Brad Bergesen gets his 6th win, George Sherrill his 20th save.

Bergesen pitched yet another great game to finish off the first half of the season. The O’s are at 40-48 entering the break. Thats certainly not good, but we’re 15-12 since June 13th. We’re improving as we get rid of dead weight and bring up the prospects that are going to be key contributers when we’re ready to compete. Bergesen went into the 7th inning on a day when our bullpen was short on arms after the 12 inning affair last night. That was important. He pitched 6.2 innings giving up 2 runs (both in the 7th inning) on 7 hits and 2 walks. He had 3 strikeouts and was able to strand most runners that got on base. Danys Baez helped him out in the 7th, getting the last out on the first batter he faced. It was the first time Baez pitched in back to back games all season. Jim Johnson looked like his old self pitching a scoreless 8th and Sherrill locked it up in the 9th with a perfect inning.

The offense only had 7 hits, but we were able to take advantage of the opportunities we had. Brian Roberts had a good game. He had a pair of hits including his 29th double, 2 RBI, a run, and his 18th stolen base. Nick Markakis knocked in his team leading 57th RBI and Oscar Salazar hit his 2nd homerun, a solo shot in the 6th that turned out to be the game winning run. Nolan Reimold and Cesar Izturis had the other hits, both singles. If Roberts, Markakis, Huff, and Mora can get back to hitting the way they’ve shown in the past (and even earlier this year) and our pitching continues to get better like it has, we could finish with a winning record in the second half. That would be important because for the past 10 years or so we’ve really collapsed down the stretch. We need to get out of that habit. Lets get rid of some dead weight before the trade deadline and bring up some more kids to get ready for next year, when I think we have a serious chance to make a run for the playoffs.

Player of the game: Brad Bergesen (6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-2) (3.54 ERA))

We have the next 4 days off before we head to Chicago to face the White Sox to start off the 2nd half. Jason Berken (1-6, 5.87) will go against Mark Buehrle (9-3, 3.66), who will be the 8th straight left handed starting pitcher the Orioles have faced.

Mark Hendrickson with his 5th win.

That was exciting. Melvin Mora hit a game winning, walk off homerun in the bottom of the 12th to beat the Toronto Blue Jays. It was his first homerun in 51 games, the longest stretch of his career, and just his 3rd of the season. But it couldn’t come at a better time. Maybe Mora can repeat what he did last year and catch fire from now until the end of the season. Luke Scott also hit a homerun, his 18th, to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the 4th. We got our first run on a Matt Wieters double and our third run came on an Aubrey Huff double. Nick Markakis had a pair of doubles in the game and Ty Wiggington had a double and a single.

Rich Hill got the start because Jeremy Guthrie is sick with the flu, so Brad Bergesen was pushed back to Sunday and Hill got the nod last night. He took advantage of the opportunity and had a quality start. 2 runs on 7 hits and a walk in 6 innings. He had 4 strikeouts and he left the game with the lead so he was in line for the win. Danys Baez did his part coming in for Hill in the 7th with a runner on first and getting out of it without surrendering a run. Jim Johnson couldn’t do the same in the 8th. Hes been struggling lately and that continued as he allowed the tieing run to score. George Sherrill pitched a perfect 9th to take us into extra innings. Brian Bass pitched 2 scoreless innings and Hendrickson pitched a scoreless 12th to set up our win in dramatic fashion.

Player of the game: Melvin Mora (1-3, 2 BB, GW solo HR (3) (.263 AVG))

Dave Trembley returns from his 2 game suspension for the last game before the all-star break. The O’s will be facing… yet another left handed pitcher. This time its Mark Rzepczynski (pronounce that for me?) (0-0, 1.50) fresh off his major league debut. The Orioles send a rookie of their own out there in Brad Bergesen (5-3, 3.59).