Hey, Look On The Bight Side — At Least It Was Exciting!

If you didn’t notice, I’ve been on a brief hiatus the past few days. Just been catching up on some “me” time, if you know what I mean. Actually, I don’t even know what I mean. I’ve pretty much been sitting around doing not too much of anything — something I’ve been in much need of. I did go to the O’s game yesterday. Which was fun. But hot. And at four hours in length, the fact that it was at least exciting (as was alluded in the title of this post) made it that much more bearable.

At any rate, the O’s, not surprisingly, have lost their two first games to the White Sox. But what was surprising was the manner in which these losses came. Both games saw the Birds’ bats come alive. However, the pitching kept them in the loss column, which is too bad since the offense and defense, without a doubt, came to play.

The first match-up, a 6-4 loss which essentially came at the hands of backup first baseman Ross Gload — he hit a granny off Chris Ray in the top of the 9th — was the type that rips the collective heart out of fans of the orange and black. The O’s, guided by their ace, Erik Bedard, led the world champs for the entire game. Brian Roberts hit his second homer on the year off of Freddy Garcia and Miguel Tejada, a target of much trade rumors the past few days, drove in two runs as he DH’d his way to a 2-for-4 night. Kevin Millar added an RBI, too.

Bedard should have won his eighth-straight game; his 7.0 IP with seven Ks and two walks, along with eight hits allowed, was good enough to keep him ahead by two runs after Sam Perlozzo replaced him with big Chris Britton. Britton is continuing to have a very solid year; since we last checked his numbers here on Since 1954, he’s bettered his stats as he’s lowered his ERA to 2.70 and now stands at 32 Ks and 10 BBs in 40.0 IP.

Then came Ray.

In the spirit of keeping this short and not bashing Ray any more than he needs to be bashed, he gave up two consecutive base hits, walked a guy, and then surrendered a very untimely grand slam to an unlikely candidate in Ross Gload. That was Ray’s second blown save of the year, which is  one less than former teammate B.J. Ryan….he’ll get over it and so will we.

Yesterday, however, was a different story. The O’s still lost, but this one came in a different fashion. Starting for the Birds was six-foot-five, 22-year-old prospect Jim Johnson, who was possibly auditioning as part of a potential trade package. Too bad for Jim, though, as he was facing A.J. Pierzynski (5-for-5 with four RBI and a homer) and the White Sox.

The Sox won 13-11. Here’s how:

Johnson made it through 3.0 innings. In those three innings, he gave up nine hits, walked three, and surrendered eight runs. He threw 93 pitches (54 for strikes) and, obviously, showed he needs more time down on the farm.

At any rate, that made the score 8-4 after three.

Russ Ortiz then came in and pitched 4.1 solid innings — well, solid for him — as he gave up three runs and five hits. The worst part of his outing was the homers he surrendered immediately after taking the mound. Jermaine Dye and Pierzynski hit back-to-back shots off Russ to make the score 10-4. At that point, I though Russ was cooked but he turned it around and gave up only three hits after the unfortunate dingers. On one occasion, Russ was helped out big time by Corey Patterson, who made a fantastic Web Gem-worthy catch in center field to rob Brian Anderson (at least I think it was Anderson) of a double and an RBI; Patterson also doubled-up Juan Uribe at first due to the fact that no one in the stadium, including Uribe, thought that ball was remotely catchable.

To sort of run through this, Melvin Mora was 3-for-5 with an RBI, a walk, and three runs scored. Miguel Tejada hit his 19th homer on the year as he went 4-for-6 with three RBI. Jay Gibbons made his long-awaited return as he collected two walks and a double. Along with his great catch, Patterson added three hits, and RBI, and a stolen-base. And Nick Markakis, after going 4-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI, raised his season average to a very respectable .290.

The hardest part to watch was Ramon Hernandez‘s shot to dead centerfield with the bases loaded fall just short of a grand slam as Brian Anderson caught it with his back literally against the wall. If it would have cleared the fence, it would have put the O’s up by one after they made a gutty comeback in the sixth. It’s worth noting that the Birds scored runs in each of the final four innings, but the effort was slightly too little.

The O’s are playing, well, right now, actually. Bruce Chen takes on Javier Vasquez in a game which decides a whether or not the Sox sweep. Hopefully, the time off from starting has given Chen some time to compose himself and regain his control, command, and confidence….wow, that’s a whole bunch of “C’s”.

Ok, at any rate, let’s hope for a win. For the O’s, that is.