This was a tale of two homeruns. One barely cleared the fence but marked a milestone for Matt Wieters. The second landed on Eutaw Street and will have a marker of its own for Aubrey Huff. Those two blows, along with some good defense, just enough pitching, and a suddenly red-hot Nick Markakis, added up to an Orioles win Wednesday over the Mets.
Or, in the (slightly edited) words of the wayward o...
koji adequatematt wieters hit a home runi am a blogger
Koji Uehara was indeed adequate tonight. He pitched 5.0 innings, allowed 7 hits, 2 earned runs, walked no one and struck out 5. If we could just get 7 innings of those performances instead of 5, we'd really be onto something here. But we don't. We get 5. And I guess we'll learn to live with it.
Brian Bass disappointed tonight, but he was due for a bad outing. In the last 28 days, he's had a WHIP under 1.00 and allowed just 3 earned runs. Nights like tonight happen from time to time, and luckily, we still won.
Mark Hendrickson gave up an ill-advised base-loaded walk (as opposed to a well-advised one, I guess) but then did he best Jim Johnson impersonation and got a double play grounder. Jim Johnson then came in and did a pretty good Jim Johnson impersonation, and then George Sherrill impersonated a competent relief pitcher and closed the door.
The offense did just enough to win this game. Aside from Matt Wieters' first home run (which was returned, by the way), and Aubrey Huff's blast onto Eutaw, Nick Markakis was a one-man wrecking crew. He has a 4-for-4 night with 2 runs scored, and has his average back to almost .300 again.
It was Adam Jones bobblehead night as well, and while the Good Doctor went just 1-for-4 at the plate, he did close his glove on the final out. More concerning is his renewed penchant for swinging at bad pitches.
All in all, the team left itself with a decent chance of gaining a series win tomorrow, and showed more signs that the awful offensive slump of the last 2+ weeks may be at an end. The Orioles and Mets will meet again tomorrow. Be there or .. well, not. But I'd suggest being there.