Baltimore Orioles: Yovani Gallardo strong in Birds’ win

Yovani Gallardo gave the Baltimore Orioles five strong inning as the Baltimore Orioles defeated Minnesota, 4-2.

My personal opinion was that the Baltimore Orioles could have sent Yovani Gallardo back out to pitch the sixth inning this evening. 86 pitches in isn’t exactly a long night. However given the fact that it was the second game of the season and so forth, perhaps they erred on the side of caution. And in that sense who could really blame them.

However the good news is that Gallardo was fairly dominant in his first start as

an Oriole. Gallardo’s line: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K. Gallardo as you’ll remember had a tough spring, but he seemed to turn it on towards the end of his time in Florida. And that trend continued this evening.

The O’s took an early 1-0 lead on Jonathan Schoop‘s RBI-double in the last of the second. Schoop actually sent a blooper towards right field, which fell in and got past the outfielders. That allowed Hardy to motor around from second base, and the O’s had the lead early on. 

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But Minnesota’s modus operandi has seemingly been to get ’em on, get ’em over, and get ’em in quickly. With a runner at third, Minnesta’s Mauer hit a sac fly-RBI to center, which tied the game at one in the top of the third. However the O’s took the lead right back, and in doing so reminded the entire league why they brought Chris Davis back on the contract that they did. Davis gave the Orioles the lead for good with a solo homer to center field in the last of the third.

Joey Rickard is quickly becoming a fan favorite, and with good reason at that. All the guy does is play hard and get on base. Hee added his first big league RBI to his quickly-growing resume this evening, with a sac fly-RBI in the last of the fourth. One inning later Matt Wieters would add an RBI-double to left field, and the Birds held a 4-1 lead – which went down to 4-2 following a solo homer by Minnesota’s Plouffe in the sixth.

We also saw the dominance of the back end of the Orioles’ bullpen this evening, with O’Day and Britton combining to give up just one hit. In the same night, we saw why the Birds decided to bring back the likes of Wieters, O’Day, and Davis. This was Britton’s maiden save of the season, as he actually got the win in Monday’s game.

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The Orioles drew a total of six walks in this game, and were incredibly patient at the plate. It almost came across as the team trying to prove it’s critics wrong in saying that they can find ways to get on base. Davis’ solo homer probably didn’t do much to qualm many fears, because of course the hope is that guys would be on base when homers occur.

But through two games, this Oriole team is all but the opposite of what we thought they would be – at the plate, at least. In both games the pitching has been fairly good. And that’s a good sign moving forward into the meat of the season. Needless to say, the O’s won their first series of the 2016 season.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Looking Ahead

With the aforementioned series victory in hand, the O’s will close out the series tomorrow night against Minnesota. Ubaldo Jimenez will draw the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Minnesota’s Phil Hughes. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.