The Orioles just won't stop, they have to make everything difficult!
Following an 18 inning, nearly 6 hour, marathon on Tuesday night the Orioles had one thing in mind, keeping the game short, and getting to Boston as early as possible. Any road series is difficult, but having six consecutive games on the west coast, an all to short day off, and three games in Boston could have been deadly for O's. Making everything worse is the fact that the O's just couldn't seem to put away the Mariners in 9 innings of baseball.
Joe Saunders got the start for the O's on Wednesday and, following the 18 inning game, was giving just one job, pitch as deep into the game as possible. Saunders took that one job with open arms. In the first two innings Saunders threw just 16 pitches, a fairly standard one inning performance. Saunders kept this up allowing just 1 run in 8 innings pitched. On any normal team this would have been perfect, call in the closer and game over, but not the O's. Yes Saunders pitched great, but unfortunately he was pitching against Felix Hernandez, the Mariners ace. Because King Felix also only allowed 1 run through 8 innings, the O's brought in relief pitcher Darren O'Day instead of closer Jim Johnson. O'Day pitched great in the 9th and was relieved by struggling pitcher Pedro Strop. Strop continued to struggle last night, walking the first batter he faced, allowing him to steal second, and then walking another to end his night. Brian Matusz came on to face a pinch hitter, which he struck out on 4 pitches. But instead of getting out of the inning, he walked the next batter he faced, loading the bases for Luis Ayala. Ayala was able to get out of the jam and keep a win possible for the O's.
With one out and the bases empty Nate McLouth came to the plate in the top of the 11th. McLouth singled to center field securing yet another multi-hit game. This brought up Adam Jones, king of late game heroics. Adam Jones then homered giving the O's a 3-1 lead, Jones' 30th home run of the year, and his 19th home run that has either tied the game, or giving them the lead. The O's never looked back from this 3-1 lead, bringing in Jim Johnson in the bottom of the 11th. Johnson wasn't perfect in his 45th save, needed a crucial double play to keep the save intact, but he got their. With 2 outs and runners on the corners, Mariners Michael Saunders attempted to steal 2nd. "Second string" catcher Taylor Teagarden did his best Matt Wieters impression and threw him out at 2nd ending the game. This put the O's 21 games above .500 and advanced them to 15-2 in extra inning games this season.
This is either a magical year for the O's, in which records have been broken, and players have come out of no where to play a major role (McLouth), or it is just a dream. The next series against the Red Sox will be tough, they will be looking for revenge from last years late September match ups. The Red Sox and O's are in a complete role reversal from last year, The O's looking to make the playoffs and the Sox looking to play spoiler. It came down to the last game of the year last year, when O's were able to win and knock the Sox playoff hopes down the drain.
No comments:
Post a Comment