W – Jon Lester (10-3) L – Jeremy Guthrie (3-10)
Jeremy Guthrie is starting to look like the 2009 version of himself again. After the first dozen of starts or so it was looking like last year was a fluke and he would regain his 2007 and 2008 form, but right now that doesn’t appear to be the case. In his last five starts his ERA has went from 3.71 to its current 4.64. It was capped with his worst start of the season last night. He was only able to get through 4 innings allowing 6 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks with only one strikeout. I’ll admit I was persuaded by his hot start but it looks like we missed a chance to maximize his trade value. Hopefully he can get some of it back in the handful of starts before the trade deadline. Matt Albers pitched a perfect 5th and 6th, striking out three batters along the way. As usual hes pitching his best when theres a roster decision looming. Wish he would pitch like this all the time. After Mark Hendrickson got the first two outs of the 7th Frank Mata came in and got the last out of the inning. Unfortunately things didn’t go as smoothly in the 8th as he gave up 3 runs on 4 hits. I think thats the last game Mata will be pitching for the Orioles for a while. He should be sent down when Felix Pie returns tomorrow.
The offense has been faltering again the past few games, although we were facing ace lefty Jon Lester tonight but its something to keep an eye on. The only run we scored off of Lester was in the top of the 5th. Matt Wieters led off a double, he moved to third on Cesar Izturis’ single, and scored on a Corey Patterson single. We didn’t score again until the 9th inning when the game was essentially over at 9-1 and the Red Sox had the last pitcher in their bullpen make his season debut. Wieters walked with two outs and then Jake Fox hit a two run homer to make the score a little more respectable. Hopefully that garners more playing time for the seldom used Fox. Patterson had two singles and a stolen base in the game, Izturis had a pair of singles, and Nick Markakis also singled. Ty Wiggington walked but his value continues to plummet. We have to hope he gets going again if we want to get anything of substance for him before the trade deadline. At least Miguel Tejada has shown signs of life lately to look good for other clubs, although he went 0-4 last night.
Player of the game: Corey Patterson – 2-4, RBI, SB (14) (.295 AVG)
The O’s and Brian Matusz (2-9, 4.90) will try to avoid the sweep this afternoon against John Lackey (9-3, 4.46) and the Red Sox. Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July.
