After last night’s devastating loss, many teams would have come out sluggish. Not the Orioles. Nick Markakis and Steve Pearce got on to start, and Adam Jones rocketed a 2-0 fastball to left field for a quick 3-0 lead. Later in that inning, JJ Hardy went deep on a 2-2 count making it 4-0 in the 1st.
The third inning again started with a Jones walk, a Cruz single and Chris Davis brought in a fifth run to make it 5-0, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd, and chasing former Oriole Jason Hammel. In that inning, the O’s loaded the bases, but got nothing more wit h an inning ending double play.
The bottom of that inning seemed to be a momentum change, after a double play to escape the inning, and a lead off homer followed by a single, looked to bring Oakland to life. With no outs and the game 5-1, Nick Punto hit what looked to be a single to keep the rally going, but instead was grabbed by Hardy, flipped to Schoop, and gunned to Davis for a 6-4-3 double play. It didn’t look like much, but to me was a very big play.
The Orioles again added on, with the familiar start to an inning. A Markakis single, Pearce double, put two more RISP for Jones, and he delivered with his 4th and 5th RBI of the game, making it 7-1.
Though the game looked out of hand, the pesky A’s got back in it with 2 out 2 RBI double by Jed Lowrie to make it 7-3. Chen though, got out of that inning without further harm.
Now 7-4, the Orioles had a couple more chances with RISP, but delivered nothing. The score remained, until a lead off homer for Chris Davis off former teammate Jim Johnson made it 8-4 O’s. Again though, with two outs and no one on, the A’s got two on and made it interesting making manager Buck Showalter bring in Zach Britton. After falling behind 3-0 ti Nick Punto, Britton came back to strike him out, sealing the win.
The Orioles improve to 53-43, and put on an impressive performance after yesterday’s heart breaker. With everyone else in the East winning, the Orioles remain 4 up on Toronto and New York, and 8.5 up on Tampa and Boston.