The Orioles whooped up on the Indians tonight, providing more than enough offense to support Jason Berken as he earned his 4th win on the season.
Jason Berken was pretty shaky tonight. He only walked three but he was off the strike zone most of the game. He battled through though, striking out 5 and giving up just 2 runs. The Indians have a good offense but against a great offense he would have gotten killed. His next start is against the Yankees on Wednesday so we'll see how that goes.
The offense tonight was on fire, getting to Fausto Carmona for 6 runs in 4.2 innings. The bullpen didn't fare much better as the Orioles knocked them around as well, getting 3 runs the 6th and 4 in the 7th. It was a group effort with only Brian Roberts and Melvin Mora going hitless in the game. Nick Markakis, who's been a bit slumpy of late, contributed 3 hits including a 3 run HR. Luke Scott scored 3 runs and was on base four times with 2 walks, a single, and a double. Felix Pie continued on his quest to win over the entire world with 3 more hits including a 372 foot home run to the fence at the back of the flag court. And Matt Wieters had his first career 4 RBI game with 3 hits.
The fun was dampened, though, in the bottom of the 7th when Felix Pie hit a gapper to right-center that would have been at least a double if Felix hadn't pulled up lame coming out of the batter's box. It was Felix's third hit but there wasn't much cause to celebrate as he had to leave the game. With Adam Jones still on the mend, Robert Andino took Pie's place in CF. He got to make a few plays out there and didn't make a fool of himself. In Dave Trembley's post game press conference he said that Pie told him it was a cramp and that he'll be ready to play tomorrow, but Dave didn't seem convinced. He hopes that AJ will be able to play tomorrow but if neither Adam nor Felix can go then they'll probably have to make a roster move. That sounds like bad news to me because I don't want either of them to go on the disabled list this close to September.
As I type this Amber is talking to Felix Pie who is still claiming he'll be ready to go tomorrow because his leg is just a little sore. He's wearing a Melvin Mora t-shirt and is the most adorable human alive.
Injuries non-withstanding, a great game for the O's. Game 3 of the 4 game set is tomorrow night as Chris Tillman goes against Jeremy Sowers.