Last night, the Orioles won their third straight game in a row as they defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in interleague action, by a score of 8-6.
Wei-Yin Chen (6-2) won another game – he went 6 1/3 innings, gave up four runs, Adam Jones had four hits, along with his 18th homer of the year; in addition, Mark Reynolds and Chris Davis went deep. Jim Johnson got his 19th save of the season.
The surprising Pirates at 32-29, have been playing well; however, they were little match for the Orioles.
Then again, the biggest news on the night was not the Orioles (35-26) win, nor they still being a game out of first in the division.
I would ordinarily write rambling entry about the game itself. The biggest revelation from last night was the return of second baseman Brian Roberts.
And what an impact he made.
No matter what you feel about him, or his attempt to comeback, this much was certain: the man missed the game, his teammates and the ability to make a livelihood. He is one of the faces of the franchise, the community and has done a lot of the local sick kids at the various hospitals.
The media seemed to be very happy in seeing him back, and so do the fans.
If baseball can be a humbling game, it certainly was to Roberts. He certainly showed it in the post-game press conference. Roberts ranged from being happy to almost breaking down, but it was really nice to see him show some emotion and how much Tuesday night meant to him.
I didn’t attend the game last night due to illness and other reasons; however, watching some of the reply late night, those who saw Roberts showed him a lot of love.
He got a standing ovation during his first at-bat, and went out and got three hits. Obviously, sports – at the pro level – are a what-have-you-done-for-me business and the goodwill shown towards Roberts will only extend to how well he plays on the field.
However, so far … so good, for Roberts.
The Orioles are off to one of their best starts in two decades, and hopefully Roberts will be a part of it going on forward.
Maybe this season, Roberts will have his dream come true: playing competitive baseball in summer for a change.
