Baltimore Orioles Soundoff

The Baltimore Orioles completed their first sweep since June 15 against Houston, last night, when they beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 4-2.

This game, this series, was a beautiful thing to watch. The Orioles mixed good, solid pitching with timely hitting--like a real major league baseball team with at least three sure Hall of Famers should do--to take three easy games from the Rays.

Javy Lopez hit an important home run that made the game 4-2, while going 3-4 from the plate. Luis Matos had a big RBI single and Alejandro Freire contributed by going 2-4 in only his third game as an Oriole.

Bruce Chen pitched a wonderful, sparkling game. He pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and two runs. He walked none and stuck out five Rays hitters in the process. In fact, Chen could have gone more than seven innings since he only threw 77 total pitches, but Sam Perlozzo felt he should be taken out and the O's were none the worse for the decision.

B.J. Ryan closed out the game for his 25th save and the Orioles are back in business.

This being an indication, hopefully the O's can creep out of their major slump and start winning consistently again.

The players believe. The are only 9 games out of the wild card at this point, and a long winning streak, coupled with some key losses by other teams could make the race get interesting once again for the O's.

The Orioles are hopeful, I am hopeful, the city of Baltimore should get hopeful. Their team is not too far out of it, and they are showing signs of fight.

Davey Johnson has been rumored to be a possible candidate for the managerial vacancy after this season, but if you ask me, I'd wait and see what Perlozzo does to end this season before making any decisions.

The Orioles have plenty of games left this year, and with some more timely hitting, some solid pitching and some fight, they might just have what it takes to fight off the worst collapse in years and make the playoffs.

I am hopeful. Let's hope.

Orioles 4, Devil Rays 2
Box Score

Brian Roberts' Problem

Brian Roberts is not exactly in a slump. Yes, his hitting has declined since his red-hot first half, but this may not be due to a hitch in his swing.

B-Rob is making excellent contact. In fact, he is downright hitting the ball hard, still. There is one tiny difference between the home-run hitting, .350 batting Roberts, and the Roberts we've seen the past few weeks.

Timing.

It is obvious to me that Roberts' timing is slightly off. He is hitting the ball very solid, to the deepest part of the ballpark. He is hitting shots to deep center field. Balls that, if turned on, would be home runs or doubles, are being caught in deep center.

If he gets his timing down, if he swings a fraction of a second sooner, you will see the Roberts of the first half.

Write it down, Roberts is in no slump, and soon, they will correct his tiny problem and he will get red hot once again.


Next Orioles Game: Toronto Blue Jays @ Baltimore Orioles; Friday, August 12 @ 7:35 p.m.





Daniel Cabrera vs. Josh Towers

This is a huge series for the Baltimore Orioles as the Blue Jays come to Camden Yards. A sweep in this series can bring the O's out of 4th place in the AL East and back up to third, not to mention greatly improve their chances at the wild card. The O's at least need a series win here. Good luck O's.

# posted by Jeff Lippman @ 10:15 AM