Staying up sometimes after a long day is worth it, and last night proved it. After seeing Stephen Strasburg in Washington on Friday, I made it home in time for the O’s game to start – thanks to a two-hour-plus rain delay in Arlington, Texas.
Friday night/Saturday morning’s game looked like another Oriole loss in the top of the ninth inning against the AL West leading Rangers; however, with two outs in the ninth with the bases loaded and against of the best young relievers in the game – Neftali Perez – Corey Patterson was at the plate.
I honestly assumed the game was over as the Orioles were down 6-2, but for one night, something amazing happened. Patterson took a Perez pitch with two strikes and launched it into the upper deck for a grand slam and tie the game at six.
At near two or so in the morning, I reacted with glee as if the Orioles won a playoff game or something.
Jake Fox decided in the game in the 10th inning with a homer off Dustin Nippert and when all was said and done, the Orioles earned a dramatic 7-6 victory.
The win came at 2:30 in the morning here on Saturday, and Baltimore is now 27-59 on the season. It’s been a long season already for us fans, but it was good to see what happened last night. The Orioles are 3-3 in the past week, and while it may not be anything all that special, it’s been better than they have been playing in the past few weeks.
After his brilliant start in Boston last week, Brian Matusz – who started the game for Baltimore on the mound – was shaky again and got hammered in the fourth as he gave up four runs in the frame. He went three innings and gave up four runs in the loss. I’m not sure what happened in the third frame, but he just got hit pretty hard and just labored through that period.
The relief corps did their job in stop the bleeding from Matusz’s outing – highlighted by Matt Albers’ three scoreless innings; however, two errors by Miguel Tejada and Ty Wigginton in the eighth made a Texas 4-2 lead become 6-2, but again, the comeback averted another painful loss.
Aside from the great win, there was cause for concern with the Orioles as both Felix Pie and Matt Wieters found themselves out of the game due to injury. Pie was diagnosed with a quad strain and Wieters had a hamstring issue according to the Baltimore Sun. They say both injuries are not serious, but seeing both guys out of the game and hurt is disconcerting. I guess it may be safe to assume that both may not play until after the All-Star break.
Injuries have killed this team and certainly no one wanted to see anymore.
