O’s win big in Pittsburgh with 7 runs in first 2 innings

The offense was hot hot hot last night and like I said in my preview, Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton had a bad start and got batted around big time by our Orioles. It started off with a 5-run first inning. J.J. Hardy started it off reaching first on an infield single. Nick Markakis sent him to 3rd with a double followed by Adam Jones hitting a 2-run single. AJ got to 2nd base on the bad throw from right field to the plate and Derrek Lee singled him home making it 3-0. After Matt Wieters struck out, Mark Reynolds walked. Felix Pie then struck out but 2 more runs were scored before the final out of the inning was recorded. With a man on 1st and 2nd, Robert Andino hit an RBI single. Reynolds also moved to 3rd on a throwing error. To help himself out even more, Jake Arrieta hit an RBI single to score Reynolds making the score 5-0. The inning ended with Hardy back at the plate striking out.

Arrieta got a 1-2-3 inning to bring up the top of the 2nd and 2 more runs for the O’s. Nick Markakis singled and reached safe 2nd after Derrek Lee grounded into a fielder’s choice but 3B Josh Harrison made a throwing error. Matt Wieters then hit an RBI double scoring Nick and sending Lee to 3rd. Mark Reynolds hit a sac fly to score Reynolds bringing the O’s up 7-0. In the bottom of the 2nd, Arrieta allowed a walk and a double to score a run but the O’s got that run back in the next inning when Andino singled and then scored on a single by J.J. Hardy and error by left fielder Tabata. Arrieta allowed 2 more runs to score but did his job the rest of the night followed by the bullpen getting back to its lights out form.

Arrieta went 5 innings giving up only 3 hits and 3 runs and 2 walks. Mike Gonzalez pitched the 6th and gave up a hit but also got a strikeout. Jason Berken pitched the 7th and 8th inning perfectly with 3 strikeouts and Kevin Gregg came in to finish up business in the 9th.

This was definitely a well-rounded team effort. The offense was on fire, the starting pitching was solid, the bullpen was solid, and the defense did it’s job. The team also got helped out by the 3 errors by the Pirates and took advantage of those errors. Hopefully the O’s can go out there and play like this again more often. I don’t need 8 runs of offense every night but what I do need and what the team needs to win is this well-rounded sort of play where every single person plays decently.