The Orioles bullpen was unable to hold down a lead again as the Orioles fell to the Washington Nationals 7-6. The birds took a 6-3 lead going into the sixth inning at Nationals Park thanks to two two-run homers from Ty Wigginton and Adam Jones. Wigginton’s homer was a outright blast into the left-field seats while Jones’ homer was a bit more exciting.
Jones, who hit a long two-run homer on Friday, smacked a line drive to almost straight away center-field. Nats’ center-fielder Nyjer Morgan was tracking the ball, he jumped against the wall and the ball hit his glove and trickled away. But Morgan did not see the ball fall and, assuming he had just helped the ball go over the wall, had an ill-advised temper tantrum on the field. Morgan chucked his hat and glove to the ground as he strolled away from the ball that was still lying on the warning track. Josh Willingham ran over to pick it up and get it back to the bases. Meanwhile, Adam Jones did exactly what you are supposed to do, he kept running. Jones rounded third as the throw from the cutoff man was a bit offline and Jones slid into home with his first career inside-the-park homerun.
You could see how excited Jones was when he slid home yesterday it appears he is finally breaking out. The last seven days Jones is batting .318/.338/.636/.984 with two homeruns and five RBI.
With all the good feelings from yesterday the Orioles were still unable to get the win. As I mentioned above, the Orioles took a three-run lead into the sixth inning. Brad Bergesen labored through five innings, he not at his sharpest. He came back out for the sixth and promptly put a man on and gave up a RBI triple. Bergesen was replaced with Mark Hendrickson, who is normally reliable. Hendrickson gave up three more runs on four more hits all were well-placed grounders that just got past the infielders and before you know it the Orioles were down a run and they would never get back.
The Orioles and the Nationals play in a rubber-game today. The Orioles have an off-day tomorrow, but somehow I think there will be activity.
