O's Blow it to Sox

Chris Ray is usually a good closer. However, when he does blow saves, he really blows it. Ray has 3 blown saves this year, and each won has been tragic for O's fans. First it was the 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth grand slam to Alex Rodriguez. The second blown opportunity was another grand slam to Willy Mo Pena. Finally yesterday he manages to blow things with the bases loaded by allowing 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks. I read that this was the first 5 run lead blown in the 9th inning since 1978!!! Congratulations Chris Ray. You and Danys Baez are the first guys to blow a 5 run lead in the final inning of a game in 29 years...and you only had 2 outs to get!

The Orioles' Mother Day game was as frustrating as it gets for an O's fan. The O's have been preaching about how they need to save their bullpen, and they are anxious about a young starter like Guthrie coming in to pitch after Trachsel and Burres didn't allow enough rest for the pen the last 2 days. I was shocked to see Guthrie pitch so well. I know he has great potential, but to take a shutout against Boston at Fenway into the 9th is ridiculous. Thats an amazing start. So why would he be pulled with 2 outs left in the game after pitching just 91 pitches? How great would it be for the O's to see their young pitcher solidify his role with a shutout of the first place team in your division? That truly would have fired the whole team up. Instead you deny a young pitcher his opportunity for his first career shutout, and somehow blew the game. Seems like Karma was involved to me.

I'm usually not one to get down on Sam Perlozzo. I've heard some people get enraged with how he manages a game, but I give him the benefit of the doubt. However, I completely disagree with what he did in the 9th yesterday. After one baserunner reached base on an error by the catcher, Guthrie gets yanked. Your pitcher has given up no runs and only 5 baserunners up until that point, and is your best option to get through that inning. He was in the "ZONE," on fire, whatever you want to call it. There is no doubt in my mind that Guthrie would get through the next 2 outs. Even if he loses the shutout, atleast he is the one responsible for it, and not some reliever who inherited the runner. Old school players and fans have to be shaking their head that a pitcher was taken out of a game with a shutout and just 2 outs left in the game. I agree with them. Part of the problem with the O's overusing their bullpen has been babying the starters. Let these guys pitch longer. Give them an opportunity to win games themselves instead of turning things over to relievers who 9 times out of 10 are guys who are in the bullpen because they wouldn't be able to cut it as a starter.

Time to erase this memory from my brain. I don't want to remember such an awful loss. Hopefully a sweep of the struggling Blue Jays will help ease my mind about the O's. And hopefully Sam Perlozzo will trust his starter to get the last two outs of the game next time one of them finds himself in that situation.

Orioles Streaking Back

In my last post I wrote about how the Orioles' season has been divided up into 3 different streaks. Well it looks like they have another one going now. After splitting with Cleveland(good result against the #1 team in the AL Central) , they took 3 straight from the D-Rays. The Bedard-Shields matchup on Wednesday night was a great pitching matchup. Getting a win against a team when their pitcher has a great night is a huge plus. Bedard looked like what O's fans expected all year, and the D-Rays seem to have developed a #2 to go with Kazmir. The O's bullpen seems to be back on track after some shaky outings over the last few weeks.

It will be interesting to see how the O's play against Boston this weekend. A win in this series brings Boston back down to earth a bit, while getting the O's over .500 again. A bad series puts them back in the pack in the AL East, and gives the Sox an even greater lead in the division. Tonight's game looks the most promising going up against Julian Tavarez. He has pitched just 4.2 innings at Fenway this year and given up 6 earned runs. I'm hopeful the O's will carry over the hitting from last night and give Brian Burres some run support. Saturday and Sunday will be difficult to get wins on because of Schilling and Beckett, who are a combined 11-1 this season.