Orioles 4 Pirates 3- The view from the GA bleachers

You're probably guessing I have some negative things to say about tonight. You'd be right, but instead we'll start with the positive, because there was some positive.

We got down 3-0 pretty early to a good team, and we stuck with them and tied it up. We had some timely hitting (though none from Jason Bay, which would've really helped) and Josh Fogg did what Josh Fogg does, kept us in the game. No real shame in giving up that homer to Tejada, the guy has been on a different planet the last two years. Giving up a homer to BJ Surhoff is another story, but Fogg still had a good outing against a very potent lineup (even without Roberts the O's 3-4-5 is about as good as it gets with Mora, Tejada, and Sosa). Grabow had a nice outing from the pen tonight and Matt Lawton would hit a golfball right now if it was pitched at him, that's how locked in his is. He had another clutch homer tonight, but then again when you literally get a hit almost every time you come to the plate over three days, some of those hits and bound to be clutch.

OK, time for the bad. First off, I understand Freddy was banged up and needed a night off. Watching him play the last couple day, I can understand that. And Tike had a decent game, didn't really screw up anything in the outfield and had a couple hits (and one RBI), but would it kill Lloyd to start Bobby Hill? I think it might, that's why he's on the bench so much. That really wasn't bad, just personal preference. Now for the really bad. I don't know what got into Humberto tonight. Maybe he feels the pressure from Ryan Doumit being up, I don't know. After watching him behind the plate as compared to Kendall, I'm officially in the "if Doumit's catching abilities are anything like Kendall's he'd better learn to play rightfield because I'd rather watch Cota hit .250 and really manage a pitching staff" camp. That being said, Cota really screwed up tonight. For those of you that missed the game, I'll fill you in. In the 8th inning of a tie game with runners on first and second with one out, Gonzalez threw a ball in the dirt that Cota did a great job of blocking, holding the runners to their bases. He should've been content with that, but something possessed him to throw BEHIND all the runners to catch Tejada napping off first. That's a Little League play. To make things worse, for the second time in the game, Daryle Ward forgot the cardinal rule of playing first base, no matter what it takes, IT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO CATCH THE BALL, even if that means the runner is safe. Ward didn't get to Cota's throw, Mora took third, then immediately scored on Palmiero's fly ball. The air was sucked out of the stadium and you could hear a pin drop after that play. Speaking of sucking, that brings me to our final egregious error of the night, Michael Restovich. WHYYYYYY? I wanted to leave right when he was announced as a pinch hitter with two outs in the ninth, but my friends made me stay. I told them he was going to strike out and there was no point in staying. I was unfortunately right. With Freddy Sanchez and Bobby Hill on the bench and the absolutely scorching hotter than the 9th circle of hell Matt Lawton in the on deck circle (yeah, BJ Ryan is a lefty, but Lawton had just gone yard off Steve Kline, a lefty) shouldn't the goal be TO GET HIM TO THE PLATE AT ALL COSTS? Bringing up Restovich, who's had an OBP of under .300 since we've acquired him (and is 1-for-7 with FOUR K's as a pinch hitter this year), was not going to accomplish that goal. All I'm gonna say is that Restovich better look out because Wigginton is gone and all of my wrath has to go somewhere.

20 games in 20 days: 9-9