Olson goes to 3-0 as O's beat the Nationals, 5-3
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Garrett Olson improved to 3-0 and George Sherrill picked up his 16th save as the O's beat the Nationals, 5-3, in front of 29,266 at Camden Yards.
The Birds have won three in a row and six of seven in improving to 22-19.
Luke Scott's solo homer in the 4th tied the game at three and the O's went ahead 5-3 in the 5th on a Melvin Mora rbi double and Kevin Millar rbi single.
The O's ended a four-game losing streak vs. the Nats.
Game two of this series is Saturday night at 7:05pm.
OLSON IMPROVES TO 3-0 AS O'S BEAT NATS, 5-3
On a night when Garrett Olson didn't seem to have his "A" game, a couple of young O's relievers did have their top stuff, as the Orioles beat Washington, 5-3, Friday night to start a three-game series.
Olson, now 3-0, allowed three runs on nine hits in five innings. He threw 70 pitches as his ERA increased from 2.95 to 3.47.
After the O's got the 5-3 lead, the bullpen made sure it stood up.
Matt Albers pitched two scoreless innings and Jim Johnson one, as the young guns combined to fan six over three innings.
George Sherrill picked up his 16th save.
The O's improved to 22-19 with their third win in a row and 6th in 7 games. They are 3-0 on this homestand and now 13-6 at home this season. The Nationals fall to 18-25.
Ryan Zimmerman's two-run single in the first put the Nats ahead. The O's scored twice in the third on a Nick Markakis RBI and an error to tie it, 2-2.
After Washington went back ahead, Luke Scott's solo HR in the 4th tied it at 3. It was his third homer of the year and second in three games.
The O's scored twice in the 5th for a 5-3 lead. Brian Roberts led off with a triple and a Melvin Mora double gave the O's their first lead of the night, at 4-3. Later in the frame, Kevin Millar's RBI single made it a 5-3 contest.
Wash 3-11-1
Balt 5-9-0
POST-GAME NOTES
THE SHUTDOWN RELIEF
The O's bullpen was dominant tonight with four innings of shut down relief. Albers pitched two scoreless with three strikeouts. Johnson faned three in the 8th and Sherrill got three quick outs on 8 pitches in the 9th to record his 16th save to tie for the league lead.
The pen tonight: 4ip, 2h, 0r, 1b. 6k.
MORA PLAYS HURT
Melvin Mora said after the game his injured right shoulder was still hurting but that he hoped to play again tomorrow. He played well tonight. His rbi double in the 4th gave the O's their first lead of the night at 4-3. He also had a solid night in the field and made a very nice play on Christian Guzman's grounder to deep third in the 5th.
LUUUUKKKEEEE !
Luke Scott, after not hitting a homer in over a month, now has two in three games and three on the season. His blast in the 4th tied the game at three and went 385 feet to right center. It came on a 1-1 pitch from Shawn Hill.
ROBERTS AND JONES
Brian Roberts went 2-4 with a triple and scored two runs. He now has a five-game hitting streak and is 7-17 with six runs scored during the streak. His average is up to .271.
Adam Jones went 2-3 with a pair of singles and now has 5 hits in his last 9 at bats over three games. He is now batting .245.
FINAL NOTES
The Orioles ended a four-game losing streak vs. the Nats.........Jones picked up his 8th multi-hit game.........the O's are now 19-5 when scoring four runs or more.........The Birds have scored 33 runs in winning six of seven games.............the Nats fall to 8-14 in road games.......Nick Markakis doubled in the 8th, snapping a 1-16 slide........the O's improve to 80-114 all time in interleague games.....the attendance was 29,266 bringing the season total to 435,707 for 19 dates.
KEY QUOTES
Dave Trembley on Olson
"Olson learned how to pitch tonight without his best stuff. I don't know if he could have done that last year. From the first hitter he didn't have good velocity or finish on his pitches, but he competed. He put a zero up after we scored. It's a real credit to him what he did for five innings."
Dave Trembley on Jim Johnson
"I didn't want to go to him. But he's hot and he's on a roll right now, it's that simple. Put him in there."
Matt Albers on the bullpen effort
"Top to bottom the pen is doing well. We just want to keep it up. We want to stay confident and stay with our game."
Olson on winning without his best stuff
"You're going to have your A game maybe 10 or fewer times out of 30 starts a year. So there's a big chunk of games where you have to battle and find it. I felt good in the bullpen but went out there and it just wasn't there."
Melvin Mora on his injured shoulder
"It hurts now, it's sore. I played today, I can play tomorrow."
Steve Melewski's live GameBlog
O'S LEADING AFTER SEVEN
The O's still lead, 5-3, now after seven innings. Matt Albers has pitched two scoreless in relief and is still on in the 8th.
Tonight's attendance is 29,266 but there were a lot of no shows tonight due to the weather. This might be the coldest night of the year at the park.
OLSON'S NIGHT IS DONE
Olson is lifted after five innings. It's the shortest of his four starts this year. He made a great defensive play that ended the top of the 5th, catching Lastings Milledge's hot liner back to the box with two men on for the third out.
Olson tonight: 5ip, 9h, 3r-er, 0b, 3k........70 pitches.
Matt Albers comes on to start the 6th.
O'S GET THEIR FIRST LEAD
O's 5 Nats 3.....end of 5th
Brian Roberts led off the last of the 5th with a triple to right. Melvin Mora followed with a double to the gap in right center for his 22nd RBI and the O's first lead tonight, 4-3.
Roberts is 2-3 with two runs scored. He now has a five-game hit streak during which he is 7-16 and his average is up to .273.
Later in the inning, a Kevin Millar rbi single made it 5-3, he got thrown out trying to advace to second on the throw home.
O's have scored five runs on 7 hits in the last three innings.
LUKE GOES LONG
O's 3 Nats 3.....end of four
Luke Scott's solo homer, in the last of the 4th, ties the game, 3-3. It's his third homer of the year and second in three games. Scott hit a 1-1 pitch from Shawn Hill 385 feet to right center.
Adam Jones is 2-2 tonight and now has five hits his last 8 at bats.
Nats 3 O's 2.....middle of 4th
Three straight singles by Boone, Milledge and Flores loades the bases with no outs for the Nats in the 4th. Olson got Wily Mo Pena on a called third strike, Elijah Dukes hit a sac fly to left for a 3-2 lead and Felipe Lopez lined to center.
Pretty good job by Olson mimizing that damage, but he has allowed three runs on eight hits already. That was exactly what he allowed in 5.1 ip in his last start, last Saturday, in KC.
O's 2 Nats 2......end of third
Jones and Roberts singled in the third and a walk to Mora loaded them up for Markakis with one out. Nick hit a ground ball to third, it was a chance for a double play. But Mora's hard slide into second forced 2B Felipe Lopez to throw wildly past first base and two runs scored on that play. Markakis was credited wiht one RBI, his 19th. One run was unearned as the O's tie it 2-2 after three.
Three-inning totals
Wash 2-5-1
Balt 2-3-1
NATS STRIKE FIRST
Ryan Zimmerman's two-run single gives Washington a 2-0 lead after a half inning. The first three batters reached vs. Olson as Felipe Lopez led off with a single and went to third on Christian Guzman's double.
Olson got out of it after that but some balls were hit hard in that top of the first. He threw 23 pitches in that frame.
INTERLEAGUE PLAY IS UNDERWAY
The O's and Nats have begun their three-game series at Camden Yards. Two injured O's in Melvin Mora and Ramon Hernandez, have returned to the lineup.
First pitch was at 7:07pm and it's 62 degrees at first pitch.
PREVIEW NOTES
Both teams enter the series playing pretty good ball. The Birds just swept a two-game series from Boston, in the process knocking the Sox out of first place. The Nationals beat the Mets 1-0 Thursday and took three of four in that series.
After 5-4 and 6-3 wins over the Red Sox, the O's have won five of their last six, are 21-19 overall and 12-6 in home games.
The O's used two solid starting pitching efforts, key homers from Luke Scott and Jay Payton and two saves from George Sherrill to knock off the Sox.
The Orioles are 79-114 since interleague play began in 1997, a winning percentage of .409 which is the worst among AL teams and ahead of only Pittsburgh's .377 percentage in all of the majors. The O's were 6-12 last season in interleague play and that included their 2-4 mark vs. the Nationals.
The Nats, after winning the first three games of the season, fell to 4-12 on April 17th. But they are 14-12 since that point and have won their past two games. They are 7-7 in May and 8-13 in road games.
THE PITCHERS
Lefty Garrett Olson (2-0 2.95) makes his 4th start of the season since his recall from Norfolk. Olson has allowed 16 hits in 18.1 IP with seven walks and 15 strikeouts.
He got the win last Saturday at Kansas City when he gave up three runs and eight hits in 5.1 innings.
The 24-year-old has been tough early in his three starts this season. In the first two innings, opponents are 2-19 vs. Olson. He's also been solid when in trouble, giving up just 1 hit in 11 opponent at bats with runners in scoring position.
Olson has never pitched vs. Washington.
Righty Shawn Hill (0-0 3.56) will make his 6th start for the Nats. He pitched well in getting another no-decision Sunday vs. Florida. He gave up just five hits and two runs in seven innings with no walks and three strikeouts.
In two road starts this season, the Ontario native is 0-0 6.10 (7er - 10.1ip).
Hill has retired the side in order in the first inning of all five of his starts this year, opponents going 0-15. But, in the second and third innings, he gives up an average of .366 (15-41).
In 30 career starts, Hill is 6-10 4.36. The 27-year-old Hill was drafted in the sixth round by Montreal in 2000.
PRE-GAME NOTES FROM CAMDEN YARDS
TONIGHT'S ORIOLES LINEUP
2B Brian Roberts (.265-3-15)
3B Melvin Mora (.252-5-21)
RF Nick Markakis (.261-7-18)
DH Aubrey Huff (.262-6-23)
1B Kevin Millar (.230-5-20)
LF Luke Scott (.271-2-13)
C Ramon Hernandez (.215-3-17)
CF Adam Jones (.235-2-11)
SS Freddie Bynum (.318-0-0)
P Garrett Olson (2-0 2.95)
Dave Trembley said he feels Hernandez is just about at 100 percent after dealing with an injured left wrist that has forced him to miss four straight games. He was not as convinced about Mora and his injured left shoulder. He told reporters to write him in the lineup "in pencil" to see if he comes thru pre-game warm ups fine and can play.
WALKER STAYING CONFIDENT
Despite the fact he has allowed 17 hits in 11 innings this year and despite the fact that left-handed batters are hitting .394 against him in 2008, veteran reliever Jamie Walker remains confident.
"I'm still confident, you gotta have that swagger and that's what I tell the younger guys down there. You've got to keep a good attitude and just go out and battle."
How does he analyze his struggles this year vs. lefty hitters ?
"You beat yourself up. You try to forget because I'll be out there almost every day. I've got to simplify things and regroup. The worst thing is feeling bad for yourself, because that hitter won't feel bad for you."
He said his release point has been off on a couple of pitches and he has looked at his mechanics to fix that.
JOHNSON ADJUSTING JUST FINE
After spending his entire career as a starting pitcher, righty Jim Johnson is adapting to life as a reliever. With stats of 0-1 and an ERA of 1.19, he certainly has made the transition well. American League hitters are batting just .145 off Johnson.
But does he have any concern about being used too much and how is his arm handling life in the pen ?
"I just have to monitor how I feel. I did talk to Dave Trembley in Oakland and asked for a day or two off and he did that and he was pretty cautious about using me in Kansas City. He told me what days to be ready for, so he's been good about letting me know."
Dave Trembley says Johnson has improved his delivery this year and he has better life on his fastball.
"For a guy who has never pitched out of the pen before he has shown the ability to pitch back to back days. He has shown the ability to come in, in the middle of an inning. He hasn't shown any fear or lack of poise. When someone is hot, you keep going to them, within reason.
"I pitched him three days in a row there then gave him three days off. Tuesday night he threw 30 pitches, so Wednesday, with a day game, I wasn't going to use him."
DAVE TREMBLEY'S PRE-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
The skipper could not figure out why the O's have been so bad in interleague play. They are just 79-114 all-time in interleague games.
"I think it's just part of the game. Sometimes you face teams that are hot at that time. It's just the bounce of the ball and part of the game. Sometimes I don't have adequate answers for things that happen in this game."
Trembley was asked about the club taking momentum from the Boston series.
"We got contributions from a lot of guys vs. Boston. We kept our poise when we were behind. There's a real sense with our team that we will compete the entire game and have a chance to win. That's been our approach. There's a belief you get when you've done it before."
Trembley was asked his reaction to the O's magic video.
"I was asked to take part and I politely declined. It goes along with these guys, they are having a good time and having fun. They are doing some things to try and get the fans back into it, presenting the image of trying to get closer to the fans.........I think its neat that they could tie in the history of the club. It's a good marketing ploy or scheme and a nice gesture on our players part to recognize the people that have been here before and what they did that was very special."
GOOD STARTING PITCHING
The Orioles starting pitching has been mostly solid and a big reason that a club with very inconsistent offense has a winning record after 40 games.
O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 4.43 this year. That doesn't sound too good, but take away starts by Steve Trachsel and Adam Loewen and the ERA is a very good 3.70.
Trachsel-Loewen combined: 2-5 7.15 ERA quality starts 3 of 11 chances.
Rest of starters: 12-9 3.70 quality starts 19 of 30 chances
Albers, Burres, Cabrera, Guthrie and Olson are the other five to have made a start. Of the current five-man rotation, the O's have four starters pitching well. Teams can usually have winning records with only three going well, but with the O's lacking in offense, the four going well have led this team to 21 wins in 40 games.
LONGBALL THE KEY TO RECENT WINNING
The O's endured a five-game losing streak on their recent road trip. Since then they are 5-1. They are scoring more during the winning run and some big home runs have been a huge key.
During losing streak: .241 average, 2.8 runs per game, 2 homers
During 5-1 stretch: .250 average, 4.7 runs per game, 6 homers
NOT SO MUCH IN A PINCH
O's pinch-hitters are just 3-24 this year, for an average of .125. They have just three singles, two RBI and eight strikeouts. Jay Payton is 3-11 as a pinch-hitter while all others have gone 0-13 at bat.
O'S HITTERS LAST YEAR VS. WASHINGTON
Ramon Hernandez: 2-7
Aubrey Huff: 7-17, 2 rbi
Nick Markakis: 9-30, rbi
Kevin Millar: 4-14, rbi
Melvin Mora: 6-21, 2 HR, 5 rbi
Jay Payton: 10-22, 7 rbi
Brian Roberts: 7-28, rbi
Luke Scott: 5-19, HR, rbi
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