San Jose, CA. The Orioles opened division play this past Sunday (May 3rd) with two games against a much improved Mariners squad with mixed results.
In the morning game Cooper pitched the season’s first complete game for the O’s while striking out nine over 7 innings. Offensively, the O’s were lead by slugger Chavez with two HRs and 7 RBIs. Despite the rather lopsided 18 – 6 score, the game was actually a lot closer than what the final score would indicate.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the first inning pushing across a run. Cooper quickly found himself in a pitching jam. The inning could’ve been worse as the M’s leadoff hitter made it all the way to third with no one out following a walk to start the game. However, key pitching and a stingy O’s defense, forced the M’s to settle for only one run. The O’s response was immediate in their half of the inning. After a leadoff double by Goodman, a Frandsen RBI single, and some aggressive base running, the O’s took an early 2 – 1 lead.
The see-saw battle continued in the third when the Mariners pushed across 5 runs to retake a 6 – 2 lead. However, just as in the opening frame, the Orioles responded by right back in their half of the third by also scoring 5 runs of their own, and retaking a 7 – 6 lead.
The Orioles were able to finally put the game away in the bottom half of the sixth with an 11-runs rally. The inning was highlighted by Chavez’ grand-slam (his second HR of the morning). When all was said and done, the O’s had a commanding 18 – 6 lead, which proved to be the final score.
The second game provided more of the same: another hard-fought battle. Just like in the first game, a late-inning HR put the game away for one of the squads. It just happened to be the M’s that benefited from the timely big hit.
Leading 5 – 2 in the fourth, the Orioles failed to contain a pesky M’s offense which took advantage of walks and errors to put up another 5-run inning and take a 7 – 5 lead. Forced to play catch-up late in the game, the O’s managed to tie the score at 7 in the sixth. However a 3-run home run by Mosely sealed the game for the M’s. This time it was the O’s turn to go quietly in the 7th inning as Sanchez hit a harmless fly ball that Fletcher disposed of to end the game.
After the game, O’s spokesman, Al Spector, commented: “…you can’t lose focus on the field… or on a date.” Manager, Angelo Cordero, said: “the Mariners are obviously a much improved and dangerous team. Other than the fact that we came up short in the second game, this was a very exciting and competitive pair of games. When you’re in a ‘dog fight’ like this, it’s pretty much a coin toss. Today, the coin just didn’t go our way. We just have to focus on the things we can control and do better in our next game.”
The O’s will take the following weekend off to celebrate Mother’s Day. They will go on the road on the 17th for a single game against the Pirates, the 2008 American Division Champions.
