W – James Shields (11-12, 4.14) L – David Hernandez (4-10, 5.42)
The good news is: the Orioles have moved ahead of the Pirates for 2nd pick in the 2010 draft if the season ended today. Its all we have to root for at this point. Theres no difference between 98 losses and 102, or anything in between. Might as well get the 2nd overall pick if we’re going to be terrible. Hernandez pitched 4.1 innings, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 4 batters. Brian Bass pitched 2.2 scoreless innings from the 5th to the 7th, and Jim Johnson pitched a scoreless 8th. This was Hernandez’ last start of the season. He has some things to work on over the offseason, namely control of his pitches – especially his offspeed offerings. I think theres potential for him to be a back end of the rotation starter, or a dominant late inning reliever.
It was 5-0 until the 8th, when our offense tried to get back into the game. Melvin Mora singled, Michael Aubrey doubled, and Chad Moeller hit a sacrifice fly to score one run. Then Ty Wiggington hit a pinch hit 2 run homerun to make it 5-3. Unfortunately thats all we could manage to score. Mora had two hits in the game. Luke Scott, Matt Wieters, and Moeller each had singles in the game.
Player of the game: Ty Wiggington (1-1, R, 2 RBI, HR (11) (.272 AVG))
The last road game of the season is tonight, and its a mismatch. Chris Waters (0-0, 8.10) will make his first and only start of the season against Matt Garza (8-11, 3.93).
