The O's won another ball game last night defeating the Twins 6-3 behind a stellar pitching peformance from Adam Loewen (8 IP, 4H, 1 R, 0 BB). In the 7 games since being swept in Boston, the O's have gone 5-2. In those 7 games, 6 of them have seen solid starting pitching performances. Erik Bedard stumbled last Sunday (5 IP, 7 R) against the Blue Jays to end a season high 4 game winning streak for the O's. That stumble makes Loewen's effort last night look even better. The team ace gets beat up to end a winning streak and the next guy goes out and pitches a gem to (hopefully) get another winning streak started.
In the last 7 days, O's pitching has a 2.67 ERA and a record of 5-1.
The O's are definitely having a power surge, belting 5 HR's off of Carlos Silva last night to bring this recent 7 games total to 15. Brian Roberts and Corey Patterson went deep to complement the 3 HR's hit by Nick Markakis. Markakis is the 1st Oriole to hit 3 HR's in one game since Albert Belle did it in 1999.
Markakis is hitting .344 in August with 12 extra base hits (7 HR, 5 2B) out of 22 safeties. In the 6 games that Markakis has hit 2nd in the order, he is 10 for 23 with 6 HR, 10 RBI and 11 Runs Scored. That qualifies as 'starting to show some power'.
Solid pitching and home runs. Earl Weaver would be proud.
I'm proud of them. Keep beating those Twinkies.
ReplyDeleteYour boy is .396-9-31 with 35 runs in his last 47 games. He's got a 1.090 OPS. Very nice indeed.