Unbelievable, Gunnar Henderson Al Campanis Resigns After Racist Remarks on TV…..
The decibel level rose at each turn around the bases, first from Jorge Mateo and then Gunnar Henderson. The pair of them, in a neck-and-neck race only Statcast’s advanced sensors (and one fascinated sportswriter) was tracking, slid into third base only two minutes apart.
The Orioles added on in the seventh inning of a 9-2 win against the Seattle Mariners with four straight extra-base hits, but there are few plays more exciting in baseball than the triple. And, with the two fastest Orioles players going back to back, it became even more interesting.
First came Mateo, whose opposite-field liner against left-hander Kirby Snead opened the frame with a blaze of speed. He slid in headfirst at third base 11.34 seconds after he left home plate. That time matched Mateo exactly with Henderson’s (and the Orioles’) season-best home-to-third clip.
Henderson, it seemed, couldn’t settle for a draw.
Again, the 38,882 at a raucous Camden Yards roared as Henderson rounded second on an opposite-field liner. Once he slid in at third, the moment of truth: 11.32 seconds. Henderson took back the fastest Orioles triple time in a flash, a mere minute or two after Mateo leveled him.
“Lucky to have two unbelievable athletes like that,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
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“That’s like ‘Triples Alley’ out there; the wall’s forever away,” Henderson said. “When you see it get in there, I feel like there’s a pretty good chance at a triple.”
When an offense is working at its best, these are the oddities one can focus on. The Orioles took the series opener against the Mariners with a five-run first inning off right-hander Bryce Miller and then burst out for four more runs in the seventh inning that included Austin Hays’ second double in as many at-bats since returning from the injured list.
Shortly after, Hays scored on a wild pitch, racing toward the plate despite lingering calf soreness that held him out of the lineup for a few days.
It’s the late-inning hustle from Mateo, Henderson and Hays, among others, that makes the Orioles special. It also ballooned a three-run lead into something much larger, giving a bullpen used to close games breathing room.
Before the game, Hyde and Mariners manager Scott Servais both talked up the opposing pitching staffs — and for good reason. The Orioles (3.26 ERA) and Mariners (3.36 ERA) entered with the fifth- and sixth-best ERAs in the majors. Their starting rotations are stout, and Hyde and Servais predicted a tightly contested, low-scoring series.
Naturally, the opposite became the case.
There is no ease-in period against this Orioles lineup, not with Henderson striding to the plate to see the first deliveries out of a pitcher’s hand. Miller got only two pitches out of his hand before he felt the burn of Henderson.
Miller spin around, watching a high fly ball from Henderson drift up and out and away. It’s an unusual feeling for Miller, and for most in Seattle’s starting rotation. Miller entered with a 2.66 ERA yet left an onslaught of a first inning Friday night with an ERA nearly a run higher.
