Tagged: Chris Ray

July 6, 2009

A Walk On The Wild Side

Lou Reed wasn’t singing about baseball when he penned that classic song, but with the Orioles pitchers’ inability to throw strikes, they may want to send a scout to New
York City to check out the rocker’s fastball.

Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Orioles pitchers walked eight Angel batters, including two with the bases loaded that gave Los Angeles a lead it would never relinquish in their 9-6 defeat of the Orioles.

There were no mishaps on the base paths, no defensive miscues, and the offense put six runs up on the board. This time it was the pitching’s turn to go south. The O’s, for the second day in a row, raced out to a 4-0 lead, only to see the Angels come back on them once again.

Starter Rich Hill, as has been the case recently, gave a sub-par performance. Hill staggered through 5 1/3 innings, surrendering six runs, while walking four Halos. He blew leads of 4-0, 5-3, and 6-5, before departing in the sixth inning.

The bullpen wasn’t much better. Reliever Matt Albers extricated the O’s out of a jam in the sixth, but immediately found himself in trouble in the bottom of the seventh. After loading the bases with none out, Albers was pulled. Enter Chris Ray, who promptly walked the only two batters he faced to give the Angels the lead. The Halos tacked on one more run before the inning was over, and the O’s never seriously threatened after that.

It has been reported that after the game, Ray left the team and returned to Baltimore to have his shoulder examined. If Ray has to go on the DL, look for the O’s to recall a reliever from Triple-A Norfolk to take his place.

In the meantime, the O’s have dropped three of the first four games in this seven game road trip, and head to Seattle to face a Mariners team that’s been playing pretty well recently.

Tonight, the Orioles send their ace, rookie Brad Bergesen (5-2) to the hill opposing the Mariners Jarrod Washburn (4-6).

May 24, 2009

No Happy Ending For O’s……Again

Today I made the 40 mile trek down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to watch the Orioles go for a sweep of their inter-league rivals, the Washington Nationals, even though all signs pointed to an Orioles defeat. Going into the series finale, the O’s were 2-12 in the final game
of a series, including an 0-6 record on the road. The Birds carried a 1-5 record on Sundays and were 2-10 in day games. Talk about going up against the odds!

We were told parking was limited around Nationals Park, so we took the Metro from the Greenbelt Station and exited at the Navy Yard stop, which put us right at the centerfield entrance to the ballpark. After we got our tickets, we entered the park and had plenty of time to take an informal tour of the home of the Nationals.

It was my first visit to Nationals Park, and I must admit, I was impressed. Unlike Oriole Park, which has three basic levels, the seating bowl in Nationals Park is broken up into five or six different tiers, giving fans plenty of unique views of the action. I love the open concourse area, which gives you a view of the entire field as you navigate your way around the inside of the park.

As for the game, it was an all too familiar story for the Orioles this season. Once again, the Birds jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, only to see the Nats come back with two in the fifth, and two more in the sixth, on an Adam Dunne two-run blast to gain the advantage.

Following a leadoff single by Brian Roberts to start the top of the seventh, Adam Jones, who’s had an All-Star like start to his season, recaptured the lead for the O’s with a two-run bomb of his own.

In the bottom half of the inning, Anderson Hernandez and Willie Harris singled off of struggling reliever Chris Ray. Following a sacrifice by Cristian Guzman, Ryan Zimmerman was walked intentionally to load the bases. That’s when Orioles manager Dave Trembley made the ill-fated decision to bring in left-handed reliever Jamie Walker to face Adam Dunne. As has happened all too often the last two seasons, Walker failed to get the job done and Dunne crushed his second home run of the game, a grand slam, to put the Nats back on top, 8-5.

The Birds went quietly in the eighth and ninth and had to settle for taking two out of three from their National League rivals.