Daniel Cabrera makes a strong return to the rotation and wins his 5th game of the season.
Cabrera looked great out there in making his first start since being demoted to AAA. He went 7 innings and only gave up 5 hits and 2 runs (1 earned). But the most amazing thing was that he only walked one batter. Yep, in the whole game. It was a big step up from seeing Russ Ortiz out there on the mound. If we can get the recent success of Erik Bedard, Adam Loewen, and now Cabrera, we can have a very good starting rotation. Plus we have Hayden Penn who is ready and could be better than the first 3. We could either keep Benson as the solid veteran or trade him for a hitter and sign a free agent starter like Jason Schmidt or John Smoltz. All of a sudden I’m starting to feel good about how our pitching will look next year and beyond. Now we just need to add some power to the lineup and we’ll be set. Oh and the bullpen… Speaking of which, LaTroy Hawkins came in for the 8th and gave up 2 hits (a homerun) and 2 runs. Luckily Chris Ray came in for the 9th and gave us the win.
The offense production was good last night. Melvin Mora hit a double, Miguel Tejada hit his 20th homerun and walked twice, Jay Gibbons doubled and walked, Jeff Conine had 2 hits, and Corey Patterson had a double. But the player of the game was Nick Markakis. He hit a 3 run homer to left center field to give us the lead, and also knocked in a run with a single earlier in the game and stole a base. He had 4 RBI for the game, a new career high. The only player that didn’t get a hit was Brian Roberts, but he did walk. The defense was also an asset last night as both Patterson and Brandon Fahey made fantastic catches.
Markakis watch: 2-4 (.292)
This afternoon should be a great game to watch, if you like pitching duels. Our ace Erik Bedard (12-7, 3.85) goes up against theirs, Roy Halladay (13-3, 3.21). I want to predict an Oriole win, so I’ll say we win 2-0. In other news, Kris Benson will return to the rotation saturday and Rodrigo Lopez will go to the bullpen for now. No word on Russ Ortiz… Go O’s.
