The Baltimore Orioles continued their winning ways in the Buck Showalter era as Brian Roberts hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the tenth inning and led them to a victory over the Chicago White Sox, 3-2.
They took three of four from the White Sox and are 38-74 on the season.
Baltimore has won six out of seven, including three walk-off wins. Brian Matusz had a solid start, giving up a run in six innings of work and Koji Uehara pitched two shut-out innings.
Alfredo Simon blew a save opportunity in the ninth, giving up a long solo homer to Paul Konerko to tie the game; however, Matt Albers and Mike Gonzalez held the White Sox bats at bay in the ninth and tenth innings.
Ty Wigginton homered in the 6th for the Orioles’ first run, and Matt Wieters added another run in the frame when he grounded out to Paul Konerko on a fielder’s choice.
Well, is the winning by the Orioles as of late all about luck?
Maybe.
Really, the L.A. Angels aren’t nearly as formidable as they were last year and the White Sox probably just ran into a rough patch after an incredible two months of winning baseball.
However, again, the team got a great outing from a starting pitcher – their seventh straight quality start – and the bullpen has done a solid job. Things are looking up with a healthy Koji Uehara, Mike Gonzalez and Brian Roberts back in the lineup.
Sadly, though, the Oriole bullpen has allowed too many teams to come back into games during the season and the trend continued in both the White Sox and Angels series. Then again, the Orioles came through at the plate when they needed to – getting the big hit and also just getting plain lucky at times.
The starting pitching has been excellent and I’ll say more than anything that’s the reason why the team has been so good as of late. The offense didn’t do much scoring in the White Sox series; however, the Oriole bats came through in the clutch and in key situations.
Now, the Orioles are eventually going to fall back to earth, but as it is, let’s hope they can carry the momentum from a nice week into the road trip starting tonight in Cleveland.
