Sadly, I didn't get to see tonight's game. Happily, the Orioles were so inspired by Esskay's poem that they decided to continue with his theme, beating the Rangers for the fifth consecutive time behind a fabulous game by Brian Matusz. A four run seventh inning provided the O's all the offense they'd need.
Rangers' starter Colby Lewis shut down the Orioles for six innings and it was looking like another night when the offense would roll over. I'm not a hat tipper by any means, but the thing I can say for Lewis is at least he's having a very solid year, unlike the other starters that have made the Orioles look foolish of late.
After facing just six batters through the first two innings, Lewis got into some trouble in the third but as we've seen so many times before they couldn't get the job done. Matt Wieters doubled to lead off the inning, and a Cesar Izturis single and Brian Roberts walk loaded the bases with one out. Looking good, right? Not really, because Nick Markakis and Ty Wigginton both struck out.
The O's managed just two base runners (one of which was doubled off first on a fly ball, COREY PATTERSON) in the fourth through sixth innings, but finally got things going in the seventh. With one out, three consecutive singles by Felix Pie, Wieters, and Patterson got the O's on the board 1-0, and a double by Brian Roberts scored two more. Markakis followed that up with an RBI single but got caught trying to sneak to second and thrown out for the last out of the inning.
Those four runs were all that the Orioles would get on the day, but it was three more than Brian Matusz needed. Matusz pitched eight innings with six strikeouts and one walk. He gave up just five hits, just one that went for extra bases, and that guy got thrown out trying to stretch a triple and subsequently got into an argument over Wiggy for daring to make a good play. Wiggy, incidentally, is awesome. Koji Uehara closed out the game in the 9th. Koji: also awesome.
I'm not one for the poetry the way my pal Esskay is, but I think it's safe to say that once again we F***ed the Texas Rangers.