After only winning one game out of three in Chicago against the White Sox, the Orioles flew out to the West Coast to face the Angels.
On Friday, the Orioles beat the Angels, 3-1, as Brad Bergesen bounced back from a so-so performance last weekend. He went eight strong innings, gave up a run on four hits, and kept the Angels off balance. Koji Uehara got the save.
Baltimore got runs from a Nick Markakis RBI-single in the first, a Luke Scott RBI-single in the sixth and a Corey Patterson groundout in the eighth inning.
The only run for Los Angeles came off a Bergesen balk in the first inning.
Now that there are 33 games left in the season, what should we expect from here? It’s been a long season, but it’s good to have seen the team play much better overall under Showalter and actually play some competitive baseball.
With Jim Johnson back in the fold, it’ll be interesting to see how he does during the rest of the season (Armando Gabino was sent down). However, Brian Roberts (hip) and Adam Jones (shoulder) are ailing a bit.
Finally, the Orioles’ final month may have a role in how the American League East plays out. The vast majority of the games left in the season feature the usual suspects in the division, and one has to wonder if the team will fall into a swoon again.
If Baltimore can compete in the final month, it will be a huge building block heading into 2011. Really, we’d all like to see Roberts and Jones stay healthy in the next month, and not see Luke Scott fall into an extended slump and cross the 30-home run plateau.
Will the young pitching hold up? Can Buck Showalter get the Orioles to finish up with a .500 record during his 2010 run?
We shall see.
