Givens hits a blip with Deadline looming

Somewhat quietly, the Orioles shifted Mychal Givens back to a setup role this season, after he spent much of 2019 struggling in ninth-inning situations. Without the weight that comes with closing games, Givens this season has turned back into the pitcher he was for much of his career, when he excelled in mostly one-inning increments. It was a dream situation for a rebuilding club like the Orioles, who approach next week’s Trade Deadline with Givens as arguably their best trade chip.

Which is what made the timing of Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Rays so unfortunate for the Orioles and Givens. After being near perfect over 11 2/3 innings to start the year, Givens was charged with the loss for allowing Michael Perez’s game-winning homer in the eighth. It was the first homer and just the second run conceded by Givens this year, in 12 appearances.

• Box score

It also put the Orioles in jeopardy of a series sweep on a night their bullpen played with fire throughout. Despite walking four over four innings, five O’s relievers largely held the line after Tampa Bay scored three off Asher Wojciechowski. Baltimore fought back to tie the game at 3-3 on Anthony Santander’s single in the seventh, and Givens wiggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the bottom of the frame. Perez sent the game-winner out to left-center field an inning later.

“I need to go deeper into ballgames and keep my pitch down count down and execute pitches better, but the bullpen has been doing a great job,” Wojciechowski said. “They've been coming in and throwing the ball well and and keeping us right where we need to be.”

Givens has been a big part for that. And in truth, one bad pitch shouldn’t move the needle much in terms of his trade value. What teams are more likely to focus on before the Trade Deadline on Monday is the track record and profile: Givens, 30, seems to be working toward his fifth sub-4.00 ERA season in six tries. He’s striking out batters at a 38 percent clip this year, a career high. He is owed roughly $600,000 through the end of the season and under team control through 2021, third-year arbitration eligible this winter. Givens commanded $3.225 million salary through the process this past winter.

You gotta see this
Want to witness one of the weirdest at-bats, from a strategic standpoint, you’ll ever see? It came in Wednesday’s fifth inning, and looks simple enough in the official scorecard: Miguel Castro strikes out Willy Adames looking to end the frame. But it was much more complicated, since neither Castro nor Adames were involved when the at-bat began.

How? Here’s what happened:

With the score tied at 2 heading into the inning, Wojciechowski allowed a leadoff double to Manual Margot. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde removed Wojciechowski for left-hander Tanner Scott, eyeing the row of six consecutive lefties due up in Tampa Bay’s order. Scott ran into trouble: walking Austin Meadows, hitting Brandon Lowe, allowing a go-ahead RBI force out to pinch-hitter Yandy Díaz, retiring Ji-Man Choi and walking Yoshi Tsutsugo. That brought up Kevin Kiermaier with the bases loaded and two out.

Kiermaier took Scott’s first pitch for a ball and second for a strike. Kiermaier, who had battled a foot injury at the beginning of the week, tweaked his back taking the second pitch. He was removed from the game with a 1-1 count and replaced with Adames.

“I’ve never seen an injury during an at-bat, and I was 99.9 percent sure that I could bring in a pitcher there,” Hyde said of his discussion with the umpires. “But I just wanted to double check.”

Seeking the platoon advantage, Hyde called on the right-handed Castro, who resumed the at-bat against the right-handed Adames with a 1-1 count. He struck out Adames to end the inning three pitches later.

In sum, the at-bat went like this:

Ongoing conversations
Shortly after news broke that the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted Game 5 of their NBA playoff series against the Orlando Magic, and several MLB teams decided not to play on Wednesday in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Hyde met with Cedric Mullins, Givens and other Black members of the Orioles’ traveling party.

The meeting occurred inside the 6 o’clock hour, less than 25 minutes prior to the 6:40 p.m. ET first pitch between the Orioles and Rays. The timing, Hyde and Mullins said, made the clubhouse discussion brief, and the idea of not playing unrealistic. All expressed support for athletes protesting as a way to address social issues.

“I felt frustration and sadness for Blake and his family and his community,” said Mullins, who added that he participated in peaceful protests back home in Virginia before the season began. “It was definitely hard to push through.”

Asked if the team would meet on Thursday to discuss potentially not playing, Mullins and Hyde said that was a possibility.

“There's a lot of things going on that are bigger than our game right now,” Hyde said. “I will support them in whatever they want to do.”