Orioles Win and College Lacrosse

Saturday was the semi-finals for Division I lacrosse at Ravens Stadium. I watched the first game on TV between Delaware and Johns Hopkins. I really liked the Blue Hens' aggressive style. They got after the Blue Jays early, and tried to put a hit on their offensive players any time they went for a shot. They pushed around the Blue Jays for a while, but really didn't have an offense. While a combination of Delaware's aggressive style of play and missed chances by Hopkins kept the game close, it ultimately was won by the better team.

I missed most of Duke and Cornell in the other semi-final, but did catch Duke's dramatic goal to win the game with just seconds left. This just seems like a fairy tale story for the Duke program. Previous season was cancelled over false allegations, and now they come back to win the National Championship. Sounds like a movice script. I truly hope Hopkins crushes them today. As a fan of the University of Maryland, I have learned to hate Duke. Maybe the hatred starts with Coach K, but it definitely spreads to the rest of the University as well. So combine the Duke hatred with the support for the Hopkins team from Baltimore, and I will definitely be looking for a Blue Jays victory.

Now while I was watching the lacrosse games on Saturday I thought what a great day it would be to be tailgating at the stadium. You could start early before the Hopkins game...Take a break before the other semi-final matchup to fill up on food and booze, and then head over to Camden Yards for the O's game that night after a couple lacrosse games at M&T. That would truly be a great day of sports watching in Baltimore.

So on to the O's. They managed to get a win on that Saturday night game...even with Danys Baez pitching. I'd love to say that Baez pitched well, but he did give up another run on 1 hit and 2 walks. Luckily the O's bats finally came alive for 8 runs. So the O's got the win, but Baez has now given up runs in 6 of his last 7 outings. His problems certainly don't appear to be solved.

Great news however is that Miguel Tejada seems to have figured things out a bit. In his last 4 games he has 3 homeruns and 8 RBI. This is a big turnaround after hitting just two long balls in the first 6 weeks of the season.
The other guy that is playing where he is expected to is Brian Roberts. His OBP is now over .400, and he continues to steal bases and give the players behind him a chance for RBI. If these two guys can stay hot, then the O's offense will definitely pick up.

While the O's only went 3-3 on their homestand, they did win 2 out of 3 against the A's. It feels good to beat a solid team, even though they aren't the A's of a few years ago. Hopefully the O's beat up on the Royals in KC this week, and get their long road trip off to a great start.