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Teny Ymota’s Mid-May Musings: The Wright Stuff Arrives in Baltimore

The first few weeks of the season have been painful and disconcerting for Orioles fans. Results of spring training exhibition games don’t usually indicate the season ahead – the Tigers had a worse Florida record than the lackluster O’s and they are in a dogfight with defending American League champion Kansas City at the top of the AL Central division.

Sadly, the O’s spotty play in games that didn’t matter has been reflected in the regular season. The O’s have not yet put together a good winning streak and languish near the bottom of the AL East three games under .500 after 35 games.

With a 127 games left, no need to panic yet with the suddenly slumping Yankees only five games over .500 in first place. But signs of mediocrity do abound in Birdland. They get on an offensive roll and the arms fail them. Currently, the pitching has been stellar but the bats are in slumber. And the stellar defense has broken down too many times.

Historically, Orioles fans have not put up for long with bad play. As if fans of any kind can do anything about it except whine and wring hands to the point of injury.
So far attendance has held fairly well, a good sign given the loss of five home games because of the recent urban riots.

An unadulterated bright day occurred yesterday (Sunday May 18) when rookie right-hander Mike Wright made his major league debut and hurled 7 1/3 sparkling shutout innings in the O’s 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. It salvaged the final game of a three-game home series that the Angels won with earlier 3-1 and 6-1 victories.

Wright is a third round draft choice in 2011 out of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, who has worked his way steadily up the minor league ladder. He was organizational Pitcher of Year in 2013, slumped badly at the beginning of 2014, but recovered by end of season and so far in 2015 he has combined quality stuff with growing maturity.

Wright was 3-0 at top Triple A-affiliate Norfolk, VA when called up for an emergency start because Chris Tillman, the team’s ostensible ace, had back stiffness and fellow starter Bud Norris has had a prolonged bout with bronchitis and ineffectiveness.

Garrett Richards was the Angels hard-luck loser on Sunday. He gave up the only run the O’s needed on a wild pitch in the fourth inning scoring Adam Jones from third.
Jones manufactured the only run Wright needed in the 4th inning with a swinging bunt down the third base line.

Jones then sped from first to third on Delmon Young’s single up the middle. Reigning AL MVP Mike Trout plays a very deep center field and though blessed with great speed and a good arm, Trout could not stop Jones from getting the extra base. Jones was thus positioned to score the run on Richards’ wild pitch.

The Birds’ vital insurance runs came in the 8th inning thanks to more hustle by Jimmy Paredes, the surprise member of the 2015 Birds, Baltimore’s only other .300 hitter right now along with Jones. Paredes beat out an infield hit to second and after an error raced home on Jones' two-run double.

No one knows for sure if Mike Wright stays up in Baltimore permanently. His mid- 90s fastball and command of off-speed pitches on Sunday certainly opened a lot of eyes in Baltimore. With supposed future ace Kevin Gausman now on DL and needing more innings at Norfolk, I for one want Wright to get another start or two to prove that yesterday was no fluke.

I give the Orioles credit for not over-reacting to the slow start to the season by making massive changes to the roster as Boston and Toronto have done. But time is growing short to see if the roster that came out of spring training is what will remain as the core and supporting cast for the rest of what is so far a disappointing 2015.

Meanwhile on the college front, it won’t be until Memorial Day Monday May 25 that the Columbia Lions, my other great rooting interest, find out what regional the NCAA will send them to. Stay tuned.

Always remember: Take it easy but take it!

Yours in Baseball Forever, Teny Ymota (The Earl of NY, Your Man on The Aisle)
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Teny Ymota Says: Roar Lion Roar & Other Early May Baseball Musings

Before an enthusiastic home crowd at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium, Columbia on Saturday May 2nd won its third elimination game in seven days, beating Penn, 4-2 to earn the Gehrig Division title in the Ivy League. Seven solid innings from George Thanopoulos, two spotless relief innings from Kevin Roy, and solo home runs by Jordan Serena, Logan Bowyer, and Dave Vandercook provided the margin of victory.

Rested Rolfe Division-winner Dartmouth comes into Robertson/Satow on Saturday afternoon May 9 for a best-of-three championship series to determine the Ivy League winner and the automatic NCAA tournament bid. Columbia is trying for its third consecutive title and third straight playoff victory over Dartmouth. If the Saturday doubleheader is split, a single winner-take-all game will be played on Sunday.

The Ivy League college season in the Northeast is regrettably short so to witness bonus baseball in May is a real treat. There used to be an old saying that Ivy League players are “half-baked potatoes – not good enough to eat but too good to throw away.”

The level of play has definitely improved in recent years, and recent graduates of both division-winning programs are working their way through the minor leagues - notably Columbia outfielder Dario Pizzano with the Mariners affiliate at Double A Jackson, MS, and Dartmouth's second-third baseman Joe Sclafani with the Astros organization also in Double A.

Of course, for most Ivy League athletes the championship games will be the high point of their careers which makes for intense competition. I dislike the ping of the aluminum bat as much as anybody, but don't let that irritation keep you away from the action.

I highly recommend a visit this weekend to picturesque Satow Stadium on the banks of the Hudson River, a little bit up the hill northwest of the corner of 218th Street and Broadway in northern Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has entered its crucial second month. The biggest surprise so far has to be the Houston Astros, riding a 10-game winning streak with an 18-7 record. The long-dormant Astros are the only team above .500 in what was once considered a strong AL West division.

Houston’s early emergence is not totally shocking. They have a budding mound ace in Dallas Keuchel and the defending AL batting champion in pepperpot second baseman Jose Altuve who is playing like a future MVP. They also have a star-in-the-making in right fielder George Springer from the University of Connecticut.

How I love it when players from the Northeast make their mark in their majors!
Cold weather prevents talent in this area from playing as many games as their counterparts in Florida and Texas and California. But since baseball is a game of character and adversity, tough conditions harden the players. It could well be that agile and powerful George Springer is on his way to join another great product of this region, southern Jersey’s Mike Trout of the Angels.

What the Astros have to watch out for is a bad streak once their long winning streak eventually ends. The Mets won 11 in a row and have since lost 7 out of 10 but still hold on to first place in the NL East.

With so many games to play, position in the standings is less important than consistent play and winning as many series as you can. Which is why two game and four game series are annoying to many in baseball. It is very hard to win a four game series against one team but inter-league play every day has necessitated this crazy-quilt unsatisfying scheduling.

A record must have been set on Saturday May 2 when TWO games ended with base runners being hit by batted balls. The victimized teams were the Angels who lost a 5-4 game to the Giants when pinch runner Taylor Featherston was hit by the ball, and the Diamondbacks who lost 6-4 to the Dodgers when Jordan Pacheco was similarly struck heading to second base.

It was a tough weekend for Pacheco. In the top of the 13th inning in a scoreless Sunday game against the Dodgers, Pacheco was tagged out at home plate trying to score on a wild pitch. After a throw from catcher Yasmani Grandal, reliever J.P. Howell made a remarkable behind-the-back tag to nip Pacheco by an eyelash. Moments later, Grandal homered to give the Dodgers a dramatic walkoff win.

Nothing matches, though, what the Orioles went through this past week. Rioting in Baltimore after the death in police custody of 25-year-old African-American Freddie Gray forced the Orioles to postpone two of three home games with White Sox and to transfer its entire weekend series to Tampa Bay.

On Wednesday afternoon one game was played with the White Sox before an entirely empty stadium at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It was a first in the long history of MLB – a game without fans. Kudos to Oriole catcher Caleb Joseph who mimicked signing autographs for invisible fans before the game.

Back in the Orioles glory years of the 1970s and early 1980s, another Oriole catcher Rick Dempsey entertained fans during rain delays by pantomiming Babe Ruth running the bases. It looks like the Birds have another appealing receiver on their roster.

And perhaps the Orioles as a team are beginning to catch fire. They won three out of the four games played in these unusual circumstances. They are heading to New York for a week – two inter-league games with the Mets followed by a four-game series with the red-hot Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Center fielder Adam Jones continues to sizzle with a batting average over .400 and sparkling play in center field.

T. S. Eliot famously said April is the cruelest month – I guess he didn’t like the coming of flowers and new blooms – but in baseball May is usually the most revealing month. We’ll see how the pennant races look by the end of the month. More than 60 per cent of the time, division leaders as June begins are in the playoffs come October.

That’s all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it.

YIBF (Yours In Baseball Forever), Teny Ymota (The Earl of New York, Your Man On The Aisle)  Read More 
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