Bryan Woo roughed up in Mariners' loss in Baltimore
BALTIMORE - Bryan Woo's woes on the road resurfaced Thursday night, and the Mariners' All-Star right-hander said he will continue a frustrating search for solutions.
"I'm getting pretty tired of trying to come up with reasons or excuses or superlatives," Woo said after allowing all seven runs in a 7-5 loss to the Orioles. "I'm just tired of sucking. It is what it is. I don't know. Like I said, I don't have the answers. I'm looking for them.
Woo surrendered seven hits and seven earned runs over five innings, matching his career high in runs allowed.
In eight starts on the road, he has a 1-5 record with a 5.93 ERA, with 29 earned runs allowed in 44 innings.
In six home starts, by contrast, he is 4-0 with a 2.37 ERA.
"I try to be consistent in the way I prepare for each game, and it's no different on the road," he said.
Woo quickly dismissed a postgame question about the Mariners' six-man rotation and whether the switch to a seven-day pitching cycle might be affecting him.
He was, instead, critical of himself.
"I put myself in some bad counts and some bad leverage positions," he said. "... If I had the answers, I wouldn't be still in this position. I wish I had better answers for you guys. I just, I don't know."
Woo allowed only one earned run over 12 innings in his first two starts on the road this season, at the Angels (April 3) and at the Rangers (April 8).
In six road starts since, he's allowed 28 earned runs in 25 innings.
Of the nine home runs he's allowed this season, seven have been on the road.
"Bryan is such a fierce competitor," M's manager Dan Wilson said. "We've talked about his mindset and how important that is. I know he was frustrated tonight, and he will be back. He'll make his adjustments and be ready to go the next time."
On a day when temperatures soared to the mid-90s with the mid-summer feel of East Coast humidity, the Orioles (33-37) managed to split the four-game series with the Mariners (36-34).
The Marines' 10-day trip resumes Friday in Washington D.C.
Colton Cowser and Pete Alonso homered off Woo during the decisive third inning, when the Orioles batted through the lineup, scored six runs and turned the Mariners' 1-0 lead into a 6-1 deficit.
What made that particularly puzzling was how efficient Woo was to start the game, needing just 12 pitches in each of the first two innings to retire the side in order, with three strikeouts.
The Orioles had five hits and one walk in the third inning. Woo fell behind the batter before three of those hits, and when he tried to get ahead of Alonso, the Orioles' new first baseman hammered a first-pitch sweeper that Woo left over the heart of the plate.
The result was the hardest hit of the game, a 110.6-mph home run with a projected distance of 439 feet, for a two-run homer.
"It's easier to ambush when (hitters are) in favorable counts, because you've got to get back into 'em," Woo said. "The last thing you want to do when you're behind is trying to pinpoint (a strike) even more. You get behind and you get into hitters' counts, they know I'm trying to get back in the count. That's on me for putting myself in that position and then giving them just a better chance."
The Mariners did respond immediately with four runs in the top of the fourth, when Luke Raley belted a two-run homer out to right field - his team-leading 14th - and Dom Canzone followed with a solo blast of his own out to right.
It was the first time the M's have had back-to-back homers this season.
The M's batting through the lineup and pulled within 6-5 on Julio Rodríguez's two-out, opposite-field single off O's starter Kyle Bradish to drive in rookie Colt Emerson from second base.
Emerson was back in the lineup at shortstop after missing the previous three games with back spasms.
Wilson intimated that he did not consider pinch-hitting for Emerson in the eighth inning when the Orioles brought in a lefty specialist, Grant Wolfram, to face the Mariners' left-handed rookie.
Back-to-back singles from Miles Mastrobuoni and Jhonny Pereda had gotten the tying run on base with two outs. Emerson worked a full count vs. Wolfram before grounding out to end the seven-pitch at-bat - and, ultimately, the Mariners' last best chance.
"He's a guy (who's) going to hit lefties. He's hit lefties in the past, you know," Wilson said. "I thought that he put up a pretty good at-bat. Didn't chase. Stayed right with who he is, as we've seen him do, and thought he handled it really well.
Cole Young, the Mariners' 22-year-old second baseman, led off the game with his first career leadoff homer, making him the third-youngest player in franchise history to do so. Rodríguez (seven times) and Spike Owen (once) were the only players younger than Young to hit a leadoff homer, per MLB research.
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