Showing Some Life

I usually write these blog posts at the end of a series as every series seems to have its own story, both on its own as well as in the evolution of a long 162-game season. This week, I fell a little behind on my post about the Angels series. I had a post all planned about how the Orioles were a couple of breaks away from a sweep of the top team in the AL, whether it was a Friday night Chris Ray fastball or a Sunday afternoon bad call by an umpire (though in all fairness, the first base ump may have blown the previous call on the Jay Payton bunt as he looked out). On a day when Jeremy Guthrie struggled for a stretch of five batters in the 4th + one pitch in the 8th and yet dominated throughout the rest of the game, it would've been great to come back against K-Rod. Meanwhile, Friday's return from a 5-0 deficit was heartwarming too--until they blew the lead. And so it goes, the Orioles seem like the snake-bitten team that can't catch the right breaks when they are playing well and seem particularly jinxed when they are NOT playing well. That said, they deserve credit for posting relatively strong offensive #s against some solid pitchers in the last two weeks. Over that time, they've faced Cy Young Winners (Clemens, Webb, Colon) and Runner Ups (Pettite, Wang), and All Stars (Lackey, Escobar--at least he should be) and seem to fare better against these guys than Micah Bowie. Plus, they are starting to feel some HR mojo as they homered in several straight games. Not bad for a lineup that is missing Miguel Tejada.

Yep, this blog post was going to be all about guys that play hard, but can't seem to catch a break and can't come back in the ninth (we've been down this complaining road before). But then I got to see Monday's game before writing this post. Trailing 6-2 to Mark Buehrle on Erik Bedard's biggest dud since Opening Day, the O's posted 3 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th against Bobby Jenks to take the game. In a game the served as a photo negative of the season, the offense scored seven runs to save a poor start and the bullpen came through with 3.1 scoreless innings, including a 3-K 9th from Chris Ray. That is the exact opposite of everything we've seen this year. It's clear how much of a boost the Orioles get from a revived Corey Patterson (average up to .239) and while Kevin Millar may not be the big bat everyone wanted at first base, I still like my chances when he's at bat in a clutch situation. If Huff and/or Gibbons can get it going consistently, this team can be very good. But this has been a season of ifs and who knows how it plays out. When you look at the White Sox, they can empathize. They've had great starting pitching (a little better than the O's), while a horrible bullpen (a little worse than the O's) and a disappointing offense (just like the O's). A small part of me (very small) almost felt bad for them last night because I felt their pain. How many games have the Orioles lost in the same fashion? Well, hopefully they don't do it back to the Orioles in the next few games. After a pretty tough schedule over the past few weeks, the Orioles close the first half against two teams (Chicago, Texas) who are well below .500. Admittedly, both teams are talented, but they have underachieved (Ranger pitching has been atrocious and their infield is almost entirely on the DL--Michael Young should look both ways before crossing the street). Even on the road, this is the time for the Orioles to finish out the half strong--no excuses this time around. Monday night was a good start, but they need some solid innings from D-Cab and tomorrow's mystery starter (Olson? Bell?).