During the course of a baseball season, you hear the term ‘’you win some, you lose some’’ quite a bit.
This was the case for the Orioles over the past two nights at Camden Yards against the Padres. They watched a lead crumble, eventually dropping the opening game of the series by a score of 10-7 on Tuesday night, only to bounce back with an impressive 7-2 victory on Wednesday in the series finale.
On Tuesday, the Orioles would take the lead in the second inning on an RBI double from Adam Jones and a go-ahead single by Hyun Soo Kim, only for the Padres to take it back in the fourth on a solo shot from Derek Norris and an RBI single from Will Myers to make it 4-3.
Pedro Alvarez gave the O’s the lead with a two-run bomb in the bottom of the fourth before extending the advantage with another two-run blast in the fifth to make the score 6-3 Orioles. Alvarez’s second homer in the fifth cemented his first multi-home run game in an Orioles uniform and the 11th of his career, while his five RBI’s also marked a season-high.
Unfortunately, this marked the high point of the Orioles evening. Mychal Givens (0.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 0 K) would go through a horrifying start to the seventh inning in which he allowed two runs on five batters and left the game with the bases still loaded, and Oliver Drake couldn’t clean up his mess as the Padres took a 7-6 lead. The Orioles’ woeful ‘’ Bad News Bears’’ display in the ninth would only rub salt in the wounds of a game that slipped away, and the Padres would eventual extend their winning streak to three games in the 10-6 final.
The Orioles bounced back superbly on Wednesday behind the most unfathomable spark plug, Ubaldo Jimenez. The O’s staff veteran allowed just two runs on four hits over six rock-solid innings with four walks and seven strikeouts, and earned his most impressive win in quite some time for the O’s. Hopefully, just maybe…this will mark the start of a turnaround for the 32-year-old.
The Orioles leveled the score at 1-1 after Mark Trumbo launched his joint-MLB leading 21st homer in the second inning before Jonathan Schoop’s RBI double in the third gave the O’s a 2-1 advantage. Matt Wieters extended the O’s lead with an RBI single in the third before Matt Kemp, who finished the mini-series 6-for-10 with four RBI, pulled a run back with an RBI single in the fifth.
The O’s put the game to rest with a three-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth. Ryan Flaherty kicked off the surge with his third home run of the season before Chris Davis earned an RBI after being skimmed by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Wieters would drive another in on a sacrifice fly to hand the home squad a 6-2 lead. Kim added an insurance run with an RBI single in the sixth, and the lights-out combo of Brad Brach and Zach Britton would slam the door shut to take home a 7-2 victory.
Now, let’s take a look at the highlights from a brief series versus San Diego:
– Win #1,000 at Camden Yards! The Orioles engraved the milestone in the history books with a 7-2 win on Tuesday, so there’s that…The winning pitcher? Ubaldo freaking Jimenez. He’s in the history books now! I’m sure everyone will remember him fondly!
– Tuesday’s win also marked the 27th win at Camden Yards on the year, which leads the entire league. The Orioles’ record at OPACY stands at a sparkling 27-13.
– Orioles hitters impressed yet again versus the Padres and finished the mini-series with a .295 average with 14 runs scored on four home runs. Over the last four games, O’s sluggers are hitting a spectacular .364 while racking up 28 runs on six homers.
– After splitting a two-game set versus San Diego, the Orioles series record at Camden Yards stands at a remarkable 9-2-2.
– The Orioles had five players with three or more hits versus the Padres: Adam Jones (3-for-9, three runs, one RBI), Hyun Soo Kim (3-for-8, two RBI), Jonathan Schoop (3-for-7, three runs, one RBI), Pedro Alvarez (3-for-9, two home runs, five RBI), and Mark Trumbo (3-for-9, one homer, one RBI).
– Over his last 15 games, Pedro Alvarez is hitting a stellar .314 (16-for-51) with six home runs and 13 RBI.
– Ryan Flaherty has been in excellent form as of late, and ends the San Diego series with hits in eight of his last 11 games while posting a .283 average with three homers and eight RBI over his last fifteen games. Over his last seven, the Maine native is hitting .308 with two home runs and five RBI.
– Adam Jones stayed locked in against his hometown club, and now has hits in 10 of his last 11 while registering a solid .277 average with five homers and 13 RBI over his last 15 games.
– Jonathan Schoop has been lighting the world up lately, and is now hitting an amazing .409 (18-for-44) with 11 runs, three homers and nine RBI during his latest 11 game hot streak.
That’s all for now O’s nation! The first-place Orioles will deposit their win on Wednesday in the bank and look forward to taking on the Tampa Bay Rays for a four-game set at Camden Yards starting Friday after a much-needed off day.
They did just play 29 games in 30 days (going 15-14) after all, so I’d say they earned it.
