The struggling Baltimore Orioles avoided making bad baseball history in their win today over the AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays. Meanwhile, out in Chicago where the White Sox were playing the Oakland Athletics, history was made by the A's and their young trio of rookies.
How the Orioles avoided setting bad baseball history
Yesterday the Baltimore Orioles fell to the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa, getting crushed 15-5. This meant that for the 20th consecutive game they allowed at least five runs. This meant that they tied the 1924 Philadelphia Phillies for the most consecutive games allowing five or more runs.
In this 20 game stretch, the Orioles have been 6-14, including this being their third straight loss to put them at 35-38 for the season. For comparison, during the Phillies 20 game stretch, they went 4-16 and finished the season 55-96 (.364%).
Today, in the rematch between the Orioles and the Rays, Baltimore was trying to avoid making bad history. Pitcher Dylan Bundy (7-6, 3.72 ERA) got the start as the team looked to avoid allowing five runs. The Orioles main problem for the season and this streak has been their pitching, with their starters ranking 29th and relievers ranking 20th going into the game. Luckily for the Orioles not only did they get the 8-3 win, but they also managed to avoid setting a dubious baseball record.
What did the Athletics rookie trio do?
On a day in which the Chicago White Sox were honoring former pitcher Mark Buehrle by retiring his number 56, the visiting Oakland Athletics got to see their young players shine and make baseball history. Three players for the Athletics, Matt Olson, Jaycob Brugman and Franklin Barreto, all hit their first major league home runs today.
The last time this happened was over a century ago in 1914, with it being accomplished by the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League. Duke Kenworthy, Art Kruger, and John Potts did so on April 26, 1914, against the Chicago Chi-Feds.
For Olson, this was his 19th major league game and a fourth stint with the Athletics in the last two seasons.
He actually launched his first two career home runs today in the first and seventh innings. Brugman was playing in his 15th game in the major leagues. He hit his home run in the second inning. Barreto was playing in his first ever game in the big leagues, with his home run coming in the third inning. This 10-2 win put the Athletics at 33-42 for the season.
