This is the part of the season that’s really tough. Seems like 20 other teams are in the hunt for the playoffs, except for yours. It’s always exciting when the Yankees roll into town though, and while the Orioles only took one game, that was one really good game.
Chris Ray dropped his fourth game on Friday. He gave up a solo homerun that broke a 4-4 tie. Bruce Chen was decent in his start. He gave up three runs on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings. Fernando Tatis hit his first major league homerun since 2003 in the 5-4 loss and Miguel Tejada and Jeff Conine both had two hits.
Saturday was Adam Loewen’s time to shine. After a rough rookie year, Loewen threw 5 1/3 innings on one hit ball. He and two relievers combined to hold the Yankees to a one hit shutout. Brian Roberts drove in two runs and Miguel Tejada had three hits and two runs in the 5-0 win.
Jaret Wright shut down the Orioles yesterday. In all, the Orioles managed only one run on six hits. The lone run scored on Nick Markasis’ RBI single in the fourth inning. By then, the score was already 4-1. Rodrigo Lopez dropped to 8-12 with the 6-1 loss.
Next up is three with the struggling Blue Jays. This series doesn’t mean very much unless you’re a Jays or Orioles fan. Wednesday’s matchup of Roy Halladay vs. Erik Bedard should be a good one.
