With Rodrigo Lopez struggling over his last couple of starts, the Orioles beat the winningest pitcher to face the O's, former Orioles pitcher Jamie Moyer. The Orioles have guarenteed themselves a series win against the Mariners by winning tonight in one of the Orioles shortest games of the season, 2 hours.
Rodrigo Lopez started the season as the Orioles #1 starter, but he has struggled badly in his last 10 starts. Lopez hasn't won since April 10th, and he has had a 6.53 ERA and a 0-2 record over that time. In his last game against the Royals, the worse team in major league baseball, Rodrigo Lopez allowed 6 earned runs and walked 3. Now for the good news, Rodrigo Lopez looked like a true "ACE" tonight by allowing 1 run off of 5 hits in 8 innings of work. He placed his fastball for strikes and had a wicked slider all night. Lopez didn't allow one walk and only one batter to pass first base, which eventually scored the lone run for the Mariners, and threw only 82 pitches in 8 innings. If all it takes for Lopez to pitch well is cool weather, I don't want summer to arrive.
The arch rival of the Orioles has been Jamie Moyer over the last 19 years. Until tonight, Moyer was 15-2 against the Orioles over his career and definite bird killer. Other then the first inning, Jamie Moyer pitched like a bird killer. But all the Orioles need was the 1st inning. Melvin Mora got the inning started with a single and the next batter, Miguel Tejada, doubled. With runners at 2nd and 3rd, Sammy Sosa for the second straight night hit a sac fly to score Mora. Palmeiro came to the plate with two outs against a southpaw pitcher, Palmeiro has struggled with lefties since last year, and hit a tailing slider out of the park down the right field line. Those three hits were all the Orioles need to win the game. Moyer allowed only 3 baserunners after the first inning, and only one reached 2nd base. This was a great win against a known foe of the Orioles. Jamie Moyer does have a couple of excuses for tonight, struggling with control and he is 42 years old, but it was good to beat him any way.
What made tonight even better is that the Red Sox lost its second staight game to the B-Jays. With the win tonight, the O's have a 4 game lead over the Sox.
Notes: Roberts didn't play today and listed day-to-day. Palmeiro hit his 556th homer of his career tonight.
Posted by helimech24 at May 25, 2005 09:43 PM | TrackBack