The Orioles on Wednesday snapped a two-game losing skid by defeating the Kansas City Royals, 3-2.
Well, they won last night by timely hitting, a good pitching effort by Jake Arrieta and some heads-up thinking by Adam Jones, who might have single-handedly helped the Orioles to victory.
To start, I do want to talk about Adam Jones. Aside from the Baltimore center fielder finally swinging the bat, Jones also showed that he’s also awfully smart. I’d say gutsy as well.
In the eighth inning, the Royals came within a run of tying the game, 3-2. Mike Aviles, with a man on base, hit a well-hit ball into the gap in left field. It looked like Aviles was on his way to tripling and driving the runner on base home; however, the ball got stuck underneath the wall.
Adam Jones, knowing that the ball was embedded beneath the wall, raised up his hands – almost like a police offer commanding you to do so – and made sure the umpires saw him per the ground rules. Well, the second base umpire sure did see what was going on and called the play dead, effectively giving Aviles credit for a ground-rule double, instead of a triple. That would be critical.
Melky Carbrera plated the runner on base moments later with a grounder; however, Baltimore reliever Mike Gonzalez came into the game and retired the next batter – the final one of the inning.
If Aviles gets credit for a triple – instead of a ground rule double – he scores as well off Cabrera’s ground out, the Royals tie the game and potentially rally for a victory.
Of course, the Orioles made things exciting in the ninth, holding a 3-2 lead. Kevin Gregg walked Jeff Francoeur in the frame (he would reach second), but would he get the save.
At the end of the game, no one was talking about Kevin Gregg’s save – it was all about Adam.
On the offensive front for the Orioles, Nick Markakis drove in two and hit a solo homer in the seventh inning (this third on the year) and Derrek Lee plated in a run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning.
Mark Reynolds showed signs of breaking out from his slump and went 3-for-3; meanwhile, Luke Scott also has two hits and two walks.
The offense still isn’t there for the Orioles. I guess we are learning now that they have very little margin of error on the offensive and pitching front. They’ve not been horribly bad, but at this point they look like a middling .500 level team and not much will change unless the hitters start doing more at the plate.
Moving on…
Jake Arrieta went seven innings and upped his record to 4-1. He went seven innings, so only a run and struck out eight. It’s been surprising to see the progress he’s made so far this season, in light of Zach Britton getting the lion’s share of the attention.
Arrieta’s stuff was phenomenal last night and he’s been slowly racking up the strikeout totals. He’s actually learning how to pitch now and the results have shown in the last two games.
Right now, it’s safe to say that Arrieta is probably the second-or-third best pitcher on the squad. His future looks bright, and hopefully he’ll a small piece in helping the Orioles become a winning team.
Finally, Vladmir Guerrero finally earned a walk after going 29 games!
Seriously, I don’t know how that’s possible, but considering he had a much better eye during the early years of his career, its weird how he’s become an all or nothing guy.
