Sometimes an entire series can change on one play. Unfortunately for the Orioles yesterday, that play was a throwing error by Kevin Millar that ultimately led to 3 Toronto runs in the 8th inning of the completion of Wednesday nights game.
The situation: Bases loaded, 1 out, Adam Lind at the plate, Randor Bierd on the mound. Lind hit a ball that Millar backhanded and came up firing to the plate. He rushed the throw quite a bit, and the ball was nowhere close to catcher Ramon Hernandez. The worst part? The runner at third was Lyle Overbay, who has no speed and wasn’t even close to scoring. Any sort of decent throw gets the out, and the fly ball that McDonald hit would have ended the inning. Ugh. However, it got away, allowing two runs to score. Toronto tacked on another on McDonald’s fly out to make it 5-1, a deficit far too large for the Orioles to overcome. Joe Angel summed the play up perfectly “It’s a good thing I didn’t eat breakfast, because that sort of play will make you sick.”
The second game of the day didn’t go much better, as it was a pretty standard performance by each pitcher. Toronto’s Roy Halladay was superb, and Daniel Cabrera was, well, not. The Blue Jays won the second game, 7-1, and took 3 out of 4 from the Orioles. It dropped the Birds to 5 games under .500, which you would only expect to get worse with the best road team in the majors, the Angels, coming into Camden Yards this weekend.
The pitching match-ups certainly don’t favor the Orioles this weekend. (OK, that’s an understatement.) The pitching match-ups really haven’t favored the Orioles in a while, but I’m not sure we have seen a more lop-sided slate of starters.
Friday it’ll be Brian Burres against All-Star Joe Saunders. Saturday will feature rookie Radhames Liz against Jon Garland. Sunday, the Angels throw out another All-Star in Ervin Santana against O’s lefty Garrett Olson. The only saving grace is missing John Lackey, but still. Wow. Those pitching match-ups make me sick…..Good thing I didn’t eat breakfast.
Keywords: Baltimore Orioles
