It’s way too soon to christen Zach Britton an ace of a pitching staff; however, based on his starts for the Orioles so far, Britton has been very impressive.
The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox, 6-4, thanks to Britton’s golden arm and the offense coming together again for another day.
It seemed that Britton anytime he needed to used an assortment of pitches to get anyone out. He used a combination of a cutter, fastball and curveball. I don’t think he had his best stuff out there, but got the job done. Britton developed a callus on his hand and left the game after six innings.
On the day, he allowed one run on five hits, struck out one and had three walks. His only real mistake of the day came in the fifth inning as Brett Lillibridge homered to left center.
Both Luke Scott and Mark Reynolds homered; meanwhile, Nick Markakis – who has been struggling big-time – came through with a three run double in an inning where the Orioles plated five runs.
They jumped all over another pitcher – this time, Maryland native Gavin Floyd, who started for the White Sox – and won their third straight game. The Orioles have won five out their last six and are now at .500 with a 13-13 record.
The Orioles made things interesting at the end as the bullpen — Jason Berken and Jim Johnson –gave up two runs to allow the White Sox to come within two of the lead, 6-4, before the ninth inning.
Kevin Gregg got the save, but allowed two men to reach base before striking out Paul Konerko and Alex Rios looking (there were some questionable strike calls the by home plate umpire, Cory Blaser, but the Orioles obviously didn’t say anything). Of course, Rios took issue with the calls and found himself thrown out from the game.
Gregg got A.J. Pierzynski to ground to second base and ended the game.
The Orioles go for the sweep on Monday and its good to see them playing so well after a really tough stretch.
