Rocky night for Pie, Gonzalez in Bowie
With Orioles players Felix Pie and Michael Gonzalez participating in injury rehabilitation assignments with Double-A Bowie, there was an extra level of excitement from fans to kick off the holiday weekend at Prince George's Stadium.
Pie, Gonzalez and the rest of the Baysox didn't give the crowd much reason to celebrate, however, as Akron cruised to a 9-4 victory in the second game of the series.
In his first at-bat, Pie showed some solid plate discipline as he walked on six pitches.
Pie struck out in each of his next two at-bats, however. In the fifth, he was punched out on four pitches.
Akron second baseman Jason Kipnis robbed Pie of a single up the middle in the seventh as he ranged well to his right and threw out the Orioles outfielder by a step at first base.
With one run already scored in the bottom of the ninth, Pie tripled into the left-center field gap in his last at-bat to finish 1-for-4 with a walk. He was stranded at third base as third baseman Ryan Adams flied out to end the game.
Gonzalez entered with two outs in the fifth inning after Baysox starting pitcher Nathan Nery allowed five consecutive hits -- a home run, two doubles and two singles.
With a runner on second base, Gonzalez forced Akron shortstop Cristo Arnal to fly out to deep center field to end the threat in the fifth.
In the sixth, Gonzalez retired the first two batters before ending his night on a bad note.
Aeros third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall hit a long home run over the first layer of signs in right-center field. Chisenhall fouled off four consecutive pitches before unleashing the bomb against Gonzalez.
According to the radar gun at the ballpark -- which isn't always accurate, by the way -- Gonzalez was in the upper 80s for the most part with his fastball. He touched 91.
Another radar gun had Gonzalez between 90-93 during the outing.
Overall, Gonzalez threw 15 of his 20 pitches for strikes.
I thought Gonzalez looked OK, for what it's worth, but he looks far from the dominating closer that the Orioles envisioned when they signed him as a free agent in the offseason.
A Baltimore native, 
Comments
quick lets get gonzo and pie up here in a hurry so we can remember how this season started ,bench paterson because hes only hitting in the 290s and trying and put gonzo as closer since simon and hernandez only throw in the upper 90s this is am plan .dont forget to hire a loser mgr. like wedge or a clown like dempsey this will turn everthing around . all this bs about second meetings for mgr , what difference will this make anyhow ? ,just let juan finish this misery out andstart next years plan fresh .only thing good this year was seeing the 1970 team again .its hard to belive this all was a master plan , plan for what to break the mets worst ever losing year ever in a gms third year of a plan ?this team deserves everthing it gets now!!!
Posted by: wyatt paden | July 2, 2010 10:44 PM
Wyatt what a dunce but I guess I expect that out of a Yankee fan,.. The plan is the only chance for this team if you don't have the guts to stick it out go somewhere else..
Posted by: grant | July 2, 2010 11:24 PM
It's a rocky night for Pie because he only had one hit, a triple?
Posted by: terpfan | July 2, 2010 11:37 PM
Like Atkins, the other big offseason acquisition, release Gonzalez. He wasn't effective at the ML level, now he isn't effective at the minor league level. If anyone doesn't know by now, AM is not a good judge of player talent.
Posted by: mortstiff | July 3, 2010 7:46 AM
Why do you think Atlanta let Gonzalez go? He isn't worth a crap!!
Posted by: bob | July 3, 2010 8:12 AM
With wasted $millions spent on Atkins, MillwoodGonzales,Lugo,Tejada,Albers,(why is he still here?)Patterson,we maybe could have overspent on a quality or 2 FA's.
Why did we trade for Jake Fox, is he our new bench coach?Another player sorry to come here.
Posted by: joe carper | July 3, 2010 11:24 AM
Yeah, this story/blog makes no sense. Pie goes 1-4 with a triple and also a walk. On base avg of .400 (2-5). One base hit was taken away because of a good defensive play (although based on this story it might be hard to believe the judgement of the writer).
Gonzalez has been a disaster along with Atkins. The Orioles have made a habit of overpaying relievers (Baez, Walker, etc.).
Posted by: Rich | July 3, 2010 3:22 PM
Yeah, I don't understand the Pie bit. He nearly was 2-4, with a triple and a single and walk. Where does the rockiness of this outing come? Two k's? Big deal.
Also, to Bob: Didn't Atlanta let Rafael Soriano go, too? That looks like it might have been because he wasn't worth a crap, either. Oh, wait...he's dominating as a closer.
Posted by: Jacob | July 4, 2010 3:07 AM