The roller coaster continues
The Orioles exploded for 12 runs on the night that Dave Trembley exploded at umpire Tom Hallion last night, but they have gone right back into their shell today in the afternoon finale of the series against the Seattle Mariners.
Jose Lopez banged an 0-2 fastball off the foul pole for a home run in the first inning and that was all the scoring during that part of the game that featured a pretty nice pitching duel between Jason Vargas and Orioles rookie David Hernandez.
Hernandez only threw one really damaging pitch, but it was a bad one. He was ahead on the count to Lopez and grooved a third straight fastball thigh-high that made it just too easy for the Mariners second baseman to leave the yard. Other than that, however, he pitched an outstanding ballgame, giving up just five hits and two walks over six innings of work.
Vargas beguiled the Orioles with his nasty changeup for five innings before running his pitch count too high and giving way to the bullpen, but that's not what will keep manager Dave Trembley awake on the coast-to-coast flight home. If the Orioles don't come back in the ninth, he'll be replaying the seventh inning, when the Orioles had the bases loaded and no one out and were shut down by former teammate Garrett Olson.
Olson came on to strike out Nick Markakis and coax Ty Wigginton to hit into an inning-ending double play.
In other words...Ouch!
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Comments
ahhh, we just wanted to lull the home crowd into silence, other than that dastardly train.
Let's go Breezy, lock it up. Of course some more runs would be nice as well!
Posted by: bms | July 8, 2009 7:28 PM
This roller coaster beats all of the rides at Hershey Park! Go birds! How about this 9th inning?
Posted by: AugustaReb | July 8, 2009 7:30 PM
Are the orioles all growning 'staches? Huff is, and i saw a lot of stubble on Roberts. Jim Palmer just brought attention to it as well...
Posted by: Danny K | July 8, 2009 7:33 PM
Is Trembley going to out Roberts in at second, move Wiggy to SS and put Pie in LF. Brilliant! That dude is making all the right moves since getting thrown out last night. He should have raised Heck weeks ago if he and the team were going to react this way!
Posted by: AugustaReb | July 8, 2009 7:33 PM
Jose Lopez might just be the MVP tonight for the O's. Ha ha. Maybe that running error (which the O's might make a new stat for after this season) might have worked to our advantage
Posted by: NIck from Chas | July 8, 2009 7:36 PM
Has anyone noticed that Huff is pretty much worthless this season? He's got a .330 OBP, a .430 SLG, 9 GIDPs, and now he has 6 caught stealings without a single stolen base.
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Pete's reply: Yeah, other than being 11th in the league in RBI and playing a pretty decent first base, he's pretty worthless.
Posted by: Bryan | July 8, 2009 7:36 PM
First Huff reaches for an 0-2 pitch...then screws up on the bases - these are things good teams and winning teams just don't do. he has to look for something to drive at 2-0...but he has been on losing teams since he's been in the big leagues - trembley is going to pay for all this with his job---and that is very sad. i know they may end up wining...but in the big picture their fundamentals are off the charts bad...I like DT a lot, but there's no way AM keeps him unless they play 10 games over 500 the rest of the way.
Posted by: Gary | July 8, 2009 7:37 PM
Jose Lopez might just be the MVP tonight for the O's. Ha ha. Maybe that running error (which the O's might make a new stat for after this season) might have worked to our advantage
Posted by: NIck from Chas | July 8, 2009 7:37 PM
sorry for the overpost my computer just spazzed out
Posted by: NIck from Chas | July 8, 2009 7:39 PM
Peter,
Any idea why DT pinch hit BRob for Nolan ??
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Pete's reply: Less likely to hit into a double play....he's a switch hitter...had to go into the game defensively. Lots of reasons.
Posted by: dave | July 8, 2009 7:43 PM
dave i can answer that question for you. We had no one to play the if. Pie ran for salazar and there is no way he was playing ss. scott is the hotter hitter at the moment and roberts has the most speed. it was a great move
Posted by: NIck from Chas | July 8, 2009 7:52 PM
I will take it! I was ready to settle for extra innings but I will take the gift extra runs.
As for RoyH. I would be shocked to see him in Baltimore but maybe he will get traded to the NL for a year and a half. No way he is not wearing pin stripes or sissy red socks in 2011.
Posted by: birdfanman | July 8, 2009 8:00 PM
Nick, thanks,
I wasn't "questioning" the move or following the game. I just noticed the switch in the box score. I was wondering if Nolan was injured.
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Pete's reply: No sweat. He's fine. They just had to realign the defense.
Posted by: dave | July 8, 2009 8:03 PM
So what if Huff is 11th in the league in RBI? RBI is a matter of batting order and other guys being on base. Surely you don't believe in the myth of the "clutch hitter" after all these years? There are only two first basemen in the league with lower OPS.
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Pete's reply: So, does that make him "worthless?"
Posted by: Bryan | July 9, 2009 1:29 AM