PITTSBURGH -- As Connor Joe trotted across home plate to send the Pirates and the crowd at PNC Park into euphoria, Gunnar Henderson crouched near second base staring down at the infield dirt. He continued looking down as he lagged behind his Orioles teammates, the last to exit the field via the first-base dugout on Sunday afternoon.
The 22-year-old shortstop nearly made one of the most incredible game-ending double plays anybody could turn. He instead committed a throwing error that gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 win and Baltimore its first series loss of the season.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning -- and the O’s clinging to a 2-1 lead -- right-hander Yennier Cano got Edward Olivares to hit a chopper up the middle of the infield. Henderson charged across, went down to his knees to field the ball and slid his bare right hand across the bag for a forceout.
Henderson then stood and quickly threw to first, but the ball sailed wide of first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and out of play. Pittsburgh’s Jack Suwinski had come across the plate for the tying run, and Joe was awarded an extra 90 feet -- the final 90 feet needed to end the game -- on the error.
“I usually make that play 99 times out of 100, and it just so happened that the throw got away from me right there,” Henderson said. “That was pretty unfortunate.”
A hallmark of Baltimore’s 2023 American League East-winning team was sterling defense, and the potential is there for that to be the case again in ‘24.
The O’s made some remarkable plays on Sunday. Center fielder Cedric Mullins and second baseman Jorge Mateo teamed up for a great relay in the third that prevented the Bucs from scoring first, with Mateo’s throw nabbing Jared Triolo at the plate.
In the sixth, Henderson and Mateo each made diving plays up the middle to rob hits.
“Every time we’re out there, always somebody makes a diving play,” said right-hander Dean Kremer, who allowed one unearned run over seven dominant innings. “We have one of the better defenses in the league, and I’m not afraid to throw it down the middle and let them work.”
However, the Orioles made two errors, and both were costly. Kremer tried to turn an inning-ending double play in the fifth, and his throw traveled into the outfield. The Pirates immediately cashed in their first run on a Henry Davis sac fly.
Henderson’s error ended the game, but it was also quite a difficult ball to even field.
“You can’t blame Gunnar,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I mean, not many people get to that ball, one, a chopper over the middle. Tough play. He makes a great play, just kind of rushed when he tried to hurry the throw a little bit.”
A bigger reason for the loss was the continuation of Baltimore’s offensive struggles. After scoring 24 runs over the first two games of the season, the O’s have plated only 23 over the seven games since.
The Orioles are averaging 3.3 runs per game during that span. They had only four hits in Saturday’s 5-4, 11-inning loss and six on Sunday -- three of which came from Ryan Mountcastle.
“We’re not creating any sort of traffic right now,” Hyde said. “We’re not taking walks. We’re getting out early in the count quite a bit. You don’t want to discredit the other teams’ pitchers, but we’ve got to do a better job of putting pressure on them and getting on base.”
The following key hitters in Baltimore’s lineup are all enduring slumps:
• Henderson is 3-for-26 over his past seven games, lowering his average to .206.
• Austin Hays is hitless over his last 18 at-bats and is hitting .077 (2-for-26).
• Anthony Santander is 5-for-29 over his past seven games, lowering his average to .216.
• Mullins is 2-for-20 over his past seven games, lowering his average to .143.
• Jordan Westburg went 0-for-4 on Sunday to lower his average to .194.
As the Orioles head to Boston for a three-game series against the Red Sox that begins Tuesday, their confidence remains high that the bats will soon break through. That will likely need to happen for the O’s (5-4) to avoid falling below .500 for the first time since they were 4-5 in 2023.
“First two games of the season, we saw what we could do,” Henderson said. “Just going through a lull right now. We’ll definitely pick it up here pretty soon.”