Baltimore Orioles, Chris Davis tame the Bronx Bombers

There’s been so much criticism of their offensive output of late; so you have to wonder if the Baltimore Orioles didn’t want to just look at their critics and say satisfied?! last night. The Birds defeaeted New York 11-3, in game one of a very important three-game set at Camden Yards. As often as we’ve said it’s tough to win when you don’t score, in this case it’s pretty tough to lose when you dump an 11-spot on your opponent – which included a big Chris Davis homer.

Ubaldo Jimenez suffered from an elevated pitch count, and struggled at times during his outing. But he pitched well enough to win and put the O’s in a position to do so. Jimenez’s line: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K. Jimenez loaded the bases in the first inning with no outs – yet managed to pitch out of it without surrendering a run. That set the tone for the game.

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However the O’s managed to put some runners on base of their own in the last of the first, and Chris Davis’ RBI-single gave them a 1-0 lead. However that’s generally not going to cut it against New York. The hated Alex Rodriguez returned serve in the third with an RBI-single of his own, which tied the game at one. However in the last of the inning Adam Jones gave the Orioles the lead right back with an RBI-single. That brought Chris Davis back to the plate with two runners on…

…and Davis busted the game open with a three-run homer which gave the O’s a 5-1 lead. Those are the types of things which win you games; after the opponent ties

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the score you respond with a four-run inning. Certainly it’s all a team effort given that guys have to get on base ahead of the likes of Jones and Davis. However it was Davis in this case who put the exclamation point on the inning.

But New York wasn’t out of it totally – yet. Mason Williams, who was making his big league debut, decided to join the club of guys who used the long ball as their first major league hit. His two-run homer in the fourth cut the Orioles’ lead to 5-3. However that effectively ened the competitive phase of the game, as Jimmy Paredes‘ RBI-single in the last of the fourth gave the O’s a 6-3 lead – and they didn’t look back.

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Caleb Jospeh added a solo homer, Manny Machado scored on a wild pitch during Adam Jones’ at-bat, J.J. Hardy snuck in an RBI-double, and Travis Snider an RBI-single – all in the last of the sixth. For good measure, Jimmy Paredes grounded into a force out in the seventh which scored the Orioles’ 11th run of the game, which closed out the scoring on the night. Incidentally Paredes provided another very positive sign for the O’s, as he appeared to be breaking out of his slump, going 3-for-5.

The Orioles did end up using four relievers in the game, however each only pitched one inning. But bullpen management is very important to the O’s right now, given the fact that Brian Matusz still has one game left on his suspension. As I said above, the tone for the game was set in the first inning when Jimenez pitched out of a pickle early on. Chris Davis addressed this after the game (courtesy of Bryan Hoch and Connor Smolensky, MLB.com):

"Man, that was huge, especially to start the game off like that, and then to hang in there and battle and really give us a chance. It was kind of weird because you would think the momentum was in their dugout, but [to] shut them down right there kind of put it back in our dugout, and then to go back out there and score runs for him was big."

Often it’s something like that which will propel a team to victory, and we saw that in last night’s game. The Orioles have now won five straight games, and have finally reached the .500 mark for the first time since May 5th. Unfortunately for them they’ve been unable to truly take advantage of this winnin streak, as Toronto (and their anything you can do I can do better attitude) has won nine straight games.

The series continues tonight with Bud Norris on the mound. He’ll be opposed by CC Sabathia of New York. Game time is set for 7:15 PM at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Jones' Sparkling Glovework Tells The Tale

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