His previous outings ended with slaps on the back, handshakes and praise. Not to mention precious few runs by the opposition. This one ended differently. And Mike O’Connor’s charmed pitching existence crashed, if only for an outing.
O’Connor had pitched well in almost all of his first nine starts, save for a rough patch or two.
But, Tuesday, the local lefty allowed six runs in a 9-2 loss to Colorado in front of 21,689 fans. The Nationals (30-36) lost for the second straight game. O’Connor (3-4) had not allowed more than three runs in any of his other starts.
An outing like this a month ago would have caused concern. It doesn’t now — at least not yet. Oftentimes, young pitches struggle once the league sees more of them, providing better scouting reports.
But manager Frank Robinson said O’Connor doesn’t need to adjust. For now.
“Why should he?” Robinson said. “If you’re having success, you don’t change anything. The only time you change things is when the offense starts having success against you. Then you have to do something different. And I don’t mean one game, either. It’s two or three starts in a row where then you have to figure out something.”
Actually, O’Connor wasn’t that bad for the first four innings when he held Colorado scoreless. But the Rockies scored six runs off him in the next two innings.
Perhaps the one bright spot for Washington was the two hits by outfielder Marlon Byrd, who entered with a .163 batting average in his last 15 games.
