Baltimore Orioles Bring the Varsity Team to Defeat the Red Sox

After one of the more embarrassing Opening Day losses, the Baltimore Orioles put up their first W in Game Two against the Red Sox.

While the pitching lost the game on Friday night, in this game the Baltimore Orioles pitching helped get the win.

This is what happens when you put a seasoned veteran on the mound. It would be nice if the front office recognized this and got a few more of them.

Along with a tidy little 7-2 win over the Sox, the sound quality from MASN was significantly better, too. Maybe the Opening Day catastrophes were just a case of getting out the cobwebs. Whatever it was, it felt like real baseball was played and it was good.

The only thing to remember is that Alex Cobb can only pitch every five days or so, which means that Orioles fans will have to sit through a few more ugly games before they get the good stuff again. Speaking of Cobb, he was dominant through five innings. He held the Sox scoreless until he returned to pitch in the sixth. After striking out Rafael Devers, Cobb gave up his one and only run to Mitch Moreland who went yard on a 1-1 count.

Check out Cobb’s strikeout highlights here courtesy of MLB.com:

The Orioles quickly replaced him, but Cobb could not relax. After five innings of lights-out pitching, he had to watch Paul Fry give up three singles before being yanked and replaced by Miguel Castro who struck out pinch hitter Xander Bogaerts in three quick pitches. The frustration in Cobb’s eyes was evident as he watched Fry risk all the hard work he had done to keep the O’s ahead. Don’t forget that one of those singles had a throwing error in it, too.

We were all Alex Cobb in the middle of the sixth inning.

After following the three-batter rule, Hyde pulled the plug and made the right decision putting Castro against Bogaerts.

The rest of the game wasn’t anywhere near as tense as Fry’s struggle to get the second out of the sixth. In fact, much of the game was rather fun to watch. The Orioles scored their seven runs without the help of a home run.

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The top of the lineup lead the team in hits and runs. Austin Hays when 2-5 and scored a run. Hanser Alberto got his bat going and went 3-5 and scored two runs and earned an RBI. And, Jose Iglesias spent another game in the three hole, and went 2-5 with a run and an RBI. In the fourth hole, Anthony Santander went 2-4 and earned an RBI.

After two games, Alberto is batting .500 and Iglesias is batting .375. Of course those won’t last, but those aren’t shabby batting averages to start the season. At this point, Chris Davis and Cedric Mullins are the only starters who have not had a hit.

Game two felt like a totally different team had come to Boston. All of the pitchers behaved like veterans, and the hitter had some clutch moments. Renato Nunez‘s two-out two-RBI double was a piece of clutch hitting to get the Birds on the board first, and Santander repeated the clutch double with two outs and two runners on in the seventh.

Hopefully, the O’s can wrap up the series on a high note in Sunday’s matinee in Boston. Veteran lefty Wade LeBlanc toes the rubber against Red Sox rookie Ryan Weber at 1:35 ET. You know where to find the game.