Orioles 5, Angels 4: FREE AS A BIRD

The Orioles picked up a close extra innings win against the Los Angeles Angels despite an uncharacteristic rough outing by Darren O'Day. For first two-thirds of the game, Garcia appeared to be on his way in joining Wei-Yin Chen and Chris Tillman as the newest member of the Crazy 88s. Unfortunately, Garcia finished 1.1 innings short after Mark Trumbo blasted a two-run homer in the 7th. Garcia then gave up a single to Alberto Callaspo leading Buck Showalter to bring in Darren O'Day who finished the inning by striking out Howie Kendrick. Until then, Garcia was throwing a lot of off-speed junk but it was good enough for six perfect innings minus a walk to Trumbo in the 2nd inning. His fastball topped out at 88 mph but he managed to change the speed of his pitches effectively and kept hitters off balance despite only two strikeouts (oh how we miss Josh Hamilton). Overall, Garcia threw 88 pitches and was extremely efficient until the 7th inning. His counterpart, Angels starter Tommy Hanson, threw a lot of slop as Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy managed to mmm-bop in two runs via the long ball. In the 5th inning, Nolan Reimold hit a sacrifice fly ball to score Machado to finish Hanson's line with five innings pitched and three earned runs.

Besides Garcia's performance, the most noteworthy event was O'Day's shaky's 8th inning performance. Unfortunately, O'Day blew the hold in 8th to deny Garcia the win. Hank Conger started off the 8th by dropping a bunt toward the 3B side against the shift. Conger fell down on his way to first base but he managed to reach safely anyways. Then O'Day's control left him as he walked Scott Cousins and worked a 3-0 count against J.B. Shuck before receiving a questionable strike on the next pitch. Shuck managed to lay down a sacrifice bunt to move Conger to third base and Machado threw a bullet to barely get Shuck at first base. Erick Aybar then grounded out to second base but Conger scored on the play. O'Day then gave up a bloop single to Mike Trout which allowed Cousins to score and tie the game.

In the top of the 9th, Ernesto Frieri struck out the side before Tommy Hunter entered for the Orioles in the bottom of the inning. Hunter threw 99 mph gas but he gave up a lead off walk to Mark Trumbo who was then gunned down by Chris Synder in a steal attempt. Hunter induced a fly out from Callaspo but lost a tough at-bat facing Kendrick who hit a single. Conger then scorched a breaking ball from Hunter but luckily it was directly at Steve Pearce who made the put out.

In the 10th, Adam Jones led off with a single but was called out on a fielder's choice after Reimold's grounder at 2B Brendan Harris who threw a poor relay to prevent the double play. Reimold advanced to second base after a ground out by Hardy and then scored on a single by Steve Pearce. Jim Johnson entered the game to face pinch hitter Josh Hamilton. Shockingly, Hamilton didn't swing at the first pitch before flying out to left field. Johnson then earned clean outs against Shuck and Aybar to get his 11th save. After losing in the 10th inning at Oakland last Sunday, Orioles extra innings magic returned because on this train, faith will be rewarded.