After taking two of three from the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles – riding on a modest two-game win streak – faced a reeling New York Mets team; however, in the end, errors (three of them) did the Birds in as they lost, 6-4, in the first contest in a three game set.
Baltimore and New York were scoreless until the 4th inning; however, then everything started to go wrong with the Birds. With a runner on first and no outs, Brian Roberts had a ball hit by Carlos Beltran to him tailor made for a double play, but booted it.
For Jeremy Guthrie – who started the game for Baltimore – he’d sadly pay for Roberts’ untimely error. The Mets would use four singles and a sacrifice fly to plate in four runners.
The Orioles would cut the New Yorkers’ lead in half, 4-2 in the sixth inning, as Mets’ starter Mike Pelfrey – who was cruising – would give a two-run homer to Nick Markakis. The Orioles seemed prime to start a rally, but a double play and a Nolan Reimold lineout to left saved the Mets from any more damage.
New York scored twice in the seventh inning as Baltimore rioles once again got into trouble – this time allowing them to load up the bases. With one out in the seventh, Guthrie was yanked after allowing a single to Luis Castillo, and Alberto Castillo allowed back to back singles to Alex Cors and Fernando Martinez to load the bases.
After that, Danys Baez came into the game and got a crucial force out at home for the second out. It looked like Baltimore perhaps was going to be saved from disaster as a pop up headed towards the way of Aubrey Huff and Roberts; therefore, it looked as if Huff had a read on the ball, but dropped it. Two more runs crossed the plate, and the Orioles found themselves down, 6-2.
Baltimore scored twice in the ninth, and it looked like they had another potential rally going, but Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez struck Adam Jones to end the game.
Nick Markakis went 2-4 with a homer, Brian Roberts went 0-5 (but drove in a run), and Ty Wigginton – pinch hitting in the 9th – drove in a run with a bases loaded walk.
Mike Pelfrey took the win (5-2), while Guthrie (4-7) took the loss. “K-Rod” earned his 17th save.
