The Orioles will try to avoid the four-game sweep as they face Garrett Crochet. Good luck with that.
It’s a 1:05 game for the Orioles and they still managed to squeeze in a roster move already today. Recently-claimed reliever Shawn Dubin arrived, and with his arrival, the team decided to designate pitcher Roansy Contreras for assignment. Contreras was seen just last night in bulk relief, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings. I am skeptical that he is worse than some other players the Orioles could have DFA’d or optioned instead, but, they’ve decided what they decided and hopefully they won’t regret it.
Contreras was the 64th Oriole to appear in a game this season. Dubin, assuming he sticks around long enough to pitch in one, will be the 65th. That’s a record for the team, the previous having been 62 from 2021. It’s tough to have a good team in the middle of all of that roster chaos, and indeed, the Orioles don’t have a good team. The plethora of injuries they’ve had this year have caused some of it, the number of guys who stunk have caused some of it, and the July trades forced by the standing position caused some more.
This has been a crummy series for the Orioles. They need to pull off a win here this afternoon to avoid the mop (four-game sweep). Just this past weekend, they pulled off a Sunday win to avoid getting mopped by Houston. We’ll see if that’s in them again today. It won’t be easy for them, since Boston’s starting pitcher is Garrett Crochet, who’s going to be a strong contender for the AL Cy Young this season if he stays on his current trajectory.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- Jeremiah Jackson – RF
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Ryan Mountcastle – DH
- Emmanuel Rivera – 3B
- Colton Cowser – CF
- Coby Mayo – 1B
- Dylan Carlson – LF
- Alex Jackson – C
An off day for both Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers. What a bummer! Not all that surprising, since the Orioles will be massaging the playing time to make sure those guys stay below 130 AB and giving them a day off when Crochet is the Red Sox starting pitcher is entirely justifiable.
It’s a grim-looking lineup. The only player who’s been here all season and done well is Henderson. The only additional guys who’ve done well in smaller sample sizes are the Jacksons, Alex and Jeremiah. Stuff is going to have to get fixed this offseason, and I’m talking about more than just getting players healthy. There are guys who are pretty much guaranteed to be here next year who need to do better.
Cade Povich makes the start for the Orioles. He is, to say the least, not as good as Crochet.
Red Sox lineup
- Roman Anthony – RF
- Alex Bregman – 3B
- Trevor Story – SS
- Romy Gonzalez – 1B
- Rob Refsnyder – DH
- Nate Eaton – CF
- Carlos Narváez – C
- Ceddanne Rafaela – 2B
- Jhostynxon Garcia – LF
Category: General Sports
