Aggressive baserunning by O's doesn't pan out

BALTIMORE -- Facing an incredibly tough pitcher in Mets All-Star Jacob deGrom, the Orioles made a baserunning move in the fifth inning of Tuesday's 5-3 loss that proved to be costly.

Down 3-0, Baltimore shortstop J.J. Hardy doubled to the right-field wall for the first extra-base hit of the night off deGrom. Henry Urrutia followed with a bloop single into left field and Hardy rounded the third base bag and turned for home. He was barely halfway down the line when Mets outfielder Michael Conforto came up firing, hitting catcher Travis d'Arnaud on the bounce to easily complete the inning-ending putout.

"It's a full count there, two outs," Hardy said. "I got a pretty good jump there. I'm going when he starts swinging the bat. [Urrutia] hit it softly apparently, I didn't see the play, but I guess it was a one-hopper. And [Conforto] made a pretty good throw. [He has a] strong arm. I would have been really surprised if I got held up there. With two outs like that, you've got to try."

Had the O's played it safe, they would have had two men on and the top of the lineup up with Manny Machado representing the tying run.

"It's two outs [and the] guy made a great throw," manager Buck Showalter said of the thinking behind third base coach Bobby Dickerson's sending Hardy. "You're not going to get too many opportunities to score off [deGrom], so you'd better take a shot at it when you can."