After a disappointing three game series to the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yards over the weekend, the Baltimore Orioles made their first stop on an eight game road trip in San Diego. They faced the Padres in a two-game series, and took both games in decisive fashion.
Pitcher Bud Norris threw six solid innings, giving up a run in their 4-1 win over the Padres on Tuesday; meanwhile, Adam Jones – who hails from the San Diego area – had quite the homecoming, going 4-for-4 with a homer, two runs driven in and scoring twice. Watching the first game on MASN, there were a lot of Orioles fans who seemed to be in attendance.
Overall, in the San Diego series, Jones pounded out seven hits. Not bad for two days of work.
Jim Johnson earned his 39th save on the night, which leads all of baseball.
On Wednesday, the bats came out in a huge way for the Orioles as they defeated the Padres again in a laugher, 10-3. Chris Davis crushed his 41st homer that travelled in excess of 450 feet. The Orioles used a four-run eighth inning and a three-run ninth to up their record on the season to 63-51.
J.J. Hardy also homered – his 19th longball of the season – and drove in three runs. Manny Machado also had two hits and drove in a run. Matt Wieters and Brian Roberts plated in runs too.
Pitcher Miguel Gonzalez bounced back from a poor outing recently against the Astros and threw decently on Wednesday, giving up three runs in six innings. He only made one mistake: giving up a homer (a three-run shot) to Jedd Gyorko in the sixth inning to break up a shutout.
Overall, the road trip has started off well for the Orioles; however, they still are 1 ½ games out of the final wild card spot, and still trail the Red Sox by six full games in the American League East.
They have the day off on Thursday and travel to San Francisco to face the reigning world champions, the Giants.
However, the Giants are in the midst of a terrible season. They have a 50-63 record and sit at the bottom of the National League West. The Giants have lost in a row, and much like they did in San Diego, the Orioles must take advantage and pound on a team that has performed well below expectations.
The Orioles just have to keep doing what they did in San Diego: push runners across home plate and pitch well.
If they can do that, things will take care of themselves.
