Orioles 8, Indians 1: Pitching, defense, and hitting - it's a heck of a thing.

The Orioles offense manhandled the Indians pitching staff for 8 runs and Jeremy Guthrie pitched 8 innings, earning his second win on the year, as the O's defeated the Indians 8-1 for their third consecutive win. 

The O's hitters started the game in a very frustrating manner. Inning after inning they got runners on but couldn't capitalize. Through the first five innings they had six singles, one triple, two batters hit by a pitch, one batter reach on an error, and two walks. With all those base runners they only scored two runs, both in the third inning. After a Corey Patterson single, Adam Jones tripled him in, then scored himself on Luke Scott's single two batters later. 

Just as it was looking like Guthrie would have to make do with just two runs from his offense, the Orioles bats broke out. Justin Masterson had been rocky all game and in the 6th inning they finally made him pay. Masterson walked Izturis and Patterson to start the inning and Adam Jones moved them up to second and third base with a ground out. With first base open the Indians opted to walk Nick Markakis intentionally to get to Miguel Tejada and set up the double play. Miggi had other ideas though, as he lined a base hit up the middle to plate two runs and make the score 4-1. 

That would be it for Masterson as lefty Aaron Laffey came in to face Luke Scott. Scott rudely greeted Laffey with a single right back up the middle to knock in Markakis. Laffey stayed in to pitch to Ty Wigginton who also singled to score Tejada. A walk to Wieters reloaded the bases but Rhyne Hughes and Cesar Izturis couldn't inflict any more damage. 

The O's scored single runs in the 7th and 8th to cap off their night offensively. The first came on consecutive singles by Jones, Markakis, and Tejada, and the second when, after Ty Wigginton doubled and moved to third on a ground out, Indians pitcher Hector Ambriz unloaded a wild pitch and Wiggy scored easily from 3rd. That gave the Orioles their 8th and final run on the night, which was more than enough for Jeremy Guthrie. 

Just as the Orioles offense started the game with a rough patch, so did Jeremy Guthrie. After getting two outs in the top of the first, Guthrie walked Shin-Soo Choo and hit Travis Hafner. That allowed a single by Jhonny Peralta to score what would be the Indians only run of the day. 

After the hit by Peralta, Guthrie struck out Russell Branyan to end the inning and then went on to retire the next 15 batters. He was aided in the third inning by two plays by Corey Patterson. Grady Sizemore hit a fly ball towards the line in left that looked like it might fall in for a hit, but Patterson raced it down. The next batter Choo hit a deep fly ball to left that looked like it could go out of the park. Patterson got to the wall easily and leaped up to steal the home run. I think we all know that Corey won't keep up with the offense he's provided in the last three games, but I could get used to watching his defense again. 

Guthrie wouldn't have such trouble over the next few innings. He easily retired the side in order in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings. His string of 16 straight retired would end in the 7th with a single by Hafner, but no damage was done as Peralta, Branyan, and Matt LaPorta couldn't do anything against Guts. Guthrie would finish out the 8th without incident (he did hit Lou Marson with a pitch, but nothing came of it). When it was said and done, Guts had pitched 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits, 2 HBP, 1 BB, and 5 Ks. A really great outing by Guthrie. 

Will Ohman inexplicably pitched the 9th inning despite the Orioles having a 7 run lead. Where have you gone, Matt Albers?