Don't look now, but the O's have taken the first two of a four game set with the Chicago White Sox on the south side of Chicago, the baddest part of town. For the record, you best beware of a man named Leroy Brown. That aside, Chris Tillman won his first game of the season last night at U.S. Cellular Field against the ChiSox in the Orioles' 6-2 victory. Personally I think that withstanding his six inning no-hit effort in Tampa, last night's game was Tillman's best this season. Tillman of course was skipped in his last turn of the rotation due to soreness in his groin muscle. As a result, he looked fresh and well rested last night. Tillman's line: 5 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 2 BB.
There were a few things that need to be worked on; mainly, Tillman's velocity is still down. When he first came up he was hitting 93 MPH on the gun; for the most part this season he's been in the 88-89 MPH range. Last night he seemed to hover around 89-90 MPH, which is a slight improvement. He pitched the above-mentioned five innings (plus three batters), but in that top of the sixth it was obvious he was done. All in all, Tillman threw 88 pitches in the game. So from my standpoint he needs to work on his velocity and his endurance. (This is partly why I think he might be best suited for the pen, but that's another story.) Tillman still had a very positive outing, and it counts as his first victory of the 2011 season.
Over the course of the past week Oriole bats slowly started to get warm, only to heat up with fury in Chicago. On Friday the O's put up a ten-spot, and then another six last night. They got started early in the ballgame as Brian Roberts hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a sac fly, and then scored on a wild pitch. The O's made it 2-0 on Robert Andino's solo HR, which is where the score remained until the sixth. Chris Tillman loaded the bases before departing, however Michael Gonzalez came in and only allowed one runner to cross the plate on a sac fly. (And in reality, Adam Jones had Alphonso Ramirez dead in the water at home plate, however Jake Fox mishandled the throw.) Incidentally, this was perhaps Gonzalez's best performance as an Oriole out of the bullpen. Everyone holds their breath when he comes in the game, and there's no question that he's had his struggles. However last night he was light's out when the Orioles needed him to be.
The O's tacked on four runs in the seventh helped out by a series of mistakes by the White Sox and some good situational hitting. Interestingly, the O's seem to be getting several runs in games due to big innings of late. Furthermore, they're getting those all important add-on runs towards the end of games which can often be the difference between winning and losing in the AL East. The White Sox hosted a fireworks display after the game, which I'm sure most of their fans enjoyed, perhaps along with a slice of lemon meringue or apple pie. However the real fireworks came at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.
Written by:
