Orioles beat the Twins, lose to the Phillies in split-squad action

The Baltimore Orioles split their two games today as the home Orioles whooped the Minnesota Twins 7-1 and the away Orioles rallied late but ultimately fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3.

The home Orioles had a lineup of mostly regulars and Steve Johnson on the mound. They faced a line of Twins pitchers who were unsuccessful, starting with Vance Worley. They got to Worley for two runs in the second inning thanks to singles by Matt Wieters, Chris Davis, and Conor Jackson, and an RBI groundout by Lew Ford. J.J. Hardy added on another run against Worley in the fourth with a home run. It was only Hardy's second hit of the season and it was pretty.

The next pitcher for the Twins, Casey Fein, gave up two runs of his own thanks to an opposite field homer from Matt Wieters with Manny Machado on board. The O's final two runs came in the seventh inning with pitcher Jared Burton on the mound. Hardy reached base on a dropped third strike and Chris Dickerson singled. Both came around to score on a single by Lew Ford.

Steve Johnson pitched four scoreless innings but did allow a bunch of baserunners with four hits, one hit by pitch, and a walk. He was followed by Jim Johnson and Darren O'Day, who each pitched one scoreless inning. Jair Jurrjens finished off the game with three innings pitched. He wasn't bad other than the FUHR that Brandon Boggs hit with two outs in the top of the ninth.

In the other Orioles game today, Jason Hammel got the start against the Phillies. He didn't have a great day, giving up four runs in 4 2/3 innings. You can read what Hammel thought about his start over at MASN (spoiler: he wasn't happy). Tommy Hunter also gave up one run in 2 1/3 innings, and Daniel McCutchen threw a scoreless eighth.

The Phillies used about forty pitchers in their game today after Roy Halladay exited after just one inning with a stomach virus. They took an early (and short lived) lead in the second inning on a home run from Steve Pearce. They didn't score again until the top of the ninth when Adrian Marin scored on a sacrifice fly from Luis Exposito, and L.J. Hoes knocked in Steel Russell (son of John) with a double. But they came up two runs short in the end, and after the game Hoes was optioned back to Norfolk.

The Orioles are off tomorrow and will be back in action against the Red Sox on Tuesday.