Last-night, the O’s fell behind 3-0 to flame-thrower Justin Verlander, before fighting back to tie the game in the 6th.
Guthrie had worked 6 innings, allowed 7 hits, 3 er, 1 bb, 2 homers, with 10 k’s before giving way to Matt Albers.
Guthrie’s fastball was consistently at 95-96, he had a ton of movement on his slider, and even recorded a couple of k’s with his change-up. The only real blemishes were the homers, but at least they were solo. The 10 k’s tied his career-high.
Albers had not been scored on in his first 5.1 innings back with the Birds, but promptly gave up a homer to the first-batter he faced.
He was than able to work out of the inning, with the O’s only down one. I thought it was fairly clear that Albers did not have quite the same stuff last-night, that he had shown in his previous 4 outings, and did not think he would be back out for the 8th.
Albers did start the 8th, and only recorded 1 out prior to giving up 2 runs (1 unearned).
Matt Wieters had the first two hits of his career, a triple, and a double. The triple was a blast off the CF wall. Reimold had a tremendous at-bat to knock Wieters in for the 1st Oriole run, with a single up the middle, after falling behind in the count.
With these two in the 7th and 8th spots in the Oriole lineup, there is no-where for opposing pitchers to hide.
Speaking of no-where to run; the Detroit bullpen has some filthy arms with Perry, Zumaya, and even Rodney.
On the last day of May, the Baltimore Orioles are 23-27. The ended April at 9-13, meaning the Birds have gone 14-14 so far for the Month.
With a win today, the O’s will finish the month with a winning record.
As we discussed in the series preview, the pitching match-up is Edwin Jackson, vs Jason Berken making his 2nd Major League start.
Here is to finishing the home-stand strong prior to the West Coast swing.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.