Rookie pitcher Brad Bergesen pitched another great game; however, in the end, the Oriole bullpen could not hold a 2-2 tie heading into the ninth inning, and lost to the Seattle Mariners, 3-2. The Orioles have now lost four out of five games, and Seattle has taken the series — winning two out of three.
Jim Johnson took the loss as he pitched a scoreless eighth inning, but ran into trouble in the ninth. He allowed a one-out triple to Franklin Guitterez, and after giving up back to back walks to Ichrio Suzuki and Russell Branyan (intentional) to load the bases, Adrian Beltre ended the contest with an RBI single.
Despite the loss, the story of the game was the ever emerging Baltimore pitching staff led by the performance of Bergesen. He once again had a solid start as he went seven innings and only gave up two runs; moreover, he and his battery mate — Matt Wieters — got out of the seventh inning unscatched after allowing two runners to get on base.
Luke Scott (still the hottest hitter on the team) supplied the offense for Baltimore, as he hit a home run — a solo shit in the second inning, and his 12th of the year — and also an RBI double in the sixth. Meanwhile, the Orioles are going to serious offense and power outage — only 5 runs in the last 4 games — and if the bats going get going, along with the pitching remaining strong, the O’s could make life difficult for a lot of teams.
But a problem I noticed on the night — the O’s ran themselves into trouble with several pickoffs, and Aubrey huff being caught taking second on a hit-run-play (Mora struck out) in the final frame killed a potential rally. Considering the way things have gone, Mora has to make contact, and Huff needs to be more careful on the bases. They could not score with in runners-in-scoring position and that also has hurt the team real bad since the weekend.
After the debacle from Tuesday night, where Jamie Walker got hammered by home runs from Russell Branyan and Ken Griffey, Jr., it looks like his tenure — if you read between the lines of what Dave Trembley says — with the Baltimore Orioles could be coming to an end.
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Overall, Walker has a 5.11 ERA in 12 1/3 innings spanning 22 appearances. He has surrendered 19 hits and five home runs. Opposing hitters are batting .373 against him, and he has given up an earned or inherited run in six of his past nine outings.
“It’s frustrating, but that’s my job,” said Walker, who turns 38 next month. “I’ve got to go out there and produce, or they’re going to [release] me. That’s the way it is. That’s the business of a reliever. It’s frustrating because I’m trying everything. They’re sitting on a certain pitch, and I’m thinking and trying to do everything I can.”
If the Orioles decide to give Walker his outright release – and that appears to be a distinct possibility – they’ll be on the hook for the approximately $3 million remaining on the three-year, $12 million deal he signed before the 2007 season.
I’d really hate to see Walker released, but at some point, ‘you have to know when to say when’. He’s not looked like the pitcher was three seasons ago, and perhaps age, or some unknown problem has come along.
In light of all of that, Walker is a fine representative of the sport with his charity work and all; therefore, I would be disheartened if he left the team, but the game is a business and every team has to find a way to win.
