Before and After the Streak.
So I have been behind in this because of schoolwork, and it is getting close to graduation for me so I am buckling down with essays, papers, and studying, so this will not be great for right now. Once Summer hits, expect multiple entries per day even, and more stories and commentary on things other than literally the games.
Saturday: O’s blew it. JJ blown save in the 9th with the lead going in. Of course, it was a 3-2 lead. This summary from Yahoo! Sports should give you the idea of it:
| Scoring Summary |
| Bot 4th: Oakland |
| – A. Rosales doubled to center, G. Gross scored |
| Bot 5th: Oakland |
| – R. Sweeney hit sacrifice fly to deep center, R. Davis scored |
| Top 6th: Baltimore |
| – G. Atkins singled to left, C. Izturis and L. Scott scored, T. Wigginton to second |
| Top 8th: Baltimore |
| – T. Wigginton hit sacrifice fly to right, C. Izturis scored |
| Bot 9th: Oakland |
| – R. Sweeney singled to shallow right, E. Patterson and R. Davis scored, D. Barton to second |
Yea. It was pitiful. Another one of those blown save things. We are getting so used to those in Baltimore. And it was another night with nothing going our way, along with Tejada getting injured. More on that later though.
Sunday was a different story. In Game 4 of the series, trying to avoid the sweep, the O’s came in with offensive firepower, defensive game (except a Jones missed popfly due to losing it in the sun, semi-excusable), and many breaks going their way.
Matusz pitched a gem. He improved to 2-0, 4.34. He gave up three runs and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. 8 Ks. One behind Lincecum, and overall 2nd in MLB. He is becoming an ace. The O’s pitching staff, surprisingly enough, is in 1st in MLB in Ks from starters. Matusz is a big part of this.
The 1-2-3 hitters were 6-15 (.400) which was key, each going 2-5. Izturis too had 2 hits on the day.
The RBIs were dropping in, and the Os pulled out the 8-3 win. The bullpen even went 2 2/3 IP with 0 ER. It’s looking better.
Wigginton has been the hot hand, going 7-22 in his last 6 games with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs.
Other than him, the key was this:
First 12 games: 11 for 87, .126 avg
Sunday at Oak: 5 for 11, .455 avg
We also did that all against Brett Anderson, the A’s young lefty. We showed him who the true lefty of the future was.
Rosales and Davis were the keys to the O’s skid here, as I saw at least. We will move on from them.
The O’s are in Seattle now for a 3 game series, all 10:05 P.M. ET. Bergesen, with his 11.74 ERA, looks to put up his first good start of the season tonight. The next two games will be Hernandez then Millwood.
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Injury Update:
Roberts going well. Nothing new. Same with Uehara, although he was supposed to pitch a bullpen session. Not sure how that went.
Tejada should be back in a day or two, very excited for his return.
Gonzalez is still a few weeks away from wreaking havoc once again… I mean… closing. Well, they will put him in some middle relief roles first to test him.
The big issue: Pie out 3 months with a ruptured latissimus dorsai, the broadest muscle in the back. He will spend that time in Sarasota going through rehab. Looks like Montanez will get his time up here with the O’s after all. I like the guy, and I hope he can prove to be a better fielder than Reimold and Scott, both who I dislike in the field. But Pie was hitting .400 and really was a key factor in what the Orioles ever had on offense, along with a better defensive asset then Scott/Reimold again, so that will be very missed.
Will hopefully post tonight/tomorrow about the game, and maybe this week throw in a good post about an idea I have for the organization and its trade hopes in the future.
2131 and Beyond 