Pitcher Jake Arrieta came through again for the Baltimore Orioles on the left coast and helped them cruise to their 18th win of the season by defeating the San Francisco Giants, 4-1.
With the win, the Orioles snapped a painful 4-game losing streak.
Ty Wigginton drove in two runs with RBI-groundouts (one in the first inning, and in the third) and Adam Jones – who is bouncing back after a horrific start to the season – hit his 8th homer of the season in the fourth inning. The Orioles scored another run off a double play in the fifth to finish the scoring on the evening.
Back to Arrieta: He went seven innings for the win and gave up only a run on Tuesday night for his second major league victory. His only mistake was giving up a long solo homer to ‘Kung-Fu Panda’ Pablo Sandoval in the third inning.
Other than that, he was efficient on the evening, throwing 95 pitches in his outing. He only gave up three hits on the night, struck out three and walked two.
Unlike a lot of the pitching we have seen this past month from Baltimore, he got ahead of the hitters, was aggressive and the end result was a great outing – perhaps one of the best from an Oriole pitcher this season.
David Hernandez got his second save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth inning. Right now, I’d prefer to see him in that spot than Alfredo Simon.
Meanwhile, on the injury front: I’ll would not be surprised if Brian Roberts doesn’t play baseball again this season. From my experience, back issues are tricky and I was shocked Roberts made it to Opening Day before he got hurt.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Brian Roberts should be out at least another four to six weeks.
Also, Chris Tillman is heading to the bullpen. I guess much like with Bergesen, they want him in a long relief role – at least temporarily – to get his bearings back in place and work through his issues. I figured Tillman would have been sent to the minors this week, but I guess with things the way they have been on the pitching front, an arm is needed.
Despite Tillman’s success in the minors this season, does one have the feeling that he might have been rushed up a tad too quick to the majors and still may not be ready?
Finally, the managerial search is still ongoing for the Orioles. Now that we all know Bobby Valentine doesn’t want the job and little is known about the interview with Eric Wedge, what happens from here? Well, I think Juan Samuel is in place as interim manager for the rest of the year and finding a candidate may be harder than it looks.
At this point, the Orioles should just find someone who has the patience to deal with perhaps a year or two, or perhaps more of losing and can help develop the young players.
Could there be someone out there who could perhaps bring some sanity into a very dysfunctional and underacheiving outfit right now?
