After a rather difficult week where the Orioles saw the surging Nationals and Pirates take two out of three games in their respective series, they had another tough customer in the Cincinnati Reds.
Few Oriole fans have been happy this week, considering the team is now six games under .500; however, they pulled out a win last night in 12 innings as they defeated the Reds, 5-4. I’ve out of town due to some personal stuff and following stuff sparingly, but I saw clips and pieces of the game on MLB.tv and saw the awesome ending courtesy of Derrek Lee’s walk-off homer in the 12th.
Lee looks like he’s finally putting it together at the plate, now batting .247 on the season.
Is Lee starting to get hot at the plate? Is he climbing back to his career norms? Or is taking advantage of facing the National League (where he played for a long time)? Could it also be that Father Time is taking a vacation away from Derrek Lee? Who knows? As long as he keeps swinging the bat like he has, we’ll take it.
Good to see the Orioles win after a difficult loss in Pittsburgh. Also, it was nice to know that Blake Davis got his first career major league hit in last night’s game. The bullpen was very impressive, especially Koji Uehara, who I got to see pitch for two innings.
Honestly, the Baltimore bullpen has been shaky, but the combo of Jim ‘J.J.’ Johnson and Koji Uehara can’t be beat. It was also good to see beleagured reliever Mke Gonzalez hold things in check during the 12th inning and get the win.
James will be steering things with respect to the blog until the end of the weekend.
In other news, what in the holy hell is going on in Washington? Their manager Jim Riggleman resigns after winning 11 out of 12 games due to a contract dispute with the team’s general manager? Sorry, you don’t quit on your team in the middle of a season — especially in a good situation with their recent run and talent in the organization. The circumstance seem so weird. There is probably so much more to the story we don’t know.
Things have been so bad for Riggleman to quit; however, he is getting roasted a bit in the media and may have a hard time finding work for a while.
And now, former Oriole Davey Johnson (manager and player) is the manager the Nationals? Not only for the remainder of this season, but next? If I can recall, he wanted to stay away from managing due to his health; however, I guess the reality of the situation and potential down the Parkway was too hard to resist.
