Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Same Sh*t, Different Day: The Game Last Night, O's Lose 5-4 to the Mariners; The Bullpen Coughs Up Another One...


As we head into June, we have had many recurring themes – mainly, one run games, starting pitchers doing their job (albeit, not going deep into games), and then the bullpen coughing up a lead.

It happened on Sunday.

It happened on Monday.

It happened again last night.

The Baltimore Orioles lost another close game to the Mariners on the left coast by a score of 5-4.

The losing streak is now at five straight.

Brian Burres pitched a little more than five innings, and only gave up a run after throwing 111 pitches. He’s done and well in the spot start role, and (should not be taken out unless he falters).

The high pitch count scares me and Burres could be a lot more economical when he’s on the mound, but let’s not mess what works

Then, the fun began.

Baltimore’s favorite relief pitcher, Danys Baez (as to why he was in the game, God help us), pitched 1/3 of an inning, walked two and gave up three earned runs. I know the bullpen has been a little overused, but there’s no reason to bring in Baez in a close game.

He’s not been a reliable pitcher going on a month now!

Then, in the seventh inning, Jamie Walker came in and gave up a hit to the deadly Ichiro Suzuki, which scored Ben Broussard and made the score 5-4.

The Mariners would not relinquish the lead, and J.J. Putz got his 15th save.

For the Orioles, Millar drove in 2 runs, and so did Miguel Tejada. Corey Patterson scored off a throwing error.

I don’t know what to think anymore, I went to bed seeing the Orioles up, and when I wake up I see they lose.

The Orioles are lot better than their record indicates, but too many mistakes by the bullpen, pitchers not going into games deeper and not enough scoring will doom this team.

It’s sounding like a broken record now, but the facts are indisputable. We are being killed in one-run games, and more needs to be done.

The folks on the radio and in the press can gloss over the fact and say, “well, we are that close and whatever…”; however, the fact remains a loss is a loss, and the Orioles have lost way too many games like last night.



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The Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebeic has a recap of the action last night.

Check out Adam Kilgore’s piece yesterday on the Orioles, aptly titled (perhaps cruel, and with a lot of truth to it), “Money for Nothing”.

My buds at Oriole Magic have their recap of the game.

Kevin Millar has had a reputation of being a less than sub-par first baseman in the past; however, with the Orioles he’s looked very strong defensively.

Jeff Zrebeic of the Baltimore is pointing out the obvious – the bullpen is responsible for a lot of losses.

Rock Kubatko doesn’t seem to be at all enamored with the Orioles at all...

Bill Ordine of the O, By the Way blog says the Orioles play this season reminds him of the movie, Groundhog Day

In light of the bad karma with the Orioles, it’s needless to say that Brian Roberts has been hot and racking up the extra-base hits

In more good news for the Orioles, Miguel Tejada is second among AL shortstops in All-Star voting! Let’s make him the starter in the All-Star Game (ok, so there’s some guy named Jeter in New York that everyone likes…)

Jay Gibbons has been awful this year, and he took extra BP on Tuesday to rectify his issues.

If you have moment, check out Bottom Feeder Baseball, by Washington area O’s/Nats’ fan, Dave Nichols! Give it a read and show some support…

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