Cardinals 6, Orioles 2: Snoozer at the Yard

The Orioles just didn't have it tonight, and an up-and-down outing by Zach Britton (which was shortened by a rain delay) and a quiet offense made for a forgettable evening at Camden Yards. 

Britton had a great first inning, making me hope that it'd be a good night for the Orioles, but he had a rocky second, allowing three runs on four singles and a walk. He looked as though he'd lost his stuff as even his outs were in the air. After that, though, Britton looked like the pitcher we enjoy watching. He did give up a walk and a single in the third, but faced only six batters in the fourth and fifth innings. Colby Rasmus got the best of him in the sixth with a monster home run that would have gone onto the flag court if it hadn't hit a brick pillar in the back of the flag court. Then, with two outs in the sixth, the rains came and ended Britton's evening. The results were bad, but not the sort of bad that makes me want to tear my hair out. More the sort of bad that you'll see from a young pitcher as he develops. 

After the rain delay, Clay Rapada took over to face lefty Mark Hamilton, who he struck out. Good job, Clay, that's why you only face lefties. Actually, no. Rapada came out to start the seventh to pitch against Nick Punto. Punto is a righty! No! Rapada actually did his job, though, inducing a shallow fly ball to center field that Adam Jones misplayed into a triple for Punto. Sigh. After Punto scored on a sacrifice fly, Rapada was replaced with Jason Berken. Berken was not good. Matt Holliday homered off of him to make the score 6-0. Holliday almost hit another homer in the 9th with Berken still on the mound, but Luke Scott made a fantastic grab to rob him. 

The O's hitters were shut down by Kyle Lohse, who allowed only four hits in his five innings. His outing was also shortened by rain. They fared no better against reliever Lance Lynn, who struck out five in two innings. They finally got on the board, however, in the 8th. Ryan Franklin came in and with one out J.J. Hardy hit an FUHR to break up the shutout. A single by Nick Markakis and a double by Adam Jones gave the O's another run, but that'd be it.

The bottom of the ninth was interesting only in the absence of Nolan Reimold. Scott hurt his knee on the catch he made in the top of the ninth, so in to pinch hit was...Blake Davis? Um, what? He struck out. Then, with two outs, Mark Reynolds drew a walk, so Buck Showalter again decided to pinch hit. In Robert Andino's place he sent Felix Pie to the plate. What on earth? Did Reimold steal Buck's sandwich out of the team fridge or something? Seriously, what does the kid have to do to get an AB? 

The end.