Baltimore Orioles lifted to victory on the bat of Chris Davis

The Baltimore Orioles were lifted to victory on Chris Davis’ bat in game two of yesterday’s doubleheader with Oakland.

Luckily for the Baltimore Orioles and Chris Davis, it’s tough to sweep a doubleheader. Perhaps that’s why teams try to stay away from them so often; it’s certainly possible to win two games in two days, but when you go for two in the same day the odds go down. So after losing game one yesterday afternoon, the Birds’ chances were higher in game two.

For starters, they got a great effort out of Ubaldo Jimenez. While at times he can be erratic, he showed up last night. Jimenez’s line: 8 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 6 K. Furthermore in a game where the O’s were in a situation where they had already played that day, having a starter go nine innings made a huge difference. 

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The O’s took an early 1-0 lead in the third inning on a Kim RBI-groundout. Later in the inning Adam Jones, who’s been struggling of late, smacked an RBI-single and the Birds led 2-0. One inning later, Davis provided the big highlight of the night with a two-run home run, giving the Orioles a 4-0 lead. They would stretch that to 5-0 in the last of the fourth on an RBI-groundout by Joseph.

Oakland would net two runs on two different RBI-singles in the fifth inning,

however Jimenez shut them down otherwise. They key with Jimenez is that he will allow base runners, even when he’s on. It’s how he handles those base runners, and last night he didn’t let them get to him. And at the end of the day, that made him dominant in last night’s game.

I mentioned Adam Jones’ struggles above; he’s currently hitting right at .200 – the Mendoza Line. We all know he’s had some injuries here and there – specifically, he missed much of the first week of the season with a rib cage injury. (Which he of course sustained taking a hard swing.) So is Jones injured now?

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First off let’s remember that most players have something that’s not right with them most of the time. But is this just somewhat of a slump for Jones, or is he hurt to the point to where he needs to sit for awhile? It’s really tough to say. These guys are all pros, and the last thing that anyone wants to do is to be told to sit.

However in some instances it could be in the best interests of the team. I’m not saying that Jones needs to sit for the team’s sake – that’s between him and team doctors. Because honestly I think he’s more in a slump than it is the injury. Furthermore I suspect that while he wouldn’t want to come out of the lineup, Jones would also sit if he thought he was hurting the team. Needless to say, whatever injury he might have isn’t preventing him from playing center field the way he normally does.

Next: Baltimore Orioles bled to death by one thousand cuts

The Orioles will close out the homestand and the series with a final game against Oakland this afternoon. Chris Tillman will get the start for the Birds, and he’ll be opposed by Oakland’s Kendall Graveman. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.