The O's finished playing the Yankees on Sunday by winning the series. The Orioles' bats finally showed up in this series after scoring only 5 runs against the Athletics. I covered the Friday night game on the previous posting, so I will only go over the weekend games.
On Saturday, the Orioles battled Randy Johnson, the new "Ace" pitcher, and the the O's sent Bruce Chen to the mound for his first start. The Orioles beat up on Randy Johnson by scoring 5 runs against one of the best pitchers in the game. Matos got the scoring started by hitting a sacrafice fly to score Javy Lopez in the second inning. The 3rd inning began the umpires help with the Yankees that would continue all weekend. Jeter stole 3rd base according to the umpires, when in fact Geranimo Gil threw him out. The O's then had a 4 run 4th inning by batting completely around in the lineup. Javy Lopez doubled to start of the inning; B.J Surhoff singled and Matos got hit by a pitch to load the bases; Chris Gomez worked Randy Johnson for a walk and brought in Lopez; Geronimo Gil singled and brought in Surhoff and Matos; Miguel Tejada singled and brought in Gil. Jason Giambi got one run back with a home run in the 4th. In the 5th inning, the officials decided the Yankees needed some more help and didn't call an illegal roll block on A-Rod, which allowed Ray Sanchez to score. The Orioles had a scare too because it looked as if Brian Roberts was hurt on the roll block. Roberts only had a blooded nose. The sixth inning was no better for the O's because Mazzilli called a squeeze play with Roberts at the plate and Gomez on third. The problem was that Roberts didn't make contact with the ball, and Posada was able to run down Gomez between home and third. The misfortunes of this game continued in the seventh for the O's once the 2 Steves came into the game to replace Chen (Steve Reed and Steve Kline). Reed allowed a run and left 2 on base before being yanked out of the game. And then the game was lost with the next pitcher, Steve Kline. Kline was facing Matsui when a fluke hit landed behind third base out of the reach of Tejada and Surhoff, which allowed Jeter to score. The next batter was Ruben Sierra, who knocked out a pitch off of Steve Kline. Three Run Shot, and the O's don't recover.
Sunday had Rodrigo Lopez up against Carl Pavano. This game was more interesting because Pavano was rumored to be coming to Baltimore and chose New York instead. The O's had their payback in the third inning. Up 1-0 in the 3rd inning, the Orioles had Brian Robert on first base. Mora stepped up to the plate to face Pavano. Mora should have been out on pop up to Giambi in foul territory, but Giambi missed the ball in the sun. Then it happened, Mora singled off of Pavano's head. It was a line drive at Carl Pavano, who couldn't get out of the way. It hit so hard that the ball went over Giambi's head. Pavano had to leave the game with a concussion. Should have came to Baltimore Carl. The O's scored 3 runs in the 3rd inning. The Orioles continued to beat up on the relievers and scored 3 more runs over the next 6 inning. One run came off of Brian Roberts hitting another homerun. How funny is it that the O's leading home run hitter is Brian Roberts at 3 HRs. None of the "Power Bats" have hit over a 2B hit. The Yankees did score two runs in the game, but Lopez only allowed one run in 8 innings and had 8 strikeouts. B.J. Ryan came in to relieve Lopez in the 9th inning. Ryan game up one run in the inning. O's Win The Series. Lopez has amazed even me at this point by filling in the roll as the #1 starter for the O's. I have always liked Lopez, but I thought he was a #2 at best. Can he really continue this?
The O's have off today and will be travelling down to Tampa Bay to face the Devil Rays on Tuesday. Both teams are at .500 on the year at 3-3. As long as Jorge Julio isn't given a chance to save a game down in Tampa Bay, the O's have a good chance at winning the Series. Daniel Cabrera will be starting on Tuesday for the O's.
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