Gail Burton/ASSOCIATED PRESS - Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver speaks to the crowd as a miniature statue of himself is given to him in an on-field ceremony honoring Baltimore Oriole legends.
BALTIMORE — On a steamy afternoon in which the greatest manager in club history was immortalized with a statue at Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles blasted an Earl Weaver-special three-run homer and witnessed a brief managerial tirade.
Otherwise, there weren’t a lot of similarities between Weaver’s tremendous clubs of the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s and Saturday’s version that lost, 11-5, to the Cleveland Indians before an announced crowd of 35,335.
For the fifth straight game, an Orioles starter turned in a less-than-stellar performance, this time lefty Dana Eveland. He was scheduled to throw about 80 pitches, but he made it to 77 in just 32 / 3 innings while battling a free-swinging Indians team and the 90 degree-plus heat at Camden Yards.
Eveland (0-1) was knocked around for six hits, two walks and five earned runs, following an ugly pattern established by the Orioles’ rotation recently. In their last five outings — one full turn — the starters have lasted just 22 innings and given up 41 hits and 29 earned runs. That’s an 11.86 ERA in those games.
“Quite frankly, looking at the walks and the hit by pitch and the 19 hits, we’re fortunate they didn’t score more than 11 runs,” said Orioles Manager Buck Showalter.
The Orioles (42-35) have lost four of five and eight of their last 11 as they head into their last home game of the first half against the Indians (39-38).
Help may be on the way, however. The club said it had traded a couple of Class A minor leaguers for 41-year-old slugger Jim Thome, who had been with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Orioles, who also have struggled recently to score runs, put five on the board against Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin (4-5) in six innings. Three came on one swing — a homer by Chris Davis in the fourth.
Besides the Davis blast, there was one more Weaver-like moment in the fifth, when Tomlin threw behind J.J. Hardy at the plate. The Orioles bench believed it was a retaliation pitch for an earlier plunking and Showalter briefly protested, resembling the fiery Weaver as he ran onto the field and yelled.
But there were no rule books torn up or dirt kicked. Just a forgettable blowout that has put the Orioles five games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.
— Baltimore Sun
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