The Orioles win! Streak over! CELEBRATION!
Now that is done check out Anthony’s recap from last night. Nothing more that really needs to be said about the game itself, so let me talk about what exactly this means. This win, yes this one win, means that the Orioles are a good team again. 7-9 sounds a lot better than 6-9 and in one game we were reminded of what this team is capable of. And they did it against Carl Pavano, a pitcher that has been fairly strong against the Birds in the past. Pavano came into the game last night with a 5-3 record against Baltimore pitching to an ERA in the low 3’s. Pavano had an inflated ERA coming into last night’s affair after being spanked by the Blue Jays in the opener but he turned in two solid starts afterward reminding Twins fans why they re-signed him this offseason.
The Orioles simply dismantled Pavano last night and it must be noted that it all started with Adam Jones. Jones hit a grounder to the hole at short and he hustled down the line to beat out the strong throw from shortstop Alexi Casilla. That one play was the spark to a two-out rally scoring the first three runs of the game.
In fact two-out rallies were on the menu last night and the Orioles definitely indulged. 10 of the Orioles’ 11 runs came with two out. They were 6-for-11 with RISP. They were patient, they were selfless and they got the job done.
The crowd was still small last night, and I don’t blame them for not coming out while the team is facing a possible nine-game losing streak, but it was crowd in full throat. As the runs began to pile up you could feel the weight being lifted off the crowd as if everyone was reminded, “oh yeah – this IS a good team.”
Other observations:
Matt Wieters is heating up. All of his hits were hit very very hard and more importantly he is pulling the ball. Monday’s beastly homer over the left-center wall, last night’s double off the out-of-town scoreboard, these are all very very encouraging signs from the young catcher. Wieters has gone on tears before but never sustained them past a week or two, outside of the last months of his rookie campaign. If Wieters can sustain this level of play for an extended period of time than the Orioles will start winning a lot more games.
Arrieta was masterful last night. The team is still searching for consistency in their starting rotation but back to back fine outings from Tillman and Arrieta have done the team a lot of good. Zach Britton pitches tonight after being BABIP’d to death in Cleveland for one inning followed by the very consistent Jeremy Guthrie; the Orioles have a real chance at four solid starts in a row heading into an important early six-game stretch against the Yankees and Sox.
Good news on the injury front as Brian Matusz and JJ Hardy are both progressing well in their coinciding convalesence. They both look to be back with the club sometime in May. In the meantime Robert Andino is making the most of his opportunity in the field and at the plate, Andino went 3-for-3 last night with a walk, a run and three singles. He is batting .368 and playing a pretty decent shortstop right now, I’ll take that from the backup UTI guy.
Orioles hope to secure a series split tonight with Zach Britton. Let’s hope they didn’t waste all the offense last night as they go up against right-hander Nick Blackburn. Blackburn is coming off a loss to Tampa Bay but has been strong in the early goings giving up only one run in his previous two starts (11.2 IP).
The next two games are kind of huge for the Birds, as huge as two games against a non-division rival could be. The team has a chance to get back to .500 with New York coming and a struggling Boston right after them getting your wins where you can are always important in this division and everyone is bunched together right now. I am not trying to predict the future nor am I getting my hopes up but the longer that the top four teams are cramped together within a couple games of one another the better that bodes for the Orioles going forward into what could be a very interesting Summer.
As long as they keep playing like they did last night.
