On a night when Kevin Millwood gave all he had on the mound, the Orioles offense rolled over and allowed themselves to be dominated by a dude named Luke French. A poor outing by Armando Gabino sealed the O's fate as they lost the game 4-0.
Millwood did the job tonight, allowing just one run on six hits and three walks. With the exception of the fifth inning, when he allowed his lone run, Millwood never allowed more than one base runner on at a time in an inning. In that fifth inning, Adam Moore (who frankly I'm tired of) started the inning with a single and scored on a double by Matt Tuiasosopo. He retired the next three batters to end the fifth and went on to complete eight innings on 112 pitches with four strikeouts.
Armando Gabino relieved Millwood in the ninth inning and immediately made the close game, um, un-close. Franklin Guttierez singled and Casey Kotchman walked before Gabino got an out, striking out Moore. That brought Tuiasosopo to the plate again and this time he hit a home run to left field. That made the score 4-0, and Gabino allowed another single before he was replaced by Matt Albers. Albers had his own troubles but didn't allow any more runs to score.
The Orioles offense, meanwhile, was just terrible. Terrible. This Luke French character had a no-hitter into the sixth inning, which I'm sorry, is just unacceptable. Finally, with one out in the sixth, Josh Bell singled to left to get the Orioles on the (hit) board. But for some reason Brian Roberts bunted, Bell moved to second, and they walked Nick Markakis so that Wiggy could fly out to end the inning.
The O's wouldn't have another hit until the 8th inning, and again it was Josh Bell. He doubled to left with two outs, then Brian hit a ball up the middle that looked to be on its way to center field until Josh Wilson made a great stop. Roberts got the single but Bell couldn't score, and Nick grounded out to end the inning. They'd go 1-2-3 against Brandon League in the 9th, capping their absolutely pathetic performance.
Good job, guys. Really well done. One thing I'll say positive for the Orioles tonight, other than Millwood, is that the defense was really on point. All three outfielders made fine plays and Izzy was just great. Brian Roberts had some trouble with an Ichiro grounder but made up for it with a nifty double play on the next batter.