Too much Evan Longoria.
Is there any stopping that guy?
And not enough Orioles hitting.
Will the Birds ever hit AND pitch well in the same game?
Koji Uehara carried a 3-hitter into the 6th inning and held a 3-1 lead before the Rays rallied for two in the 6th and three in the 7th to quickly end the Baltimore winning streak at one with a 6-3 triumph in the series finale at Tropicana Field.
The big blow? Two of them. Longoria authored a seeing-eye double down the right field line in the 6th to tie the game at 3-all, then singled in the 7th to drive in two more runs.
Will someone PLEASE get that dude out when it matters?
Uehara was outstanding until he reached the 85-pitch mark and then he started to wobble.
I remember back in early April when I was eavesdropping on a certain O’s associate who knows a thing or two about pitching. He said, “I think Koji will be OK as long as they keep him in the 80-90 pitch count. He’s just not durable enough to go much past that.”
True that.
Uehara showed signs of tiring in the 7th but temporarily removed himself from potential maj0r-damage by picking off Jason Bartlett at 2nd base. Two batters later, B.J. Upton doubled in the go-ahead run and it was “sayonara” for Koji. Jamie Walker faced one batter – Carl Crawford – and hit him with a pitch to earn the quick hook from Dave Trembley. Bob McCrory came in and promptly gave up the 2-run single to Longoria and the juice – no pun intended – had been squeezed from the Birds at Tropicana Field.
Once again, per their ’09 form, when the O’s get a decent pitching effort, their bats take the early flight home. The Birds generated a total of just four hits off of Matt Garza on Tuesday – home runs from Brian Roberts and Gregg Zaun accounted for all the Baltimore scoring – as Trembley’s gang fell to 10-17 on the year.
Hey, at least Gregg Zaun is up to .162 at the plate.
The Birds return to Charm City to start a 2-game series with the Twins before the Yankees (with A-Rod) storm in for three games over the weekend.
As long as Evan Longoria doesn’t get traded to Minnesota or New York tonight, the Birds might actually win a game or two in the next five days.
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