Mistake-Prone O's Fall Short Again

Blue Jays 10, Orioles 8

BALTIMORE, July 22 -- By the time the bottom of the ninth inning rolled around on Tuesday night, the Baltimore Orioles had committed too many sins to count.

Starting pitcher Garrett Olson was maddening as usual, left-handed reliever Alberto Castillo allowed a three-run homer to a left-handed hitter and the team's pitchers let a .190 hitter drive home four runs.

Yet, the Orioles, who have slogged under the .500 mark for the last 11 games, easily the longest stretch of the season, still had a chance to win, which was perhaps the most frustrating element of their 10-8 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

"It was a long game, man," said catcher Ramón Hernández, whose flyout with the bases loaded in the ninth ended a contest in which neither team showed particular interest in holding a lead. Indeed, the Blue Jays nearly squandered a three-run cushion.

After giving up a single to Melvin Mora -- who with the hit collected his fifth and final RBI of his splendid night -- former Oriole B.J. Ryan walked Kevin Millar to load the bases. Up came Hernández, already with one home run for the night, ready to be a hero again.

"With Ramón at home plate, he hit a home run today, so I thought we had a chance to win, or at least to tie the game," Mora said. "When that situation came, that's what I want to see, Ramón at home plate against B.J. Ryan."

And things were looking up for the Orioles when Hernández got ahead of Ryan 2-0. But, in the Orioles catcher's mind, everything unraveled on the next pitch. Ryan threw a pitch that Hernández was convinced missed the strike zone inside. Home plate umpire Jim Joyce ruled otherwise.

A potential 3-0 count became 2-1, though the biggest damage was done to Hernández's approach.

"When you get a bad call like that, it's in your mind that you're not going to walk," said Hernández, who ended the game on the next pitch. "The last thing that goes through your mind is you're not going to take any more pitches because you don't know if it's going to end up being a strike."

Added Hernández: "Everybody misses, but in a situation like that, you can't miss that bad. You have to be professional. You have to call nine innings of a baseball game. You just can't start giving up strikes. In a situation like that when the game is on the line, you just can't miss like that."

Of course, the Orioles had bigger problems to address than their opinions on Joyce's strike zone. It was a classic Olson outing in almost every way, from the lack of control to what's become the regular explosive ending. And that proved to be a bigger issue for the Orioles.

The left-hander entered the fifth inning with a 4-1 lead against Toronto starter Shaun Marcum, but as has been characteristic, Olson suffered a sudden collapse. He yielded a solo homer to Alex Rios to lead off the inning before loading the bases for light-hitting shortstop John McDonald.

Even the No. 9 hitter McDonald, who finished with four RBI, was good enough to give problems to Olson in the fifth. McDonald's double to left field cleared the bases and knocked Olson from the game.

Olson allowed six runs in 4 2/3 innings. He has allowed five runs or more in all four of his July starts.

"I hate to do that to the bullpen, they've been working so hard, especially at the start of this second half, and that's something we've definitely got to pick up," Olson said of another abbreviated outing. "And that's going to be a goal every time I go out there, to get as deep as possible and keep the team in the game and save innings on the bullpen."

Nick Markakis slammed a two-run homer, on a night when the Orioles hit three. But it wasn't enough to erase all their sins.

"When you're facing a guy like Marcum and you get the runs off him early, you think you're going to be in a situation where you're going to have a good chance to win the game, but you take nothing for granted," Orioles Manager Dave Trembley said. "We let them back in the game and we just couldn't stop them."