Adam Loewen gets his first Major League win of his career. Hes now 1-2. Chris Ray got the save, his 25th.
We improved to 2-3 now on the easiest road trip of the year. Loewen pitched 5 innings and only gave up 1 run. He gave up 7 hits, walked 3, and struck out 5. He got into trouble a few times, but was able to get out of it. Todd Williams helped him out in the 6th, after Loewen let up a lead off double, followed by a walk. Williams came in and got a double play, but also gave up a 2 out hit to let in Loewen’s only charged run. LaTroy Hawkins came in and made it a close one, giving up 2 runs over 1 and a third innings. This could have been Hawkins last appearance as an O, you never know. So it was 4-3 when Ray came in. And thats where it would stay. For his second appearance in a row hes gone over an inning to get a save. He has to with the way our bullpen has been pitching.
The hitting consisted of 4 hitters mostly. Besides a Brandon Fahey double and Corey Patterson bunt single, 11 of the 13 hits came from Jeff Conine, Melvin Mora, Nick Markakis, and Chris Gomez. Conine went 4-4 with a homerun (yay for trade value), Mora had 3 hits in 4 at bats, Gomez went 2-4 with 2 RBIs, and Markakis had 2 hits including a double, and an RBI. So a good game despite some of our best hitters taking o’fers.
Markakis watch: 2-4 (.281) !
Bruce Chen is scheduled to make his comeback to the rotation saturday (yawn). He has looked better recently coming out of the pen, but I would keep him in the long relief role. But thats not until saturday, tonight its Rodrigo Lopez (6-11, 6.74) making his last start as an Oriole. He’ll be going against the man that was supposed to pitch last night, Jimmy Gobble (3-3, 4.88). Go O’s.
