The Game Last Night, A Broken Record: Quick Hits - The Orioles Lose A Close One 2-1 to the Blue Jays

Once again, the Baltimore Orioles lost yet another close game, this time at the hands of veteran A.J Burnett.

The Orioles were only able to muster three hits, one them a solo homer by Kevin Millar. However, A.J. Burnett looked electric as he struck out 10 with his amazing arsenal. With a little help from second baseman, Aaron Hill, the Blue Jays were able to reign supreme.

Yet, another Oriole pitcher had a quality outing, as Brian Burres gave up two runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out six in five-plus innings.

The Oriole offense was anemic (again) and were stymied by Burnett all night long.

What should have been a soft patch in the schedule for the Birds had turned out to be a struggle where the offense can not get going at all, and there just seems to be a general outage.

The Oriole pitching has held up and delivered, but the bats are dead. Like I said last night, the team can not (and I mean can not) underestimate the Nationals, who are on a hot streak and their pitching has been their source of strength. The Birds may the superior talent on paper, but the Nats' are playing with a purpose -- to finish respectable, and with 2 wins already over the hot Braves, Sam should honestly treat the Boys from DC with a lot of respect.

Remember, we all assumed that the Orioles would have taken the series from the Blue Jays, with all their injuries.

That was not the case.

Although their record and how they look on paper does not indicate how they have played of late, the Nationals have a lot of hunger and it looks like the franchise player, Ryan Zimmerman is starting to really heat up and drive in the runs.