Again Friday, pitching was front and center.  Sabathia (2-0 in the series) completed the game, allowing just six baserunners (4H, 2BB), and was really only in trouble at one time.  The Orioles put together a promising looking rally in the eighth, loading the bases with just one out.

Matt Wieters led off with a single, moved to second on a Manny Machado walk, and scored one out later on a single from Lew Ford.  When Robert Andino reached on a comebacker that Sabathia was indecisive about, the bases were filled with Orioles.  Then, Sabathia became Sabathia.

Nate McLouth struck out swinging for out number two, and JJ Hardy continued his offensive misery (just .136 in the series) with a slow bounce out to Derek Jeter.

Of course, by the time we reached the eighth, the Yankees already led 3-0.  It didn’t appear that would be the case early on.  O’s starter Jason Hammel (L, 0-1) was again terrific, taking a perfect game into the fifth.  Mark Teixeira broke it up with a single to right leading off inning number five.  With Mark Reynolds not holding him and Jason Hammel not paying much attention to him, Teixeira stole second base.  It was a surprising move for Teixeira, already slow afoot, AND hobble by a calf injury.  But it would turn out to be an enormous play.

Next up, Raul Ibanez’s roller toward second found its way past the diving Andino and into center for a hit, scoring Teixeira for a 1-0 Yankees lead.  Hammel got Nick Swisher on a big 6-4-3 double play, though, and what looked like the start of a big inning was minimized to just the one run.

The O’s though they’d tied it in the sixth.  With two outs, McLouth blasted a 3-1, 93 MPH fastball deep into right field, directly down the line.  The ball was initially ruled foul, but Buck Showalter came out to argue, asking the umpires to review the call.  They did, and the play stood as called.  Replays showed the ball definitely coming down on the foul side of the foul pole, but there was some question as to whether or not the ball hit clipped the pole.  As it turned out, it was simply a long, loud strike, making the count full.  McLouth swung through a tough slider next, striking out for out number three.

With one out in the bottom of the bottom of the sixth, Hammel walked Jeter.  Next, Ichiro ripped the first pitch of his at-bat, a 91 MPH fastball in a poor location, off the wall in right center.  Jeter scored, making it 2-0.  Hammel got Robinson Cano on strikes, intentionally walked Teixeira, and was lifted for Troy Patton.  The move set up a lefty-lefty matchup against the Yankees hottest hitter in Ibanez.  Patton won the battle, getting Ibanez to chase a 77 MPH curve in the dirt.  But the Yankees would not allow the O’s lefty to leave without a big blemish.

Patton fanned Swisher to start the seventh.  Next up, it was another lefthanded hitter in the struggling Curtis Granderson.  Patton hung an 81 MPH slider on a 2-1 pitch, and Granderson turned on it, parking a long home run into the second deck for his first homer of the series.  The lead grew to 3-0, and all of Orioles Nation had to know, with Sabathia on the hill facing an ice-cold offense, it was going to be tough to come back.  The Orioles were in a spot where they had to score at least three runs before the big lefty recorded six outs.  It did not come to pass.

So the magical season, which began with a Jake Arrieta win over Minnesota, and featured so many amazing feats (a 16-game season from Nolan Reimold, who looked like the league MVP in those two-plus weeks; a win out of the bullpen for Chris Davis in a 17-inning affair in Boston; the breakthrough season for Adam Jones, who was rewarded with a long term deal; dramatic late inning heroics from everyone from Jones to Taylor Tegarden;  a 51-save season from Jim Johnson, anchoring an absolutely shut-down bullpen; 16 extra-inning wins in a row, etc, etc, etc), all combining to give the Baltimore Orioles their first playoff appearance—heck, their first winning season—since 1997, is over.  What an amazing, incredible, unthinkable ride.  Anyone else wishing 2013 could start next week?

The post O’s Season Ends in 3-1 Loss in New York appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Joe Saunders, who pitched the birds into the ALDS with a dominant performance in Texas last week, got the ball with the season on the line, and he was again sensational.  Saunders threw 5.2 innings, giving up just 3 hits.  He was a bit wild, walking four, but he fanned 5 Yankees, including striking out the side in the third following a leadoff double from Jayson Nix.

The Orioles appeared ready to give Saunders a lead several times.  They put two on with none out in the first, but couldn’t push anything across.  In the third, the Orioles had runners on second and third with nobody out, but again, came up empty.  Runners on first and third with two outs in the fourth, and nothing. Finally, leading off the fifth, the Orioles called on the long ball to get on the board.

Nate McLouth blasted a 1-2, 91 MPH fastball deep into the right field seats for a 1-0 lead, a lead that would stand for an inning and a half.  In the Yankees sixth, the Bronx Bombers manufactured a run.  Derek Jeter led off against Saunders with a double.  An Ichiro sac bunt mover Jeter to third.  Saunders walked Mark Teixeira, and got Robinson Cano on a force out.  Jeter scored on the play, and it was 1-1.  Saunders was lifted for Tommy Hunter.  Hunter blew away the struggling Alex Rodriguez, fanning the Yankees third baseman on a 97 MPH heater.

Hunter was the first of seven Orioles relievers on the night, with all contributing big outs.  He was lifted for Troy Patton after an error by Ryan Flaherty.  Patton was replaced gave way to Luis Ayala one out and one hit later.  With runners on first and second, Ayala struck out Jeter looking.  Buck Showalter decided to let Ayala start the eighth.  Ichiro led off with a single, and moved to second on a Teixeira hit.

Brian Matusz came on, and got Cano on a grounder that advanced the runners.  On came Darren O’Day for his most impressive performance, possibly all season.  O’Day struck out ARod, and got Nick Swisher on a fly out to right.  The potential disaster, late in the game, was averted.

O’Day stayed on in the ninth, getting the Yankees—including Wednesday night’s villain Raul Ibanez—1, 2, 3.  O’Day stayed on through a blemish-free tenth.  Buck reached deeper into the pen in the eleventh, plucking out forgotten man Pedro Strop, who’s performance was far from forgettable.

Strop’s very first pitch was a nasty slider that caused Alex Rodriguez to buckle a bit, for a called strike.  It seemed to feed the enigmatic right hander’s confidence, which had been sorely lacking from Strop for the better part of a month.  Strop set the Yankees down in order with one strikeout in the eleventh.  He gave up a hit in the twelfth, but nothing else.

The Orioles would break through in the top of the thirteenth inning.  Manny Machado led off with a liner over Cano and into the right-center field gap for a double.  McLouth’s ground out moved Machado to third.  Then JJ Hardy broke out, driving a double to the left field wall.  Macahdo scored, and it was 2-1.  But Chris Davis and Adam Jones left Hardy at second, and the O’s went into a save situation with their slumping closer.

Jim Johnson struck out Mark Teixeira looking on a big curve ball for the first out.  Next, Cano lined out to McLouth in left.  And for a second straight night, Yanks manager Joe Girardi pinch hit for ARod, this time with Eric Chavez.  On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Chavez lined out to third for out number three, and a 2-2 series tie.

Game five features Jason Hammel for the Orioles against CC Sabathia for the Yankees.  First pitch is at 5pm.

The GOOD:

• The pitching:  8 Orioles pitchers combined to go 13 innings, giving up just 1 run on 7 hits, 5 walks, and 11 strikeouts.  They held the Yankees to 0/9 with RISP.

The BAD:

• The offense:  1/11 with RISP.
• Davis:  0/6, 3K, 5LOB
• Jones: 0/6, 2K, 5LOB.  Jones is now hitting .105 in the ALDS.

The post Orioles Stay Alive With 13 Inning 2-1 Win Forcing Game 5 appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Cobb (W, 11-9) gave up just one run on two hits through seven innings, outpitching O’s lefty Wei-Yin Chen (L, 12-11), who hasn’t won since August 19.

Chen, for his part, pitched very well through most of his 6.2 innings.  Ben Zobrist touched him for a solo homer leading off the fourth (20), and, through six, that was the only run the Rays would score.  Chen had given up just three hits until running into trouble in the seventh.  By then, Matt Wieters had tied things at one with his 23rd home run, an opposite field drive down the left field line.

In the seventh, Evan Longoria led off by reaching on an error from Manny Machado.  It was a big error by the kid who, without a doubt, has otherwise solidified the defense at the hot corner.  Jeff Keppinger singled to right, moving Longoria to third.  A Ben Francisco sac fly made it 2-1 Tampa.

Next, Sam Fuld picked up an artificial turf hit, a high chopper that bounced over first baseman Mark Reynolds glove.  One out later, Rays catcher Chris Giminez delivered a killer, two-run double that knocked Chen from the game, and gave Tampa a 4-1 lead.

Tampa Bay scored another run in the eighth, and it was 5-1.  But the Orioles had some fight left.

JJ Hardy led off the ninth with a single off of reliever Kyle Farnsworth.  Next, Chris Davis hit a bomb that hit the catwalk on the roof at the Trop, for a ground-rule home run (32).  Rays’ closer Fernando Rodney came on and gave up hits to Adam Jones and Wieters, before striking out Jim Thome and Mark Reynolds, then getting pinch-hitter Endy Chavez on a comebacker.

The O’s, who will be in the playoffs, again battle the Rays, who still have a slim shot at postseason play, Tuesday night at 7:10.  James Shields (15-9, 3.62) goes for Tampa, vs. Baltimore’s Miguel Gonzalez (8-4, 3.45).

The GOOD:

• Wieters and Hady:  2 hits each.  Wieters homered.
• Nice life shown by the Orioles in the ninth, including Davis’ homer, his sixth in the last five games.

The BAD:

• Pedro Strop, who may be pitching himself off the playoff roster, and Troy Patton, did not pitch well in relief.
• Numbers 6-9 in the order:  a combined 0/14 with one walk, 6 strikeouts, and 8 LOB.
• The Yankees beat Boston 10-2, and the O’s fall out of the first place tie atop the AL East.

The post O’s Lose Grip On First, Fall In Tampa appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

In game one, Adam Jones went 4-4 with a homer (32), two runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base to pace the offense.   Steve Johnson (W, 4-0) threw five scoreless innings with six strikeouts, three walks, and three hits allowed.

Nate McLouth added a pair of hits, and Ryan Flaherty homered (5).  The bullpen combination of Troy Patton, Tommy Hunter, Darren O’Day, and Jim Johnson (Save, 48) went four innings giving up a run on five hits, no walks, and five strikeouts.

In the second game, Wei-Yin Chen (L, 12-10) was not sharp.  The lefty gave up five runs on nine hits, two of which were home runs.  He struck out three and walked one before yielding to Jake Arrieta in relief with runners on first and third with no outs in the sixth.  Arrieta slammed the door, striking out three straight Blue Jays to keep the score 5-3 Toronto.

The Orioles, who had blown a bases loaded opportunity one inning earlier, would do so again in the bottom of the sixth.  With one run in and no one out, Adam Jones struck out with the bases loaded.  The Chris Davis hit a fly ball to left fielder Anthony Gose, who threw out Taylor Teagarden trying to tag and score from third.

Arrieta came apart in the seventh, giving up a walk and back-to-back hits to start the innings.  Two outs later, Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia picked on a hanging slider from Arrieta and deposited it into the left field seats for a grand slam.

The Orioles loaded the bases again in the ninth with no one out, only to come away with one run.

The same two teams do battle Tuesday night, with Toronto throwing Aaron Laffey (3-6, 4.80) against Baltimore’s Joe Saunders (2-2, 3.48).  Game time is 7:05.

GAME 1…

The GOOD:

• Steve Johnson’s ERA is now down to 1.62.  He has been remarkable.
• Jones’ breakout season just keeps getting better.  He hit everything hard in this one.

The BAD:

• O’s:   0-5 with RISP.  5 left on base.

GAME 2…

The GOOD:

• Nate McLouth:  1-2, 1HR (5), 1R, 2BB, 1RBI.
• Multi-hit games from Jones, Davis, JJ Hardy, and Robert Andino.
• Pedro Strop and Zach Phillips each threw a scoreless inning in relief.

The BAD:

• Reynolds:  3LOB, 2GIDP.
• The combination of Chen and Arrieta:  7IP, 9ER, 12H, 3HR.

The post Monday at Camden Yards: A Big Pile of Bird Split appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Randy Wolf made his initial O’s start, and was roughed up in the very first inning.  Collin Cowgill led off with a double to center.  One out later, Josh Reddick blasted a two-run homer (29), and it looked like it was going to be another long day in Oakland.

But Wolf’s battery mate Matt Wieters hammered a one-out solo homer (20) in the second, making it 2-1.  The Orioles tied it in the third with some small-ball.  Endy Chavez led off with a hit.  Robert Andino’s sac bunt moved Chavez to second.  Chavez advanced to third on Nate McLouth’s ground out to second, and JJ Hardy picked up a base hit (though it could’ve been ruled an error) that A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson deflected into foul ground.

Wieters led off the fourth with another home run (21), and the birds had their first lead of the day.  In the fifth, the string of one-run innings continued for the O’s, thanks to A’s starter Dan Straily’s wildness.  The rally began with two outs and none on.  Chris Davis walked.  Adam Jones ripped his 34th double of the season, moving Davis to third.  Straily intentionally walked Wieters, bringing up Mark Reynolds.  The O’s first baseman worked a five-pitch walk, and the Orioles had a 4-2 lead, and had knocked Straily from the game.

The fourth was also Wolf’s last inning.  He settled down quite a bit after the first, and finished with just the two runs allowed on six hits.  He walked two and struck out four while throwing 45 of his 72 pitches for strikes.  Tommy Hunter came on for one inning of scoreless, if not spotless, relief.  He gave up a walk and a hit, but struck out the final two A’s in the inning.

On a day when the bullpen would have to shine, it was Brian Matusz (W, 6-10) who burned brightest.  Matusz pitched two perfect innings with a pair of stikeouts.  He was helped by a great diving catch from left fielder McLouth in the sixth.

In the O’s seventh, Wieters and Reynolds led off with back-to-back walks.  Manny Machado the delivered a double into the gap in left center, plating Wieters.  A chopper by Chavez found its way into center field, scoring both Reynolds and Machado, and the O’s were up 7-2.

Both Darren O’Day and Pedro Strop struggled in relief.  Strop’s issues led to a cheap, one-out save for Jim Johnson (43), and the Orioles escaped Oakland with one win in the three game set.

The birds head up the coast to Seattle for a three game set with the Mariners starting Monday.  Hector Neosi  (2-11, 5.54) starts for Seattle against former Mariner Chris Tillman (7-2, 3.39), making his first start since September 2.  Game time is 10:05.

The GOOD:

• Wieters:  2/3, 2HR, 2RBI, 2BB, 3R.
• Chavez:  4/4, 1BB, 2RBI, 2R.
• Robert Andino and JJ Hardy:  2 hits each.  Reynolds drew 3 walks
• Who DIDN’T have trepidation about Brian Matusz coming on as Troy Patton’s left handed replacement in the bullpen?  But like so many other moves the mad geniuses in the Warehouse and Dugout have made, this one has had better results than anyone could have possibly imagined.  As a stater, Matusz was awful:  5-10, 5.47 ERA.  But out of the ‘pen?  1-0, 1.93.  In just over 9 relief innings, Matusz has struck out 13, walked 1 (intentionally), and given up just 3 hits.  He’s a different guy.

The BAD:

• O’Day:  1IP, 2R, 2H, 1HR, 3K.
• Strop:  0.2IP, 1R, 2H, 1K, 1BB.
• Jones:  1/6, 1K, 6LOB.

The post O’s Pull Out Of Oakland With 9-5 Win appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Facing Ryan Dempster, the O’s mounted a two-out rally to grab the lead.  Nate McLouth doubled with two outs, bringing Adam Jones to the plate.  Dempster started Jones off with a tough, 91 MPH fastball running in on his hands.  Jones tucked the hands, stayed inside the ball, and hit a soft hump-back liner just out of the reach of Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland.  McLouth scored, and the birds were on a pace to score 9 runs.

It looked like O’s starter Miguel Gonzalez was going to give it all back and more in the home half of the first.  Ian Kinsler led off for Texas with his 34th double of the year.  Next, Elvis Andrus picked up an infield hit, and the Rangers had runners on first and second with no out.  But Gonzalez got Josh Hamilton on a fly out to center, Adrian Beltre lined out to short, and Nelson Cruz flew out to right to end the threat.

The birds next threat in the fourth featured another hit from Jones and a walk to Mark Reynolds.  But with two outs, Dempster (W, 7-6/2-1) struck out Omar Quintanilla.  The Orioles, who’d already left four on base through four innings, had blown a big chance.  The slugging Rangers would come up in the fourth against the rookie Gonzalez, and change the complexion of the game.

Beltre led off with a hit.  Cruz drew a walk in a seven-pitch at-bat.  One out later, David Murphy blooped a pop fly that settled into shallow center in front of Jones for a hit, scoring Beltre, and tying things at one.  Former Cubs catcher Geovany Soto singled to left, scoring Cruz ahead of McLouth’s throw, and it was 2-1.  Moreland picked up an infield hit, loading the bases for Kinsler.  The Texas second baseman hit a sac fly to right, plating Murphy, and the Rangers led 3-1.

Texas added a fourth run on a Nelson Cruz double that scored Hamilton from first.  Gonzalez would wiggle out of further damage in the fifth, but with Dempster shutting down the birds offensively, the four runs was more than enough.  Gonzalez (L, 5-3) went five innings, giving up the four earned runs on eight hits.  He walked three and struck out two.

The O’s bullpen shut down Texas for two innings.  Kevin Gregg pitched a perfect sixth, and Matt Lindstrom, a perfect seventh.  In the eighth, though, the bullpen’s new Achilles Heel, the left handed reliever slot, again was exposed,  J.C. Romero was, for a second straight outing, not good.

Michael Young doubled to left.  Murphy, a left handed hitter, smoked a bullet past Romero and into center, scoring Young for a 5-1 Texas lead.  Murphy was pulled for pinch runner Craig Gentry.  With Romero paying little-to-no attention to him at first, Gentry stole second.  Romero added a walk to Kinsler, but was able to get out of the inning, having allowed just to one run, for the 5-1 final.

Game two of the series comes Tuesday night at 8:05.  Chris Tillman (5-2, 3.65) will try to snap a string of a couple of straight less-than-stellar performances.  He’s given up 9 earned runs and 12 hits in his last 10.1 innings over 2 starts.  He faces Scott Feldman (6-8, 4.63) for the Rangers.

The GOOD:

• Orioles pitchers stranded 9 Rangers on the bases.
• Lindstrom was especially sharp, striking out 2 in one perfect inning.

The BAD:

• The 5-9 hitters…a combined 0/16 with 8 strikeouts and 1 walk.
• A show of hands…anyone missing Troy Patton yet?  His return, it appears, will be delayed a bit, and probably won’t happen before rosters expand on September 1.  Meanwhile, down in Norfolk, lefty Zach Phillips hasn’t been scored upon in 14 of his last 17 outings.

The post Offense Falls Flat in 5-1 O’s Loss to Texas appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

The birds got to Royals starter Bruce Chen (L, 8-10) in the second inning.  Mark Reynolds worked Chen for an eight-pitch walk, bringing up the talk of the town, rookie Manny Machado.  Chen, the veteran, crafty junkballer, started the 20-year old rookie with two quick strikes.  He tried to tempt Machado with a couple of pitches out of the strike zone, but the kid would have neither of them.  Chen played with the rookie’s anxiety, tossing over to first base a few times when Reynolds clearly wasn’t looking to swipe a base.

Finally, on the sixth pitch of the at-bat, with a 2-2 count, Chen left an 86 MPH fastball up and over the plate.  Machado went out after it and drove it over the right-center field fence.  The ball hit beyond the fence and ricocheted back onto the playing field.  Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain played it as it the ball was still in play, and actually sold it to the umpires.  But after a brief review of the replay, the umpiring crew got the call right:  home run, Manny Machado, and the Orioles were up, 2-0.

KC answered in the fourth.  Mike Moustakas led off against O’s starter Tommy Hunter with his 18th home run, and the 27th surrendered by Hunter this year.  Billy Butler singled. Cain flew out to right.  Then Jeff Francoeur singled, and Eric Hosmer drew a walk—working back from an 0-2 count.  That , loaded the bases with just one away for catcher Brayan Pena.

On the third pitch of the at-bat, Pena drove one to fairly deep left field.  Lew Ford made the catch, and fired a terrific throw in to the plate, with the pokey Butler chugging in from third.  The throw beat Butler, but came in to catcher Taylor Teagarden on a tough, in-between hop.  Teagarden could not come up with it, and Butler was in to tie the game at 2.

In the fifth, Alex Gordon led off with a hit for the Royals.  Alcides Escobar followed that with a base hit, and KC had Hunter in big trouble with runners were on the corners and no outs.  Hunter, the fly ball pitcher pitching in a home run ballpark, faced off against Moustakas again.  An inning earlier, the young Kansas City third baseman turned on a high fastball from Hunter, hitting it off the foul pole for a home run.  This time, Hunter would get exactly what he needed.

Moustakas pounded a 92 MPH fastball into the ground at second baseman Robert Andino, who started the 4-6-3 double play.  Gordon scored, and Kansas City took the lead, but the threat of a big inning, one of Hunter’s season-long nemeses, was gone.  Butler followed with a hit, and Hunter got Cain on a force out to end the inning.  The Royals sent five men to the plate in the fifth.  Three of them collected hits, but they could score only one run.

Chen was within one strike of getting out of the Orioles’ fifth unscathed, but on a two-out, 3-2 pitch to Nick Markakis, Chen missed his mark by about 8 inches, and Markakis made him pay.  Pena set up on the outside part of the plat, and Chen’s pitch was right down the heart of the dish.  Markakis launched the 84 MPH sinker (which stayed up) into the seats in right, tying things at 3.

Luis Ayala (W, 4-3) replaced Hunter in the sixth and set the side down in order for just the second time all day.  He would be rewarded by his ‘mates in the bottom half of the sixth.

With one out, Chen issued back-to-back walks to Adam Jones, and Ford.  Chen’s day was done, as manager Ned Yost called on Louis Coleman to face Reynolds.  Again, Reynolds went deep into the count, working Coleman for six pitches, and a 2-2 count.  On the sixth pitch, Reynolds picked on a high, 79 MPH slider and lined it for a hit to left.  Jones scored to give the O’s the lead again, at 4-3.

The birds tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on a walk, a single, a sac bunt and a passed ball.  Jim Johnson slammed the door on the Royals in a perfect ninth for his 34th save, and a 5-3 Orioles win.

The Orioles get to enjoy an off day at home Monday before welcoming the Boston Red Sox to Camden Yards for a three-game set starting Tuesday.  Yes, the Sox are struggling at 57-59, 5.5 games behind to Orioles.  But make no mistake, this will be a huge series.  If the Red Sox are going to climb back into it, they have to be thinking it will start with this upcoming series, and the series that follows for them, at Yankee Stadium.  The Sox are, of course, a veteran team.  This isn’t their first rodeo.  Expect them to come to play.  Wei-Yin Chen (10-7, 3.79) pitches Tuesday for the birds.  The Red Sox have made no announcement as to who may be on the mound for them.  Game time is 7:05.

The GOOD:

• So many things have gone right with these 2012 Orioles, but has anything gone more right than Manny Machado’s first series in the big leagues?  6/16 (.374), 5R, 1 double, 1 triple, 3HR, 7RBI.
• Great work again today from the bullpen.  Ayala, Troy Patton, Pedro Strop, and Johnson combined for 4IP, 0H, 1BB, 3K.  Total domination.
• Great job by Buck Showalter getting Hunter out when he did.  It may be tempting to run the starter back out after the offense tied things up in the fifth, looking to get the “W” for him.  But Hunter was clearly at the end of the tank.  7 of the last 12 batters Hunter faced had reached base.  It was time.  Also, a gutsy move in the ninth to get Jones, who’d made his first career start as the DH, into the field defensively in center field.  In a two-run game, Showalter cashed in his DH for that move, against a team that can hit.
• Reynolds, whose hit in the sixth was the decisive offensive play of the game, also made a huge play with the glove, ending the Royals’ fourth with a diving stop.  If he doesn’t make that play, at least one more run scores, and the Royals turn the order over to the top.

The BAD:

• 0-fer games from JJ Hardy, Teagarden, Andino and Ford.  Lew Ford is now just 4/27 with the Orioles.

The post Bullpen Shines In 5-3 O’s Win appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

The two teams sat through a rain delay of over three hours prior to first pitch.  Once under way, the Royals treated Tillman rudely.  For the second time this series, Royals leadoff man Alex Gordon went deep in the game’s first at bat (8).  In the top of the second, Lorenzo cain led off with a hit, and Salvador Perez followed with his second homer of the series (8), and it was 3-0 Royals.

Billy Butler hit his second homer of the series (24) with two outs and none on in the third, making it 4-0.

Tillman lasted into the sixth.  With two outs, Tillman hit Perez with a pitch, then walked Jeff Francoeur on five pitches.  Showalter made the move with Tillman having thrown 109 pitches, 58 for strikes.  Miguel Socolovich was summoned, with the O’s down 4-0, 2 out and 2 on in the sixth.  The game was still within reach.  Offensively, the Orioles had struggled to deliver the big hit at that point, leaving runners on first and third in the first inning, and first and second in the fourth against Royals starter Luis Mendoza (W, 6-8).  But with the game within reach, and the O’s propensity for the comeback, hope was certainly not lost.

By the time Socolovich finally recorded the third out of the sixth, the game’s complexion changed entirely. Eric Hosmer picked on Socolovich’s first pitch—a 79 MPH change up, and singled to center for a 5-0 lead.  Francoeur, who’d advanced to third on Hosmer’s hit, then stole home as part of a double steal, making it 6-0.  Before the Orioles would score their first run, Gordon went deep again (9).  His solo shot leading off the seventh made it 7-0, and really put things out of reach.

The bird put up a three-spot in the bottom of the seventh.  Wilson Betemit lead off with a walk, and moved to second on a single from Chris Davis.  Manny Machado, the talk of the town in Baltimore after his 2-4 debut and his two-homer night number two, delivered again.

Machado grounded a 91 MPH fastball into the left field corner for his first major league double, knocking in Betemit.  Omar Quintanilla followed Machado’s two bagger with a two-run single, and the Orioles pulled to 7-3, which is where it would end.

The Orioles will try to earn a split in the series Sunday at 1:05.  Pitching for Kansas City, it’ll be former Oriole Bruce Chen (8-9, 5.51).  Tommy Hunter (4-7, 5.55) goes for the Orioles.

The GOOD:

• Nate McLouth, batting third, picked up a pair of hits, as did Adam Jones.
• Machado now has 5 hits, 4 for extra bases.
• 2 solid innings of relief in the combined efforts of Matt Lindstrom and Troy Patton.
• It’s easy to get nervous about Tillman when he has an outing like this, but there is something about the way he is carrying himself that says he’ll be OK.  Brian Matusz, Zach Britton, and even Jake Arietta sometimes have that “deer in the headlights” look…kind of a lost gaze when things break down.  Tillman looks like a guy who has certainly figured some things out, even in adversity.

The BAD:

• Tough day for Matt Wieters…0-3 with a walk.  He left 3 runners on, and committed his 9th error.
• It’s always good to pick out a guy or two on the other team that you will not let beat you.  Against Kansas City, those guys are Alex Gordon and Billy Butler.  This series, those two have combined to hit .310 with 8 runs, 5 home runs and 7 RBIs.  Throw in Catcher Salvador Perez’s numbers this series (3/11, 3R, 2HR, 3RBI), and that’s more than half of the Royals run production in the first three games.
• Socolovich probably shouldn’t see action if the result of the game is still within question.  A mop up role, where someone is needed just to eat innings and get to the end of the game, seems a better place for Socolovish’s talents.

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Buck Showalter had planned to rest his All-Star catcher after he spent all 14 innings crouching behind the plate Tuesday night.  But Wieters talked his manager into letting him catch Johnson in his first big league start.  All parties are happy with the results.

Johnson (W, 1-0_ began the night fanning the Mariners’ first two hitters, Dustin Ackley and Michael Saunders, on six pitches.  Johnson went 0-2 on Jesus Montero before he singled to right.  The next batter, John Jaso, struck out on three pitches, and Johnson had his club back in the dugout.

Former Oriole Kevin Millwood (L, 4-10), who 23 years ago was getting ready to begin his freshman year in high school, took the hill for the Mariners, and was greeted rudely by his old mates.  JJ Hardy picked up a one-out single, and Chris Davis walked.  Adam Jones hit into a force out, putting runners on first and third with two away, for Wieters.

Wieters worked the count full, then picked on an 83 MPH slider from Millwood and ripped it to right.  Right fielder Eric Thames took a bad route to the ball, but still appeared to have it in range.  In mid-stride, he reached up over his head, but the ball trickled out of the webbing of his glove.  The birds picked up two runs on the shot, which was ruled a double for Wieters, but which definitely should have been caught.

The second inning provided the most angst for Johnson.  With his team having just handed him two runs, Johnson gave up a leadoff hit to Kyle Seager, then walked Mike Carp.  Trayvon Robinson hit into a force, putting runners on the corners with one out.  Thames took Johnson to a 3-2 count before walking to load the bases.  Next up, shortstop Munenori Kawasaki tried to bunt his way on, or at least bunt home a run.  Johnson fielded it and flipped to Wieters for the force at the plate, and there were two outs.  Ackley then went after Johnson’s first pitch, a 79-MPH changeup, and popped out, and Johnson had stranded three runners.

Nick Markakis led off the O’s third with a triple.  He scored when Hardy scooted a ground ball under Seager’s glove at third for a base hit.  One out later, Jones doubled to left, moving Hardy to third.  Wieters made a productive out, grounding to second and plating the Orioles’ fourth run.

Into the home half of the fourth, and Mark Reynolds took a belt-high, 90 MPH Millwood fastball into the seats in right center for a one-out, solo homer (9).  Omar Quintanilla singled.  Then Markakis pounded a Millwood slider onto the flag court in right for another home run (12), and a 7-0 Orioles lead.

The M’s finally got to Johnson in the sixth.  Montero singled leading off, and one-out later, Seager hit an opposite field homer to left (13), and it was 7-2 Baltimore.   Johnson would get the final two outs in the sixth, and that would end his night.  A very solid first big league start (and second ML appearance) finished with 6IP, 2ER, 5H, 2BB, 9K, 1HR.  Oh, and 1W.

Troy Patton pitched a perfect seventh, with one strikeout, and Miguel Socolovich, recalled before the game, threw two shutout innings to close the door on Seattle.

The birds would pick up two more runs in the seventh on a Davis single, back-to-back-to-back doubles from Jones, Wieters (for 2 more RBIs), and Betemit, and an intentional walk to Nate McClouth.

The O’s have won five straight after sweeping the Mariners, and next welcome Kansas City.  Wei-Yin Chen (10-6, 3.46) goes for the O’s, vs. KC’s Will Smith (2-4, 6.00).  First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.

The GOOD:

• Matt Wieters with 5 RBIs.
• Every Oriole starter got on base.  All but McClouth picked up at least one hit.
• Well, just when the dust settles from Johnson’s first ML win and a sweep of the Mariners, up to the Bigs comes Manny Machado.  Yes, it is a surprise.  There is no official word what the plan is for Machado right now, but it’s hard to think that he’ll uproot JJ Hardy from shortstop here in a pennant race.  Of course, it’s hard to think of Machado being thrown out to third base, where he’s played exactly twice in his minor league career.  And Machado being called up and NOT playing is simply impossible to imagine.  Just like the rest of the 2012 Orioles season.

The BAD:

• Normally, eight runners left on would strike a chord.  But the O’s still scored nine runs, so all is good.

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Their Gold Glove right fielder, and #3 hitter missed a month, and when he came back, he became the leadoff man for the first time in his career.  The veteran slugger they traded for to add some pop?  He lasted 18 games and drove in 6 runs.  Their ace went down with a knee injury.  He’s missed about 3 weeks, and will miss at least 3 more.  They’re platooning in left with a guy who hadn’t seen the majors in 5 years, and a guy who was cut by Pittsburgh after hitting .140.  They made no moves at the trade deadline.  They can’t field.  They can’t run.  They don’t manufacture runs.  They hit into too many double plays.  And yet, after overcoming their latest round of adversity Tuesday night, here they are, 4.5 games out of first place in the American League East.

The Orioles spotted the Seattle Mariners five runs in the first Tuesday.  And, by spotted, we mean, literally, handed five runs over to the opposition.  It was another ugly beginning for young left hander Zach Britton. Mariners leadoff man Dustin Ackley hit a comebacker on the game’s fourth pitch the Britton could not handle, and we were off and running with an error.  Two strikeouts later, Seattle’s cleanup man Jesus Montero hit a sharp grounder that third baseman Wilson Betemit couldn’t handle.  It went down as a hit, but it was a play that should have been made, and really the second extra out the O’s gave the M’s in the first.

The Mariners are not a good hitting team, but they are a major league team, and given extra outs, a major league team will usually cash in.  And the Mariners did.  Kyle Seager picked on a 93 MPH fastball down the middle and blasted it into the right field seats for his 12th home run, and a 3-0 Seattle lead.

The Mariners picked up two more in the second on a one out homer from Miguel Olivo (8), followed by three consecutive singles from Munenori Kawasaki, Ackley, and Treyvon Robinson.  A small but already restless Camden Yards crowd started buzzing for Buck Showalter to make a move to the bullpen, but he stuck with his lefty, who got out of it without further damage.

The Orioles put together a two-run second of their own.  Matt Wieters led off with a home run to straight away center (14), making it 5-1.  Two outs later, Nick Markakis delivered an opposite field RBI hit, and it was 5-2.

Britton settled in for a spell, retiring 9 of the next ten Mariners he faced.  With the score still 5-2 Seattle, Britton took the hill in the top of the sixth.  Casper Wells led off with a triple, and Mike Carp drove him in with a single to left.  Britton’s night was over (as would be this most recent stay in Baltimore.  More on that ahead), and Kevin Gregg came on.  His first batter, Olivo, reached on another Betemit miscue down at third (this time, ruled an error), and the Mariners had runners at second and third with no outs, already up 6-2.

One out later, Ackley delivered a single to center, scoring Carp.  But the slow footed Olivo was gunned out on a strong throw from Adam Jones to Matt Wieters at the plate.  With the score 7-2, and with the Orioles down to the final 12 outs, it didn’t look like the play was going to be nearly as important as it turned out to be.

Wieters hit his second homer of the night in the sixth, chipping away, and making it 7-3 Mariners.  But in the seventh, the Orioles stopped chipping away, and broke out the chainsaw.  Mark Reynolds opened the inning with a double, sending Mariners starter Blake Beavan to the showers with a 7-3 lead.  With left handed hitting Omar Quintanilla coming up, Mariners manager Eric Wedge opted to go to Lucas Luetge, one of two left handed relievers for Seattle.

Quintanilla singled Reynolds home, making it 7-4.  Markakis blooped a single to left, bringing up JJ Hardy.

With the right handed hitting O’s shortstop coming up, another move to the bullpen seemed likely.  After all, Hardy is hitting .287 vs. lefties, and just .208 against right handers.  And, although they hadn’t exactly torn the cover off the ball against him, the O’s were 2-2 against Luetge.  Plus, unlike his managerial counterpart in the Orioles dugout, Wedge had not one, but two left handers in the bullpen, so if the need arose for a lefty/lefty match-up later in the game, Wedge could still make it happen.  Instead, Wedge left the 24-year old rookie in the game.  It was a move that helped cost Seattle a win.

Hardy had been hitless on the day, having left three runners on.  But on Luetge’s  0-1 pitch, an 89 MPH sinker that stayed up just enough, Hardy blasted a three-run home run into the left field seats.  His 16th home run brought the Orioles all the way back from deficits of 5-0 and 7-2, to tie the game at 7.  And, right on cue, the Orioles bullpen was hitting its stride.

Gregg had settled down after a rough first inning of work, holding the M’s scoreless in the seventh.  Troy Patton pitched 1.1 perfect innings in the eighth and into the ninth.  Luis Ayala replaced Patton and gave up a couple of ninth inning hits, but no runs.  The Mariners got no runs on one hit against Pedro Strop in the tenth.  Matt Lindstom entered in the eleventh, and was perfect.  He stayed on into the twelth, giving up two hits, but nothing else.

But while the O’s bullpen was shutting Seattle down, the Orioles could muster no offense.  The birds went 3-up, 3-down in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th innings, often missing what seemed to be hittable pitches.

Into the 13th, and the Orioles pitching options were dwindling.  Lindstom, having thrown 36 pitches in two innings, was no longer an option.  The bullpen was down  to Jim Johnson and Darren O’Day, with a slew of lefthanded hitters coming up for the M’s.  Buck went to O’Day, and the side winder did not disappoint.

O’Day (W, 6-0) gave up a two-out hit and stolen base to Eric Thames in the 13th, but shut the door.  In the 14th, O’Day set the Mariners down in order, and the stage was set for the winning rally.

Facing Shawn Kelley (L, 2-3), Quintanilla opened the inning with a grounder toward the middle.  Ackley, at second for Seattle, went into a sprawling dive, smothering the ball, and from his knees, fired toward first.  The throw beat Quintanilla, but First Base Umpire Brian Knight said the throw pulled first baseman Mike Carp off the bag on the stretch, and ruled Quintanilla safe.  The call brought Wedge out of the Mariners’ dugout.  The ensuing argument sent Wedge back, through the dugout and into the showers, having been ejected.

Markakis delivered a single to center, moving Quintanilla up to second.  Next up, JJ Hardy dropped a sac bunt, and the O’s had runners on second and third with just one out.  The Mariners elected to walk Chris Davis to load the bases—despite Davis’ being 0-6 with three strikeouts on the night.  Up stepped Adam Jones, needing just a fly ball for an O’s win.

With the count 2-2, Jones picked on a 95 MPH fastball and lined it to right.  Casper Wells went into a slide but could not come up with it.  Quntanilla scored, and the Orioles walked off with an improbable 8-7 win.

The O’s and M’s wrap up the three game set with the birds looking to sweep.  Gametime Wednesday at Camden Yards is 7:05.  Getting the start for the Orioles, for the first time in his major league career, is Steve Johnson.  Johnson (0-0, 4.50) replaces Britton, who was sent down after Tuesday’s game, on the roster, and makes his first big league start in front of family and friends.  Former Oriole Kevin Millwood (4-9, 4.01) goes for Seattle.

The GOOD:

• 12th straight extra-inning win for the Orioles
• The birds are now just 4.5 off the pace in the AL East
• Simply an amazing night for the Orioles’ bullpen:  9 shutout innings, 10 hits, 6 strikeouts, no walks, 1 inherited runner scored.
• 4 hits from Markakis, 3 from Wieters.

The BAD:

• Britton had to be sent down.  He gave up 7 runs through 5, but since only 4 were earned, his ERA actually went down Tuesday, from 8.35 to 8.10.
• Two more errors (and one that should have been).
• Chris Davis:  0-6 with 3K, 1BB
• It certainly helped the Orioles, so there will be no complaints from O’s fans about this, but what was Eric Wedge doing (or, NOT doing) by leaving Luetge in there to rot in the seventh?  That was one of the most poorly managed innings I can remember seeing.

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For the Orioles, Miguel Gonzalez was making his ninth major league appearance, and sixth career start.  Each of those appearances had been, at least, pretty good, except one:  July 25th at Camden Yards, against the Rays.  In that one, he was hammered:  2.2 innings, 7 hits, 7 earned runs, 2 walks, 2 home runs allowed.  But if those numbers foreshadowed a tragedy for the birds Sunday, Gonzalez set out to re-write the script.

The right hander, cut by Boston in December, was largely viewed as organizational depth when he signed with the Orioles in March.  In reality, he’s become something of a savior to a rotation mangled by ineffectiveness, inconsistency, and injury.  Sunday, he turned in his best performance to date.  And it’s a good thing he did, because his teammates were completely shut down by the ace on the other side of the diamond.

Price pitched as an ace is supposed to pitch; 8 innings, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, 2 hits, and no earned runs. In the third, he gave up a single to Robert Andino.  Andino was then thrown out on the back side of a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play with JJ Hardy batting.  After that, Price retired 15 of the final 16 batters he faced, into the eighth inning.  The Orioles could muster up just a two-out walk to Hardy in the sixth against the dominating lefty.  The game was entirely under Price’s control.  At least, half the game was.

The other half belonged to Gonzalez.  While not quite as dominating as his All-Star counterpart, Gonzalez still matched Price, zero-for-zero.  He threw 7 innings, striking out 4 and walking 4, giving up just 2 hits and no runs.

The Orioles bullpen, too, was nearly perfect on the day.  Darren O’Day replaced Gonzalez to throw a perfect eighth.  O’Day was aided by a great barehanded pick and throw by Andino at third on Elliott Johnson’s bid for a bunt single leading off.

Troy Patton replaced O’Day in the ninth and gave up a leadoff hit to Matt Joyce.  Buck Showalter went to Luis Ayala (W, 3-3) in relief of Patton.  Sean Rodriguez laid down a sac bunt, moving Joyce, the would-be game winning run, into scoring position with one out.  But Jeff Keppinger hit a come-backer to Ayala, who had Joyce caught between second and third, for out number two.  In the rundown, Keppinger moved to second, and the Rays had another chance to end it, with two outs and the winning run at second.  Ayala, though, struck out Ryan Roberts on three pitches, and through 9, there was still no score.

In the tenth, a pair of unlikely offensive heroes emerged for the O’s.  With one out and reliever Joel Paralta on the mound, Mark Reynolds worked his way back from an 0-1 count, for a walk.  Omar Quintanilla struck out, for out number two.  Next up was O’s catcher Taylor Teagarden, who’d helped guide Gonzalez through his seven strong innings, and helped Ayala wiggle out of a pair of at-bats with the winning run in scoring position.  Now, with the chance to deliver on offense, Teagarden would deliver the game’s winning hit.

Paralta(L, 1-4) jumped ahead of Teagarden, 1-2, but he could not close the door.  Teagarden worked the count full, important because it meant Reynolds was off with the pitch on 3-2 with two outs.  On the seventh pitch of the at- bat that featured three foul balls, Teagarden finally got a ball out over the plate, an 89 MPH fastball away, and he did not miss it.

Teagarden belted one into the gap in left center.  The ball hit the perfect spot on the warning track, nearly short-hopping the fence.  Reynolds easily made it all the way around the bases to score, and make it 1-0, Orioles.

Jim Johnson threw a perfect, eight-pitch, 1-2-3 ninth for the save (32), and send the Orioles after a terrific, 4-2 road trip to New York and Tampa.

The birds welcome Seattle to Camden Yards Monday.  Chris Tillman (4-1, 2.70), the former Mariners’ farm hand, takes on Jason Vargas (12-7, 3.71).  Game time is 7:05.

The GOOD:

• Gonzalez/O’Day/Ayala/Johnson combined for 10IP, 0ER, 2H, 6K, 5BB.
• Teagarden picked up his third Orioles hit.  Two of them have been game winners.
• Reynolds reached base twice Sunday, including once in the tenth when he scored the winning run.  He did not strike out, and did not strand a base runner.

The BAD:

• The O’s were 0-5 with RiSP, and left 6 on.

The post Gonzalez and Teagarden Lead Orioles Past Rays appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

The Orioles outhit the Rays 8-6. The combined efforts of Darren O’Day and Troy Patton equaled perfection for 2.1 innings in relief, but the team’s inability to deliver a big hit appeared very early, and far too often.

In the first, the birds had Rays starter Matt Moore (W, 8-7) on the ropes. Nick Markakis singled on the game’s first pitch. One out later, Adam Jones singled.  With runners on first and second, Matt Wieters was in a position to do something positive, even with an out.  His strikeout did not get that done.  Chris Davis worked Moore into a full count before drawing a free pass, loading the bases with two outs.  Up stepped Mark Reynolds, with a chance to do some damage.  Instead, Reynolds struck out swinging, and the Orioles had blown their first golden opportunity of the night.

Unfortunately, Reynolds was the team’s primary culprit of offensive ineptitude Friday night.  With the game still scoreless in the fourth, Reynolds led off by popping out to first baseman Carlos Pena.  B.J. Upton would lead off the home half of the fourth with his 10th home run of the year, and the 100th of his career, making it 1-0.

Into the top of the sixth, and Chris Davis led off with another walk, then moved to second on a wild pitch.  Reynolds, batting with no one out and a runner in scoring position, struck out. Lew Ford was up with a chance to cash in Davis, but flew out to right instead.  Then Omar Quintanilla struck out swinging, ending the threat.

Hunter’s nemesis, the home run ball, would pay another visit leading off the sixth.  Hunter got ahead of Desmond Jennings 0-2.  But Hunter (L, 4-7), without a true “out” pitch, could not close the door on Jennings.  The Rays left fielder, as if waiting for Hunter to make that crucial mistake, worked the count to 2-2.  On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, the mistake was made—a 93 MPH fastball just above the belt and out over the plate.  Jennings was all over it, and skied it into the left field stands for his 8th home run, and a 2-0 Rays lead.

Hunter would get Upton on a ground out, but he walked Matt Joyce, and Ben Zobrist singled to right.  With runners on forst and second with one away, Hunter made another mistake.  Carlos Pena belted a high, 94 MPH fastball deep into right center.  Jones made a nice play, leaping to grab it just before banging into the fence.  Buck Showalter went to O’Day out of the pen, and the Rays did nothing offensively for the rest of the game.

But the Orioles were in no hurry to put the pressure on.  They went 3-up, 3-down in the seventh—the first time that happened all night.  Then in the eighth, against reliever Joel Peralta, the O’s started to look like a team ready to pounce.

Wieters picked up a one-out hit.  Davis followed that up with a single to right. Runners on first and second with one out, and up stepped—guess who?

Mark Reynolds, on his 29th birthday, stepped to the plate for the fourth time in the game.  It would be his third chance with at least one runner on base, and his second shot with men someone in scoring position.  But again, instead of cashing in, Reynolds struck out.  Peralta then fanned pinch hitter Wilson Betemit to end another O’s threat.

Rays closer Fernando Rodney came on in the ninth and set the birds down in order to complete the shutout.

The Orioles will send Wei-Yin Chen (9-6, 3.65) to the hill Saturday against the Rays, who counter with Jeremy Hellickson (6-6, 3.23).  First pitch is slated for 7:10.

The GOOD:

• Wieters and Jones collected a pair of hits each.  Davis reached base three times, with a hit and two walks.
• Perfect relief from the ‘pen.
• Hunter’s outing was very solid:  5.2IP, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 3K, but…

The BAD:

• …2 more home runs allowed from Hunter.  That’s 26 long balls surrendered, the most in baseball.
• The time for Reynolds to figure things out this year has come.  Friday, he left 6 runners on and struck out 3 times.  His defense this year, with the exception of a few brilliant plays, has been very poor.  He simply comes with too much baggage for a guy with just 8 home runs, and with the makeup of this lineup, unfortunately, the Orioles can ill-afford to keep someone like Betemit on the bench in favor of Reynolds.  Much of the talk in the past 24-48 hours has centered around a Betemit/Robert Andino platoon at third.  Perhaps it’s time to think about Andino at third, Betemit at first, and Reynolds…not.
• RiSP:  O’s 0-7.  LOB:  O’s 10.  In the past two games, the Orioles are 0-22 with RiSP, and have left 21 runners on.
• The Orioles struck out 11 times Friday night.  They drew 3 walks.

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When he took the mound, O’s starter Chris Tillman was sick with flu-like symptoms.  Before he threw his third pitch, O’s starter Chris Tillman (W, 4-1) was in trouble.  By the time he faced his third batter, the Yankees were on the board, and Orioles Nation was starting to feel like the illness was contagious.

Derek Jeter doubled on an 0-1 cutter to start the Yankees first.  Curtis Granderson drove him in a single to right, and before the Yankees made an out, they were up 1-0.

When Robinson Cano homered (23) deep into the right field seats, it looked like it was going to be a very long night.  And it was.  For the Yankees.

Two of the next three Yankees picked up base hits.  With one out and runners on first and third, Ichiro Suzuki hit a comebacker to Tillman that should’ve been a double play to get Tillman out of the inning.  Instead, the ball popped out of Tillman’s glove and rolled away from him.  Raul Ibanez scored making it 4-0 Yankees.

A Russell Martin single to left plated Eric Chavez, and the Yankees led 5-0 after one inning.

In the dugout, the Orioles had to have a sense that, with 24 outs to play with, maybe they could find a way to claw back into this thing.  They would do so and more—MUCH more, all inside just 3 outs.

Adam Jones led off the O’s second with a base hit to center.  Matt Wieters followed with a single to right.  But when Yankees starter Ivan Nova (L, 10-5) struck out both Lew Ford and Wilson Betemit, it looked like he may escape any damage.  That possibility became a huge probability when Nova jumped ahead of strikeout poster child Mark Reynolds, 0-2.  But on the third pitch of the at-bat, Reynolds lined a shot just fair down the left field line for a run-scoring ground rule double, making it 5-1.

Next up was Omar Quintanilla, who scooted a ground ball single past Nova and into center, scoring both Wieters and Reynolds.  Nick Markakis singled.  JJ Hardy walked on four pitches, and the bases were loaded with two outs for Chris Davis.

Davis wasted little time.  After falling behind in the count 0-1, he picked on a curve ball away, put a smooth, easy swing on it, and launched it over the wall in left-center.  Davis’18th home run was his first career grand slam, and capped a seven-run, two-out rally that gave the Orioles the lead for good.

The birds piled on a bit in the third.  With one out, Lew Ford picked up his first hit in the major leagues since 2007, a double over Granderson’s head in center.  Betemit doubled down the right field line, plating Ford for an 8-5 lead.

Tillman suddenly got nasty.  He would retire 12 of the next 14 Yankees, holding them at the five he spotted them, through five innings of work.  Six of the eight hits, and all five of the runs (4 earned) scored against him came in the first.  He struck out only three, but a major key to his success was that he did not walk a batter.  It won’t go down officially as a quality start, but let’s not let that technicality redefine what those words really mean.  After the first, Tillman’s start was as “quality” as you’re ever going to find.

His teammates would come to his aid offensively one more time before he left.  Jones began the fifth with his 25th double of the year.  Nova would retire the next two Orioles, including Lew Ford, whose fly out to right allowed Jones to move to third.  Betemit stepped in and delivered a clutch, two-out hit to right, tacking on what, at the time, looked like a very big insurance run.  The O’s were up 9-5 on the Yankees.

Troy Patton replaced Tillman for a two-inning stint that got interesting in the seventh.  Derek Jeter led off with a hit, and Patton struck out Granderson.  Cano was hit by a pitch, moving Jeter to second. Nick Swisher tapped out slowly to Hardy at short, advancing the runners to second and third.  That set up just the kind of moment Orioles fans dread.  How many times over the years have we seen a lead at Yankee Stadium—either of them—slip away late in the game on a two-out rally thanks to some fluke, broken bat bloop, hit batter, slow-roller, fielding error, blown call…whatever?  And, ALWAYS it seems, that guy named Jeter was somewhere in the middle of it.  And, there he was (albeit at third base, where his run didn’t necessarily mean much).  And up to the plate strode Raul Ibanez, with Eric Chavez, the potential tying run, moving on deck.

Patton reached back for a little extra.  The four hardest pitches he threw to any of the nine batters he faced Tuesday night, he threw to Ibanez:  A 91 MPH fastball…called strike one.  A pair of 92 MPH fastballs away, fouled off.  And finally, another 92 MPH, two-seemed heater, waved at and missed by the slugger.  The final score will never tell the truth about how big this at-bat was.

These young Orioles are not supposed to be where they are today.  No one ever expected that, on July’s last night, they’d be playing meaningful games; that they’d come into Yankee Stadium with a shot—a genuine, real chance—to, not just grab a Wild Card spot, but win the American League East;  that, with the likes of Lew Ford and Omar Quintanilla in their starting lineup, they’d be able to take a 5-run smack in the face, and turn around and, before their next 3 outs, give better than they got…to the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium.  Make a trade at the deadline?  Why?  Robert Andino’s coming off the disabled list!  Lace ‘em up…let’s go!

The Orioles put a little more padding on the board in the eighth.  Betemit led off with his second double (16) and third hit of the night.  Andino pinch ran for him, and one out later, moved to third on a ground out.  With Markakis stepping in, Yankees manager Joe Girardi went to the bullpen for former Oriole Clay Rapada.  Markakis turned on a slider that hung in the inner half of the plate from the sidewinder, and sent it into the right field short porch for a two-run home run (10), and an 11-5 lead.

Matt Lindstrom came on and pitched a perfect eighth, and Luis Ayala a perfect ninth, and the Orioles walked out of Yankee Stadium with a chance to sweep a set in New York with a win Wednesday afternoon.  Zach Britton (1-0, 5.74) goes for the O’s against Yankees right hander Phil Hughes (10-8, 4.08).  Game time is scheduled for 1:05.

The GOOD:

• A very gutsy effort from Tillman.  With the exception of one inning this year, Tillman has started to really separate himself from the rest of the young arms that are (or were) in the rotation, in that he’s shown the ability to overcome adversity.  He didn’t have his best stuff Tuesday.  He didn’t feel well.  He gave up five in the first in New York.  But he was able to pitch through it all.  Sure, getting the seven spot from his teammates in the second didn’t hurt, but the game was still in the balance for his entire outing.  Plus, he stayed on long enough to not completely bury the bullpen for Wednesday.  His 95-pitch effort was very clutch.
• The only O’s starter without a hit was Hardy.  Markakis and Betemit had three apiece, and Jones added two.
• Chris Davis’ first career grand slam was the games big blow.  He finished with an interesting line, including three strikeouts.  How often can someone say they struck out three times, and still had more RBIs than strikeouts?

The BAD:

• Jim Thome heading for the disabled list with a herniated disc is not good news.  He needs to hurry back for two reasons:  1-the Orioles can use his bat, and 2-for some, it was hard to swallow the losses of Gabriel Lino and Kyle Simon for a 3 month rental, but for a 1 month rental?

The post O’s NY Comeback Fueled By Davis’ Grand Slam appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Chen (W, 9-6) threw a lot of pitches (108) in 5.2 innings of work.  He walked four and gave up three hits, but just one unearned run to the team that had scored 20 in their last 18 innings.  He recorded 17 outs, 12 of them via strikeout.  Chen got the first three of those strikeouts in the first.  Jemile Weeks battled him out of the gate, leading off with a nine-pitch at bat before Chen got him waving at a 91 MPH fastball on the outer half. Jonny Gomes and Josh Reddick followed in Weeks’ footsteps, though in far shorter order.

Still scoreless in the top of the second, A’s center fielder Yoenis Cespedes laced a ball down the left field line for, what looked to be an easy leadoff double.  But Lew Ford, recalled before the game from Norfolk (and playing his first game in the majors in five years), went into a slide, cutting the ball off before it reached the wall.  Ford popped to his feet and fired a bullet into Omar Quintanilla, who dropped his glove directly between Cespedes’ lead slide foot, and the second base bag, for out number one.  Chris Carter walked, but Chen came back to fan Brandon Inge and Derek Norris, ending the threat.

The O’s would get on the scoreboard in the third.  Quintanilla led off with a bunt single. He moved to third when Carter dropped a pickoff throw from A’s starter  Travis Blackley (L, 3-3).  JJ Hardy walked, bringing Adam Jones to the plate.

This series had been uneven for Jones.  His fifth inning three-run home run Friday night was one of the most dramatic moments for the team this season, bringing them all the way back from a 5-0 deficit.  But he followed that up with an 0/4 night Saturday, and left five teammates on base.  On Blackley’s first pitch, he would put Saturday behind him.

Jones ripped a lifeless, 82 MPH changeup into the gap in left center, short-hopping the wall.  Quintanilla scored, and Hardy moved to third with one out.  Next up was All-Star catcher Matt Wieters who, offensively at least, has played like anything but an All-Star recently.  And, that’s when he’s played.  He’d missed the first two games of the A’s series with a right bicep issue.

Ensconced in a 1-for-31 slump, and having not homered in his last 59 at-bats, Wieters got a pitch he could drive from Blackley.  He launched the 90 MPH, thigh-high  fastball into the seats in left for a three-run homer (13), and a 4-0 Orioles lead.

A single, two walks and another error by Carter at first gave the birds another run in the fifth, making it 5-0.

The A’s got on the board against Chen in the sixth, aided by an error by Quintanilla.  Chen was lifted after giving up a hit to Inge, loading the bases with two outs.  Darren O’Day got the Orioles back into the dugout without further damage, and Quintanilla would atone for the “E-4” by blasting his first homer as an Oriole in the bottom of the sixth.

The Orioles now pack their bags and hit the road to New York.  Miguel Gonzalez (2-2, 4.28) will try to rebound from a horrible outing against Tampa Bay last Wednesday.  He’ll be up against Freddy Garcia (4-4, 5.16) for the Yankees.  First pitch is slated for 7:05.

The GOOD:

• Chen’s 12 strikeouts were the most for an Orioles pitcher this season, and the most since Erik Bedard whiffed 15 against Texas in 2007.  It’s also a major league record for a pitcher from Taiwan.  Not bad for just 5.2 innings of work.
• Omar Quintanilla continues to contribute every day.  3-for-4, 2R, 1 HR Sunday.  It’s early, but so far, you’d have to say the O’s got a steal here.
• Lew Ford didn’t get any hits in his first game back to the majors in five years, but his play in the second was pretty to watch.
• O’Day, Troy Patton, Pedro Strop, and Luis Ayala combined for 3.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen, giving up 4 hits, 0 walks, and striking out 2.

The BAD:

• News of Brian Roberts electing season ending hip surgery is, while not surprising, still tough after all he went through to come back from his concussion.

The post Chen And Wieters Lead O’s Past A’s appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Miguel Gonzalez (L, 2-2) knew his margin for error would be slim.  He was going up against Rays ace David Price, who, at 13-4, hadn’t lost since June 13th.  Gonzalez gave the Rays all they’d need before he recorded three outs.

Desmond Jennings led off with his seventh home run of the year on the game’s first pitch.  B.J. Upton followed with a single, and moved to second on a wild pitch.  Two outs later, Gonzalez walked Jeff Keppinger, and Carlos Pena plated Upton with a hit, making it 2-0.  The Rays weren’t done in the first.  Not even close.

Gonzalez hit Ryan Roberts with a pitch, loading the bases.  He followed that by nailing Jose Lobaton with a pitch, forcing in the Rays’ third run.  Elliot Johnson then delivered a two-run single to left, giving the Rays a 5-0 lead before their ace had even touched the baseball.  Johnson was thrown out after taking a big turn at first on the play, otherwise the inning may still actually be going on.

Down 5-0, the Orioles got to work immediately against Price (W, 14-4).  Nick Markakis singled to start the game, and moved to second on a wild pitch.  A nice piece of hitting by JJ Hardy brought Markakis home, as Hardy took a 96 MPH fastball away and drilled it down the right field line.  The Orioles scored a run before their first out.  They would score zero more between outs 1 and 27.

Gonzalez would not survive the Rays’ third, giving up a leadoff hit to Matt Joyce, then a two-out, two run homer to Roberts.  Lobaton singled, Johnson walked, and Jennings was hit by a pitch before Buck Showalter made the move to Matt Lindstrom out of the bullpen.

Lindstrom would give up three in the fifth, walking Pena and Roberts before surrendering Lobaton’s first career home run.  The three run shot made it 10-1 Rays, and that’s where things finished.

The Orioles will look to salvage one of the three games against Tampa Bay before the red hot Oaklnad A’s come to town this weekend.  Chris Tillman (2-1, 1.15) goes for the birds against James Shields (8-6, 4.39) for Tampa Bay.  Game time is set for 12:35.

The GOOD:

• Two hits each from Hardy and Omar Quintanilla.
• Chris Davis snapped his streak of striking out in seven consecutive at bats.  He grounded to second in his lone at bat.
• The bullpen, aside from Lindstrom, worked four shutout innings.  Kevin Gregg, Luis Ayala, Troy Patton and Pedro Strop shut down the Rays on 3 hits and 1 walk.

The BAD:

• Gonzalez’s final line:  2.2 IP, 7 ER, 7 H, 2 K, 2 BB, 3 HBP, 2 HR.  His ERA jumped from 2.61 to 4.28.
• Another very bad offensive day for most of the team, but especially Matt Wieters:  4 AB, 0H, 3K, 2LOB.
• The Orioles struck out 13 times.  They did not draw a single walk.

The post Rays Roll O’s 10-1 appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

The Orioles improved to 33-14 in games decided by two runs or fewer in beating the Indians 3-1.  Initially, it looked like both Tillman (W, 2-1), and eventual offensive hero Jim Thome, may be in for a long night.

Nick Markakis opened the game against Indians starter Zach McAllister (L, 4-2) with a single to center.  McAllister struck out JJ Hardy, and with the shift on, Thome hit into the extremely rare 6-5-3 double play to end the threat.

Tillman took the hill, trying to cast doubt aside.  He’s been enigmatic throughout his young career, and his first two big league starts in 2012 have been a microcosm:  8.1 innings of 2 hit ball in a win in Seattle July 4th, and then the game in Minnesota last Monday, when he gave up 7 runs (1 earned), and never made it out of the first.  Will the real Chris Tillman please stand up?  Unless it’s the Minnesota Chris Tillman.  Then, we’d prefer the fake.

Minnesota Tillman threw the fourth Orioles pitch of the game.  Shin-Soo Choo saw a belt-high, 92 MPH fastball down the middle of the plate, and cranked it over the right field fence for his 11th home run, and a 1-0 Indians lead.

Seattle Tillman took the ball for the rest of the game.  He would not allow another run through 6.2 innings of work.  Tillman struck out four, walked just one, and allowed six hits in his 116 pitch effort.  Fortunately, he stuck around just long enough to see his gem turn into a “W”.

In the top of the seventh, Hardy led off with a single to right.  The next batter, Thome, took advantage of one of the very few mistakes McAllister would make in the game, blasting a 1-0 fastball into the right field stands.  The 41-year old veteran, whose first Orioles homer came with the birds already up big Friday, made his second O’s long ball (and 611th career home run) matter.  It gave the birds a 2-1 lead.

Troy Patton came on for Tillman after Jack Hannahan singled with two outs in the seventh.  Patton got Choo to bounce out on his second pitch, keeping the score 2-1 O’s into the eighth.

With two outs, the Orioles added an important insurance run.  Ryan Flaherty battled McAllister in a nine-pitch at bat, fouling off four of them, before launching a fastball well over the center field wall for a 3-1 Orioles lead.

The late-inning duo of Pedro Strop (in the eighth) and Jim Johnson (ninth for his 29th) retired six of the seven tribe hitters they faced, sealing the Orioles’ fourth straight win.

The birds will go for five in a row when Zach Britton (0-0, 9.00) make his second start of the year in Cleveland Sunday.  He goes against Josh Tomlin (5-6, 5.51).  Tomlin beat the Orioles at Camden Yards on June 30, despite giving up 5 earned runs on 7 hits in 6 innings.  Game time Sunday is 3:05.

The GOOD:

• What is the common denominator in all four of the Orioles’ wins in the last four games?  Terrific starting pitching.  Tillman joined Miguel Gonzalez, Tommy Hunter, and Wei-Yin Chen as O’s starters who’ve been outstanding this week.  This run reminds O’s fans of stretches in April and May.
• Thome and Flaherty have each homered in back-to-back games.  Thome now has 611 in his career.  Flaherty, though, is keeping pace, and remains just 607 behind.
• A good defensive game for the Orioles behind Tillman, as Markakis and Chris Davis made nice plays in the field.

The BAD:

• Just six hits for the O’s.  They stuck out nine times, and walked just once, coming on the heels of Friday’s contest, when the birds pounded out eleven hits with eleven walks,  and struck out seven times.

The post Tillman and Thome Lift O’s to 4th Straight Win appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Wei-Yin Chen (W, 8-5) followed up Tommy Hunter’s solid outing Wednesday with one of his own, giving up three runs on six hits in seven innings.  Chen walked just one, and struck out five, threw 108 pitches, and actually never went to the mound with a lead.  Things did not start out well for the Orioles lefty.

With one out in the bottom of the first, Ben Revere single for the Twins, and Joe Mauer walked.  Revere then stole third, and scored on Josh Willingham’s RBI single, making it 1-0.  One out later, Trevor Plouffe doubled Mauer home, for a 2-0 Minnesota lead.

Chris Davis would get one of those runs back for the Orioles in the second, blasting a long home run over the right field bleachers at Target Field.  Davis’ 15th home run made it 2-1.

The Twins’ fourth was a big inning in this game.  Chen gave up a bloop hit to center to Justin Morneau on a ball centerfielder Adam Jones got a bad jump on.  Plouffe struck out, and Chen hit Ryan Doumit with a pitch.  Brian Dozier then singled to right, loading the bases with just one out.  But Chen was able to minimize the damage, holding Minnesota to just one run on a sac fly from Alexi Casilla.  The Twins were up 3-1, but it could have been much worse.

For the Orioles offensively at this point, it was much ado about nothing.  The birds had runners on base all day, and just could not deliver the big hit:  Two out, two on in the first, Matt Wieters struck out.  Two on with none out in the third, and the birds came up empty handed.  A leadoff walk in the fourth, and Wilson Betemit never moved another step.  Much ado.  Little a-done.

After Betemit’s walk, Twins starter Cole De Vries settled in, retiring the next nine Orioles he faced before being lifted for Brian Duensing in the seventh.  Immediately, the Orioles got something going against him.

Davis walked, and was moved up to second on Mark Reynolds’ base hit.  Ryan Flaherty dropped a sac bunt, putting runners at second and third with one out.  Nick Markakis stepped in, and rolled one slowly to Plouffe at third.  Davis, moving on contact, broke for the plate.  Plouffe, who was even with the bag, had plenty of time to scoop up the roller, set himself, and fire to the plate to nail the slow-footed Davis.

Instead, Plouffe rushed himself a bit more than he had to, and his throw sailed high, to the glove side of Mauer.  The Twins still had time to get Davis at the plate, had Mauer squeezed the throw.  Mauer jumped up for it, but the throw glanced off the top of his catcher’s mitt and rolled to the backstop.  Davis scored, making it 3-2, Twins. With Markakis moving to second on the play, and Reynolds to third, Duensing, a lefty, walked  right handed hitting JJ Hardy, loading the bases.  With one out, the walk set up  a lefty-on-lefty showdown against Jim Thome.  Duensing got exactly what he wanted, as Thome pounded a 1-1 sinker into the ground to Dozier at short, for a 6(u)-3 double play.

The birds would take the lead for the first time in the game in the eighth.  Facing new pitcher Alex Burnett (L, 3-3), Wieters and Betemit picked up back-to-back, one-out walks.  Lefty Tyler Robertson came on to induce Davis into a slow roller to second, for out number two, with Wieters and Betemit advancing.  Again, Ron Gardenhire went to the bullpen, playing the righty-righty matchup with Reynolds stepping in.  Anthony Swarzak threw Reynolds a 1-1 fastball down the middle.  Reynolds hit it on the label of his bat, but, much like Adam Jones earlier in the game, Twins centerfielder Denard Span initially broke back on the ball, which ended up landing just a few feet in front of him.  Both Wieters and Betemit scored, and the Orioles were up 4-3.

Things got dicey for the birds in the eighth.  Darren O’Day came on to start the inning, relieving Chen.  O’Day walked Willingham.  With left-handed hitting Morneau coming up, Buck Showatler, too, decided to play the lefty-lefty matchup thing, and plucked Troy Patton from the ‘pen.  Morneau singled on a liner to right, putting runners on first and second with no one out.

Showalter pulled Patton for Pedro Strop the team’s “regular” eighth inning guy.  Strop’s previous outing Tuesday was not a good one, allowing two hits and two inherited runners to score in one inning.  Thursday, though, he returned to form, setting the next three Twins down and stranding the would-be tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Jim Johnson came on in the ninth to slam the door on the Twins, earning his 28th save doing so, and allowing the birds to grab a hard-earned split of the four game series.

Next, the birds head to Cleveland.  Miguel Gonzalez (1-1, 2.59) goes for the Orioles, vs. Derek Lowe (8-7, 4.43) for the tribe.  Game time Friday night is 7:05.

The GOOD:

• Back-to-back quality starts from the rotation is major.  This was Chen’s first win in a month.
• Reynolds has now made major contributions to Orioles wins in back-to-back days.  Wednesday, it was with the glove.  Thursday, his bat came to bail out an offense that desperately needed it.

The BAD:

• The team was 1-8 with RISP.  The one, though, was a biggie.
• The defense was shaky again.  Davis dropped a fly ball in left.  It was the major-league worst, 80th error for the O’s this season.  Betemit also dropped a throw from Wieters, allowing Revere to swipe third.  That could’ve certainly been ruled an error.

The post Comeback Win In Minnesota Gets O’s Series Split appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

With the starting rotation looking like a shadow of its former self, and with the bullpen more spent than a GSA credit card, the Orioles called, once again, on the often maligned (and more often, hit) Tommy Hunter.  Hunter was 3-4 with an ERA over 6 coming in.  He’d chucked so many home run balls (20) that there is a waiting list of potential Home Run Derby participants wanting him to be their personal pitcher in the contest next year.  He was demoted following his last appearance in the majors, a relief stint June 30th, in which he gave up 5 runs on 8 hits in an inning and two-thirds.

It has not been a good season for Hunter, really, since beating Francisco Liriano and the Minnesota Twins, 8-2, in the season’s second game.  Yet, here he was.  The Orioles, obviously desperate, needed the original number 2 starter on the staff to, at the very least, live up to his previous reputation as an innings-eater, and give their bullpen a blow.  And, oh, by the way, if he could help to do something about this 1-4 start out of the gates in the second half of the season, yeah, that’d be appreciated, too.  The good news?  Hunter was, again, facing the Twins, and going head-to-head against Liriano, so maybe that would be a good omen.

Tommy Hunter (W, 4-4) was not dominant Wednesday.  He allowed at least one base runner in every inning except the sixth.  He scattered six hits.  He gave up another long ball.  But he stretched things out for his longest start of the year—7.1 innings.  He threw more pitches (106) than he had all season prior.  The moment he took the mound at Target Field, he had a lead.  And he never relinquished it.

For a second straight night, only one swing produced runs for the Orioles.  For a second straight night, Adam Jones delivered that swing.  In the first, JJ Hardy picked up a one-out single to center, setting the table for the Orioles’ All-Star centerfielder.  Jones waved at a good change-up from Liriano (L, 3-9), for strike one.  But Jones absolutely crushed the second pitch of the at-bat, a 90-MPH fastball up and in.  The ball landed in the very top row of the second deck at Target Field, a mammoth shot, for Jones’ 22nd homer of the season, putting the Orioles on top, 2-0.

The Twins got on the board in the fourth, on Josh Willingham’s 23rd homer of the year.  They would threaten several more times throughout the game, including a two-on, one out situation that Hunter wiggled out of in the seventh.  The biggest threat, though, came in the eighth.

After Hunter struck out Jamey Carroll to start the inning, Buck Showalter, weary of Hunter’s pitch count, called on Troy Patton out of the bullpen.  Patton walked Denard Span, and gave up a single to Ben Revere.  Joe Mauer stepped in, carrying a .330 average, and hitless on the night.  He bounced to second baseman Tolleson for out number two, moving the runners up to second and third.  Patton walked Willingham intentionally, and, with the bases loaded and two outs, got Justin Morneau to bounce out to Hardy at short.

In the ninth, Showalter went to his closer.  Jim Johnson hasn’t been the same pitcher since his first All-Star Game appearance in Kansas City earlier this month, giving up more earned runs since then (6) than he had all season prior (5).  When he gave up a bloop hit to Trevor Plouffe leading off, a feeling of utter fear befell Orioles Nation.  This was, again, one of those precarious moments, of which there have seemed to be so many in recent weeks, where, with a loss, the house of cards, delicately standing in its most fragile and susceptible state, could come crashing down.

But then, Orioles fans got to witness something else they couldn’t possibly have seen coming.  Jim Johnson was picked up by an unfamiliar source:  his defense.  Brian Dozier was trying to drop down a bunt to put the tying run in scoring position, but he popped it up on the first base side.  Mark Reynolds, with 10 errors in just 67 games, sprinted toward the plate as the pitch was delivered.  He kept coming hard as Dozier’s bunt went airborne, and laid out in a dive to catch to ball in the webbing of his first baseman’s mitt just before to ball landed on the ground.  It was a remarkable catch in the most clutch situation of the game from the erratic Reynolds, and it completely changed the tome of the inning.

Johnson would get Ryan Doumit,as well as Carroll, to secure a very big, much needed 2-1 O’s win over the Twins.

The O’s wrap up their stay in Minnesota with an afternoon game.  Wei-Yin Chen (7-5, 3.80) goes for Baltimore, vs. Cole De Vries (2-2, 4.37 in 7 games, 6 of which have been starts) for Minnesota.

The GOOD:

• Hunter’s game gave the Orioles’ bullpen a rest.  With Chen going tomorrow in a day game, the hope is that the ‘pen won’t be overworked heading into the Cleveland series.
• Not only an error-free night, but the defense was stellar Wednesday.  The Reynolds play was simply enormous.  He was joined by Hunter in flashing the leather.  Hunter made a couple of nice plays, both on balls hit by Revere.  He nicely handled a low ground ball comebacker to start a double play.  He also made a great play on a Revere drag bunt attempt, scooping the ball with his glove near first base, and flipping to Reynolds for the out.
• The birds move to 35-0 when they hold a lead after the seventh.  That is Mariano-era-Yankee-esque (and that, hard as it may be to take, is a compliment).

The BAD:

• In the eighth, Jones hit a one-out triple.  Matt Wieters (ground out) and Reynolds (strike out) left him on third, with the game very much up in the air.  Situational hitting is definitely not a team strength.

The post Hunter On Target At Target As O’s Down Twins appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

The Orioles came in to the game against Detroit knowing they’d be without ace Jason Hammel for at least one start after his early departure Friday with a knee injury.  The only other reliable source of starting pitching all year, Wei-Yin Chen, was on the mound, and he gave his team just the kind of quality start it needed.

Chen walked the first batter he faced, Austin Jackson.  Two outs later, Prince Fielder doubled Jackson home, for a 1-0 Tigers lead in the first.  Chen then squeezed the life out of the Tigers’ offense for the next five innings, retiring 15 Tigers in a row until he walked Ramon Santiago with two outs in the sixth.

By then, his teammates had staked Chen to a 4-1 lead.  The O’s tied it in the first with doubles from Nick Markakis and Jim Thome (which bookended a sacrifice bunt by JJ Hardy).  In the second, Chris Davis led off with a hit, and scored two outs later on Robert Andino’s fifth home run of the year, making it 3-1.

All-Stars Adam Jones and Matt Wieters picked up singles in the Orioles fourth, and Jones scored when Davis hit into a force out.

Chen left the game having completed 6 innings, allowing just the 1 run on only 2 base hits.  He walked 2, struck out 5, and threw 108 pitches.  He was in line for his 8th win of the year when Buck Showalter made a move to the bullpen.  Darren O’Day pitched a solid seventh.  Pedro Strop gave up a hit and a wild pitch in a scoreless eighth.  And then, the best closer in the game, Jim Johnson, came on to lock it up.

Johnson fell behind Miguel Cabrera 3-0 to start the inning.  Cabrera ended up singling on a 3-1 pitch.  After Johnson retired Prince Fielder, Delmon Young reached on a huge error by third baseman Ryan Flaherty.  Jhonny Paralta singled Cabrera home, making it 4-2.  Brennan Boesch doubled Young home, and chased pinch runner Danny Worth to third, making it 4-3 with just one out.  Johnson fanned pinch hitter Alex Avila, for out number two.

Quintin Berry hit a soft line drive single to left on the first pitch he saw from Johnson, tying the game at 4.  The Tigers would have taken the lead, but left fielder Endy Chavez’s throw and Matt Wieters’ tag nailed Boesch at the plate.

The score remained 4-4 until the top of the eleventh.  Miguel Socolovich, making his big league debut out of the Orioles bullpen, was into his second inning of work, and gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning.  After retiring the next two, Socolovich was lifted for Troy Patton, who allowed an inherited run on Alex Avila’s single to center, making it 45-4 Detroit.

The Tigers summoned their closer, Jose Valverde, hoping to wrap up the win in the bottom of the eleventh.  With one out, Markakis hit his third double of the game.  One out later, Valverde intentionally walked Thome, to bring up Adam Jones.

With runners on first and second, and Taylor Teagarden on deck, ready to bat in the major leagues for the first time all season, there were more than a few wondering if Valverde would even pitch to the Orioles best offensive player.  Valverde himself may have decided that the best course of action would be to pitch around Jones, and take his chances with Teagarden, even though it would force the winning run into scoring position.  But Jones was having none of it.

On Valverde’s first pitch to him, Jones fought off a tough, 92 MPH, up-and-in fastball that was probably out of the strike zone.  It fell safely in front of Berry, and plated Markakis to tie things at 5.  Teagarden, who was activated from the disabled list (where he’d been all season) just before the game, looked bad at the plate in a four-pitch strikeout following Jones’ hit, and the game moved on.

Tied at 5 into the 13th inning, Matt Lindstrom gave up a one-out double to Worth, a two-out walk to Avila, and an RBI single to Berry, making it 6-5.  Kevin Gregg (W, 3-2) came on and threw two pitches to Austin Jackson, getting him on a force to retire the side.

Joaquin Benoit came on for Detroit, pitching to an ERA of 2.24, and with a WHIP of just 1.17.  The first batter he faced, Nick Markakis, was 4/9 since coming off the disabled list.  He bounced back to Benoit, for out #1.  Next up was Hardy, who’s been in the slump of his life.  He stepped in 0 for his last 28, including 0/5 with a strikeout and 3 left on for the game.  Hardy went down after an 0-1 slider at his knees, and lifted it high and deep, down the left field line for his 13th home run of the year, knotting the score yet again, this time at 6.

After Thome struck out swinging, Jones was hit by the pitch, setting up a two-out situation with the winning run at first.  Up to the plate, for the second time all year, stepped Teagarden.

The Orioles had outrighted Ronny Paulino before the game to make room for Teagarden.  Paulino had some big hits for the birds this season, leading some to question whether Teagarden should be welcomed in as the backup to Matt Wieters one he recovered from back issues.  But Teagarden has seemed to be a favorite of both Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette from spring training.  And in his second at bat of the year, he became a huge fan favorite in Baltimore.

On a 1-2, 96 MPH fastball away, Teagarden connected.  He went with the pitch, elevated it, and dropped it just over the grounds crew shed, immediately next to the right field scoreboard.  The two run, walk-off  home run capped an enigmatic, frustrating, astonishing, exhausting day, and gave the Orioles their 10th straight extra-inning win.

The O’s and Tigers complete their three-game set Sunday at 1:35.  The Orioles will send Miguel Gonzalez to the mound (1-0, 1.93) vs. Detroit’s Justin Verlander (9-5, 2.58).

The GOOD:

• For a team that has seemingly been waiting forever for a clutch hit, this game featured several:  Andino’s early 2-run shot.  Jones’ RBI bloop in the eleventh.  And Hardy’s, and of course, Teagarden’s in the thirteenth.  Teagarden was playing in his first major league game since last August.
• Chen’s performance, though not worthy of a win on this night, was extremely important.  With Hammel out for at least one start, and probably more, and names like Gonzalez, Britton, Tillman, and Matusz being mentioned as possible long-term answers in the rotation, The birds had to get a solid outing from Chen here in the short term.  Of course, it would have helped to seal the win in regulation and not have to run an extra four pitchers to the mound.

The BAD:

• The O’s couldn’t seal the win in regulation, and thus, had to run an extra four pitchers to the mound.  Johnson has been so incredibly good this year that seeing him struggle is almost confusing to the mind.  He gave up 4 hits and 3 runs in his inning of work.  Only one of those was an earned run.  That’s because of Flaherty’s huge error, which almost cost the Orioles the ballgame.

The post In First Game As An Oriole, Teagarden Is A Walk-Off Hero appeared first on Orioles-Nation.

Jason Hammel got the ball from Buck Showalter to open the second half of 2012 against Detroit.  Of course he did.  He has been the ace of the staff, stingy with baserunners, sometimes unhittable, and always a man among boys in the Orioles rotation.  He could’ve been the fourth Oriole All-Star this year.  In most recent seasons, the kind of numbers he’s been able to put up would likely have made him the only team representative in the fall classic.  In his first season in Baltimore, Jason Hammel is having a career year.

In the first inning, the Tigers loaded the bases against him.  With two outs, Brennan Boesch delivered a 2-run single to right, making it 2-0.

The birds got to Tigers starter Doug Fister (W, 3-6) in the bottom of the third.  With one out, Wilson Betemit picked up the first Orioles hit, a double to center.  One-out later, Nick Markakis—playing in his first game since undergoing wrist surgery in May, plated Betemit with a double of his own, making it 2-1.

The Tigers’ fourth provided the biggest scare of the year for Orioles fans.  After his sixth pitch to Boesch  leading off the inning, Hammel pulled up lame, limping, favoring his right knee.  After being briefly examined by Orioles training and medical staff, Hammel threw a couple of warm-up pitches.  Showalter decided to pull his ace.  Hammel will have an MRI done on the knee Saturday at 1 p.m.

Luis Ayala relieved Hammel, and gave up back-to-back, two-out doubles to Alex Avila and Ryan Rayburn, making it 3-1.  After Miguel Cabrera connected for his 19th home run of the year in the fifth off Ayala, Showalter went to the pen again.  Left hander Dana Eveland is the closest thing to a long reliever the Orioles bullpen really has, and so, with one away in the fifth, he got the call.

Eveland was awful.  He would give up a 3-run homer to Jhonny Paralta, before he could get the final two outs of the inning.  After five, the Tigers led 7-1.

The birds tacked on a run in garbage time, as Matt Wieters plated Adam Jones with an RBI double in the ninth, making the final 7-2, Tigers.

The birds and Tigers do battle at Camden Yards again Sarturday at 4:05.  Wei-Yin Chen (7-5, 3.93) goes for the Orioles, vs. Max Scherzer (8-5, 4.72, and a league best 11.19 k/9) for Detroit.

The GOOD:

• The bullpen, after Ayala and Eveland, actually pitched very well.  The combination of Kevin Gregg, Troy Patton, Matt Lindstrom, and Pedro Strop pitched 4 innings of scoreless relief, giving up 2 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 2.

The BAD:

• Jason Hammel is one of the reasons the Orioles are where they are.  Losing him for an extended period of time could—ok, likely would—spell disaster.  Some teams actually could sustain an injury to their ace.  The 2012 Orioles are, in all likelihood, one of those teams.
• Another error, although this time, from an unlikely source, in JJ Hardy.  Hardy had another brutal night at the plate, too, going 0/4 with 2 strikeouts and 3 runners left on base.  Hardy is 0 for his last 23.  Lifetime against tomorrow’s starter, Sherzer, Hardy has more stikeouts (4) than hits (3), in 16 at bats.
• Just two hits off of the Tigers, only one of which came against starter Doug Fister, who went seven.  Coming in to Friday night, Fister had allowed 75 hits in 60.2 innings, and had pitched to an ERA of 4.75.

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