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Jimenez goes eight innings, Davis hits a dong as Orioles win 5-2 over Athletics in game two of doubleheader

We saw some good Ubaldo tonight and Crush provided the offense for the Birds.

By Tyler Young
Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Led by an impressive performance from right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, the Orioles beat the Athletics 5-2 in the night cap on Saturday to split the doubleheader at Camden Yards.

Good Ubaldo

Jimenez did not really have dominant stuff, but he made it work. Over eight innings he threw 104 pitches, striking out six, walking one and allowing nine hits. There were runners on in seven of his eight innings, but he got some help. Caleb Joseph threw out Billy Burns while trying to steal in the second. And then Burns hit into a double play in the seventh.This outing allowed Jimenez to lower his ERA from 5.20 down to 4.54.

The A's scored their two runs in the fifth inning. Yonder Alonso led off with a double. A Josh Phegley single scored him. A few batters later Phegley had moved over to third base, where he scored on a Josh Reddick single, but by they point the visitors were already down by a bit and had a mountain to climb.

Opportunistic O's offense

Like their pitcher, the Oriole bats weren't at the top of their game either but did enough early in the game that it didn't really matter.

It was the third inning where most of the action happened. Joseph got on with a one-out single. Manny Machado followed with a double that was just out of the reach of Burns in right-center field to give the Birds runners on second and third with one out. Hyun-soo Kim grounded out to drive in Joseph and make it 1-0 at the time. Adam Jones' single scored Machado to make it 2-0. And then a massive Chris Davis DONG to right-center made it 4-0 Orioles.

The fifth run for the O's came an inning later. With Jonathan Schoop on third and Ryan Flaherty at first and no outs, Joseph grounded into a double play to score Schoop. No RBI for the catcher, but it extended the lead.

Outside of the fourth inning, the Orioles hitters were 4-for-24 with six strikeouts. All six strikeouts came in the seventh and eighth inning against Fernando Rodriguez and Andrew Triggs. That is a tad worrisome, but they had done all the work they needed to and played a lot of baseball today. So, we can give them a pass.

Other tidbits

There wasn't much else to talk about in this game. Jimenez did a nice job and the O's bats did enough to win.

However, Andrew Triggs, who pitched for the Orioles in the spring, ended the inning with a strikeout and then definitely walked towards the Baltimore dugout. Aww! It makes me think he actually wants to be an Oriole, but in actuality he had only been called up that day so he likely just got confused.

This game was played wicked fast. We could use more of these!

Also, the Red Sox lost 8-2 to the Yankees earlier today, so the Birds have sole posession of first place in the American League East again. Woo! Up by 0.5 games!

Tomorrow

You said it, Jonesy. It's the rubber match tomorrow. Chris Tillman (3-1, 2.81 ERA), who is in ridiculous form, heads to the hill for the Orioles. He will be opposed by Kendall Graveman (1-3, 4.40). See you at the Yard.

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