this team, especially after the emotional Friday win and the huge crowds they had this weekend. Let's hope they can put this series behind them and go ruin the Red Sox home opener. I know it is April but these wins are every bit as important as the ones in September in what is going to be a close race in the AL East. As usual, Let's go O's.