Orioles Win Swing Game, 6-4

Rodrigo Lopez wins his last start as an Oriole to improve to 7-11. Chris Ray gets his 26th save for back to back games with saves.

Not a terrible start for Rodrigo before he gets shipped off. Somehow he managed to only give up 2 runs, even though he gave up 11 hits and a walk. It seems like every team and their mother is interested in Rodrigo, which is funny because if no teams had interest in him I would consider outright releasing the guy. I have no clue what these teams think they’re getting. Maybe they think he will transform into a different pitcher all of a sudden, I don’t know. Bruce Chen, Todd Williams, LaTroy Hawkins, Kurt Birkins, and Chris Britton each pitched fragments to get through the middle innings. They gave up 2 runs collectively. Then Chris Ray came in for the 9th and shut the Royals down to get another save. He gets the job done. I was wrong about Hawkins pitching his last game as an Oriole last night. Maybe this was instead. The pitching did enough to win, which is all we can hope for these days when it isn’t Bedard on the mound.

The offense didn’t go crazy, but they did come through when it was needed. 6 runs on 9 hits is effecient. The offense was spread around, only one player had more than one hit, but every starter had a hit except for Melvin Mora - who had 3 walks. Brian Roberts has been a doubles machine lately, he had another tonight. Kevin Millar hit his 8th homerun of the season. Hopefully upping his value enough to move him. Javy Lopez hit a double. See Millar comment. Fernando Tatis was the player of the game, going 2-4 with a double and an RBI.

Markakis watch: 0-1 (.280)

The O’s come home tomorrow night to face off against the struggling White Sox. We should feel pretty comfortable, at least for tomorrow night, as Erik Bedard (12-6, 3.94) barring another food poisoning, will be starting. He’ll go up against Freddy Garcia (10-8, 4.86). Go O’s… make some deals.