Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Orioles 3; Angels 2 (hits)

Bear with me. I'm doing a few recaps per week for another site, and I'm working my way back into it.

The Angels, it seems, have had a habit over the years of making guys who should still be in triple A look like Cy Young. And when that guy is a soft tossing lefty, you can guess that it's probably going to be a long night.

Chris Walters, making his major league debut thanks to a recent Hayden Penn mishap, befuddled the Angels all night with soft stuff away, getting 14 of his 24 outs via the ground ball, along with three strikeouts, the first of which coming on three straight that Chone Figgins watched sail right through the zone. He held the Angels to two hits on the night before coming out after eight innings and 104 pitches.

The Orioles picked up where they left off last night. After plating four in the ninth to tie the game the night before, they pushed two across in the first inning of tonight's game. The first four batters Garland faced all reached base, with Brian Roberts scoring on a Nick Markakis double. Markakis was subsequently driven home by Melvin Mora's single. Garland would induce a double play (one of three on the night) and fly ball to get out of the inning, but the damage was done, and it turned out to be all Walters and the Orioles needed. Luke Scott added a superfluous third run with a two out homer in the seventh.

The lone bright spot for the Angels was Shane Loux's debut. Called up to replace the struggling Darren O'Day, Loux tossed two hitless innings, allowing one baserunner via a walk.

Ervin Santana takes on Garret Olson and 5+ ERA tomorrow under the sun. Ervin has righted the ship on the road this year, but he's struggled during day games, going 1-2 with a 5.59 ERA.

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