Rodrigo Lopez wins his 9th.
Maybe the brief move to the bullpen was a wake up call for Rodrigo. Hopefully he understands that he has to pitch well to remain in the starting rotation. And yesterday, he pitched well. Except for 2 solo homeruns in the first 2 innings, Rodrigo shut down the Yankees heavy hitters. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, and a walk, striking out 8. When he left he had a 12-2 lead, and it stayed that way after Russ Ortiz (…) and Bruce Chen combined for 2 scoreless innings. Rodrigo deserves to stay in the rotation if he can pitch like this, but we all know whats gonna happen. He gives us a brief taste of quality before he goes back and pitches like hes awarded for giving up hits.
The hitting was also great. 2 games with Markakis batting second, 2 wins… And he hit another homerun today, his 7th. He also singled in a run (he had 4 RBI) and walked. Brian Roberts started it all off with his 5th homerun of the season. He also had a single, a stolen base, and a walk. Miguel Tejada had 2 hits, including a double. Jay Gibbons had a hit and a couple of RBI. Fernando Tatis hit his 3rd double and 2nd homerun of the season. Corey Patterson walked twice and stole a base. Melvin Mora and Branden Fahey each had a walk also. It was a very productive outing for the offense. We scored 12 runs on only 9 hits.
Markakis watch: 2-4 (.299)
The O’s next game is tonight back at home versus Toronto. It’ll be Kris Benson (9-9, 4.74) going up against Scott Downs (6-1, 4.03) for the Jays. Go O’s.
