Another game, another gem by an Oriole starting pitcher, this time Brian Matusz. In the opener of a four-game series with the Texas Rangers at home, Matusz pitched eight shutout innings, giving up five hits. From the Rangers' perspective Matusz might as well have been speaking Japanese, because they certainly couldn't figure him out all night. (And go figure, Koji Uehara came in and pitched the ninth!)
The game itself was fairly vanilla until the seventh, when the Orioles put up all four of their runs on the night. However there was a bizzare moment in the top of the sixth when Andres Blanco tried to stretch a double into a triple. Nick Markakis relayed the ball to Brian Roberts, who threw to third base where Ty Wiggington was perfectly blocking the bag. Blanco was called out, and the proceeded to get into Wiggy's face. Replays appeared to show that Blanco jammed his arm on Wiggington's knee as he was blocking the bag. I suppose Blanco saw this as bush league; I see Blanco as a poor sport and a baby. I mean, really?!...a "major leaguer" getting in someone's face for blocking the bag? I have to wonder if this speaks to a perceived lack of respect for the Orioles in that people expect them to just roll over. What exactly did Blanco expect Wiggy to do, not block the bag?
But back to Matusz for the moment, not only did he pitch a gem, but he had a certain swagger out on the mound which almost seemed to dare batters to get on base. If you're the Rangers, you have to be wondering what the deal is with the O's. Granted Texas swept the Orioles in a two-game set back in May, but one of the highlights of this season will be the Orioles going into Arlington and sweeping a four-game set before the all-star break. You can't expect that the O's will sweep this four-game set, however last night's win was a good start. The idea is that a team should have a goal to win every game, but more realistically if you can win every series you should be in good shape. Brian Matusz got the O's off to a good start last night.
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