The Orioles won their, season-high, fourth game in a row today with a 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals. What made this sweep so great was that all three games were come-from-behind victories. The Orioles overcame 6-0, 5-0 and 3-0 deficits to win each game by one run in the late innings.
Today the Orioles were again aided by the Nats’ major-league-worst defense. Adam Kennedy attempted an ill-advised attempt at a double play in the fifth inning which would lead to Matt Wieters to cross the plate and score the tying run. The Orioles were no aces on the the field themselves today. No errors were charged but Adam Jones got eaten-up by a hooking line drive hit right at him in the third inning. The misplay would allow Washington left-fielder Josh Willingham an RBI triple. Willingham would later score on Roger Bernadina’s two-run shot off of Jeremy Guthrie.
Guthrie had another solid, if unremarkable, outing. Guts went six innings giving up three runs, keeping the Orioles in the game and never letting things get out of hand. The Oroles bullpen took care of the rest with three innings of scoreless, drama-free ball. The Birds’ pen had a fantastic weekend playing pitching 12 innings and not giving up a single run.
Jones redeemed himself with an RBI double during the Orioles fifth inning rally. After a Wieters single Jones would score on a Scott Moore RBI single.
The Orioles’ big heroes of the day were Miguel Tejada who roped a two-out single to score the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth and David Hernandez for his work in the top of the inning. Hernandez came into the game with one out and two on relieving Will Ohman and David responded in one of the most impressive displays I have seen this year. David threw six pitches, and got two stirke-outs to end the inning. Hernandez blew six fastballs past Josh Willingham and Roger Bernadina to put an exclamation point on a great weekend for the pen.
Tejada’s RBI single did more than just uplift the Orioles, he picked up Julio Lugo who once again was unable to, stay out of trouble on the basepaths. With one out Lugo ripped a double into the outfield. Representing the go-ahead run with Corey Patterson up he inexplicably broke for third base. But then stopped in no-man’s land and was thrown out easily back at second. Thankfully Corey Patterson laced a double down the right field line and Tejada singled to score the eventual game-winner.
Lugo’s play was just one of the most boneheaded things I have ever seen. He is a veteran, he should know better and if this team is going to get better then it’s veteran players need to perform at much higher levels than that.
Speaking of which…
Garrett Atkins has been designated for assignment. Atkins was an experiment gone horribly awry for everyone involved and he had been little more than a warm body on the bench and the roster for the last month. The move makes room for the latest return of Koji Uehara and will only leave us to ponder who will be cut when Felix Pie returns to the team in the next week or so. My initial nominee is, well, Julio Lugo.
Scott Moore and Ty Wigginton can take over the first and second base positions for the time-being and they are showing ten-times the batting ability of Lugo who has looked disinterested since he got here.
It was a great weekend of Orioles baseball. Wait a minute, did I just type that? Great weekend? It is so important that the Orioles keep up this momentum and rattle off another couple of wins before heading out on the last road-trip of the first half that will take them through Boston, Detroit and Texas. Jones is hitting again, Scott is hitting, Markakis is hitting, Wieters is showing signs of life, the bullpen has been great; good things are happening right now for this team. Finishing a disastrous first half on a strong note would be fantastic.
