Orioles offense overcomes awful Chris Tillman start to beat Blue Jays, 13-9

That was quite the game. It's Father's Day...I was really looking forward to being able to sit down, watch the whole game, and see a victory. Things looked good at first, then not so much, but then it got better. It was weird. It took a long time. But the Orioles got the win and even though they had to use almost their entire bullpen to do it, they have a day off tomorrow, so it shouldn't hurt them too much. It was definitely the way to end another strong week.

The first inning was pretty short of action, though Jimmy Paredes (who I assume was trying to add some depth to his game, which isn't a bad idea when you can't play the field) was tagged out trying to steal a base. I don't even need to look up the numbers - the O's are probably the worst base stealing team out there. Fortunately, they do a lot of other things well.

The second inning had enough action for an entire game. Matt Wieters led things off with a single, and it just took off from there. Davis, Snider, Flaherty, Lough, and Machado would all come up and hit singles as well to make the game 4-0. Enough for you, Jimmy Paredes? He said no, and came up to hit a 3-run home run to make it 7-0. That would drive out Blue Jays starter Scott Copeland. Bo Schultz came in and looked like he would give up more when Wieters and Davis drew walks, but Travis Snider struck out to the end inning. All told, the Orioles sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning. So far, so good.

In the bottom of the 2nd though, I guess Chris Tillman decided he didn't want such a boring game on Father's Day and decided to give some of those seven runs back to the Jays. He didn't make it out of the inning either, and after giving up a few runs, including letting Ezekiel Carrera get his first HR of the season, Tommy Hunter would come in. When Tommy Hunter is pitching the 2nd inning, you know things are not going well. And they would only get worse, as Hunter would give up a couple before ending the inning. After two, the score was 7-6. This only happens to the Orioles.

The Orioles would do nothing over the next two innings, but the Blue Jays did plenty. They added three more runs, going ahead on a 2-run home run by Jose Bautista on the 4th. 9-7 Blue Jays.

The next couple innings weren't short on action either. Chris Davis hit a solo HR to make it 9-8 (not strange), but J.J Hardy reached on a throwing error to 1st in that same inning. In the 6th, the Orioles would get runners on the corners with one out, but Delmon Young ground into a double play. In the bottom of the 6th, Jose Bautista got caught trying to steal third base. Then in the 7th, Travis Snider hit a triple when a ball took a weird bounce past Kevin Pillar in center field. It looked like Pillar mis-played it at first, but after looking at the replay it looked like that turf was the culprit. I saw so many balls bounce oddly while those bits of rubber flew around from the contact. I honestly can't believe these guys play on this stuff. It worked out today though - Hardy would drive Snider in to tie up the game.

The bottom of the 8th didn't have any scoring, but a potentially critical decision was made by John Gibbons. He let Dioner Navarro pinch hit for Ryan Goins (who was playing 2nd Base) and then let Kawasaki pinch run for him. The Blue Jays didn't score, but in the next inning with the game tied and Davis and Reimold on base, J.J. Hardy hit a ball up the middle that (again) took kind of a weird bounce, but looked playable. Kawasaki froze up on it though, and Reyes at shortstop didn't make a play either. Would Goins have made the play? I don't know, but what I do know if Hardy drove in the go-ahead run. The Orioles would add three more on a triple by Ryan Flaherty and a single by Machado. Zach Britton came in for the bottom of the ninth and got an easy save. Orioles won 13-9.

This game was a battle. The game was long, there were some long innings, long at-bats. Neither team wanted to give in. The Orioles came out on top, but it could have gone the other way - a lot like the first two games of this series. The O's ended up getting two out of three, which was enough to let them get back to third place in the division, only three games behind the Rays. They're now 36-33 and you have to like their chances to get more with a three game series against the Red Sox this week.