In life and as in baseball, there are times when it is full of surprises, and last night in Washington D.C. was no exception. If one was a betting man, would you have thought Danys Baez would ever serve as an offensive hero at all? Well, Baez’s first major league single ignited a two-out rally in the 12th inning that setup the winning run as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Washington Nationals, 4-2, in the so-called “Battle of the Beltways”.
After Baez’s single — it was more like a fluke swinging bunt that barely got 20 feet past the mound and Baez (for a guy his size) ran hard to first — Brian Roberts followed up with a double, and Adam Jones hit a two-run double to make the difference on Friday night. Jones, who came back during the Yankee series due to a sore hamstring, was the offensive star of the game with 3 RBI’s and three hits.
Baez got the victory, George Sherrill his 8th save, and the Orioles bullpen bailed out Rich Hill by going six plus innings and styming a Washington offense that ranks in the top five in the National League. Hill — the southpaw coming back from injury — lasted 5 2/3 innings and gave up two runs (courtesy of a Ryan Zimmerman opposite field two-run homer in the fourth). Other than that, Hill was solid and his work on the mound was encouraging to see.
Nolan Reimold hit a long solo home run in the second inning, and Brian Roberts had three hits on night. Reliever Kip Wells took the loss for Washington.
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It was no surprise to anyone — in fact, most of the media had called it — that Adam Eaton was released after his crappy outing at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. In his place, Matt Albers was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.
As I said yesterday, I respect that the Orioles wanted to give Eaton a shot to perhaps shield the young arms from coming up too soon; however, most anyone in their right mind knew Eaton — who still is being paid a lot of money by Philadelphia — probably would not be able to hack it in the AL East after his struggles for the past few years.
It just didn’t work for Eaton in Baltimore, and now it’s time to hand of the ball to someone else — David Pauley, Chris Waters, or David Hernandez. As I see it, the season is lost, so now let’s give the arms down on a farm a shot and give them a chance to sink or swim at the major league level — it’s not like the alternatives are any better right now.
