Melvin Mora with 4 RBI as O's hammer Boston, 11-6
Don't miss Steve Melewski's O's Minor League Report: This could finally be the year for Bowie
Melvin Mora and Ramon Hernandez hit three-run homers as the Orioles offense, slowed for two nights, broke out in the series finale vs. Boston for an 11-6 win. The O's scored 10 straight runs after falling behind 4-0 after an inning and a half.
Chris Waters pitched five innings to get his second Major League win. He gave up eight hits and five runs. Losing pitcher Clay Buchholz allowed five runs in just 2 1/3 innings.
The O's, who had scored just five runs in the first two contests of the series, are now 10-9 in August and are 13-10 over their last 23 games.
Boston falls to 73-54 and 12-6 in August. Boston lost for just the 5th time in 14 games.
Jason Bay's solo homer in the 5th cut the O's lead to 10-5. It was his third homer of the series and 26th of the season. Mora answered that with a sac fly in the last of the 5th for an 11-5 lead and his 4th RBI of the game.
Mora hit a three-run homer in the 4th as the O's took a 10-4 lead. At that point the O's had scored 10 unanswered runs. Mora now has 21 homers and 94 RBI.
Bay's solo homer in the 5th cut the O's lead to 10-5. It was his third homer of the series and 26th of the season. Mora answered that with a sac fly in the last of the 5th for an 11-5 lead and his 4th RBI of the game.
Mora hit a three-run homer in the 4th as the O's took a 10-4 lead. At that point the O's had scored 10 unanswered runs. Mora now has 21 homers and 94 RBI.
The Orioles took their first lead in this series when Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer in the third. It scored Mora, who was hit with a pitch and Luke Scott, who had walked to make it a 6-4 game. It's his 13th homer. Later, Lou Montanez walked, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on Juan Castro's single for a 7-4 lead.
The Orioles came up with a three-run second inning to trail Boston, 4-3. Montanez delivered a two-out, RBI single for Baltimore's first run. Later Brian Roberts singled in two with the bases loaded for a 4-3 game.
Boston added two in the second for a 4-0 lead. Kevin Cash doubled and later scored on Waters' throwing error. A David Ortiz RBI single made it 4-0.
The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. With one out, Dustin Pedroia tripled and Ortiz drew a walk. A Kevin Youkilis RBI single made it 1-0. Later, Jed Lowrie drew a bases-loaded walk for a 2-0 Sox edge. Waters got out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam to keep the score at 2-0.
Bost 6-13-0
Balt 11-9-1
Postgame Notes
Ramon Hits a Bomb
Ramon Hernandez came up with a huge three-run homer in the 3rd that gave the O's a 6-4 lead and their first lead of this series. They never trailed after that. It was Ramon's only hit of the night in five at bats, but extended his current hitting streak to 11 games. He is batting .304 with 9 RBI during the streak. He has hit 5 homers in the second-half and 13 on the season.
Final Notes
The O's were held to five runs in the first two gamesof the series but broke out for 11 tonight. This is the 29th time the O's have scored 8 or more runs in a game this season and they are 25-4 in those games........O's have now scored 57 runs the last 7 games, 101 in 13 games and 207 in 33 games since the All-Star break for an average of 6.3 per game.....After not producing an extra-base hit in Tuesday's game, the O's had just two Wednesday, but they were both three-run homers.
Kam Mickolio made his Major League debut pitching the 8th inning, allowing one run on three hits.....Dennis Sarfate pitched two shutout innings after Chris Waters went the first five......Boston's Jason Bay had three homers and 6 RBI in the series.
Melvin Mora entered tonight just 4-42 this season vs. Boston, but he hit a three-run homer and sac fly for his 4-RBI night......Mora has knocked in 14 runs his last 6 games, 29 in 18 games and since the All-Star break is batting .408-10-47 in 33 contests......Brian Roberts was 2-4 and is hitting .433 during a seven-game batting streak......Roberts, the AL leader in doubles with 45, has hit just one double his last ten games......Jay Payton went 2-3 to snap a 2-22 slump.....Aubrey Huff went 0-4 and finished 2-12 with a homer in this series.
The O's are now 10-9 in August, 16-17 in the second half, 6-9 vs. Boston and 32-26 at home.....They have won 5 of 8 games and are 13-10 the last 23 contests.
Steve Melewski's Live GameBlog From Camden Yards
Baysox Did Win
Bowie went on to beat Reading 8-2 tonight and reduced its magic number to clinch a playoff berth to three. Steve Torrealba hit two homers and Matt Wieters hit his 10th. Chris Tillman pitched six shutout as Bowie improves to 77-54.
At Frederick Tonight
Lynchburg is leading the Keys 11-5 in the 9th. Chris Ray pitched one inning in that game and gave up three hits and two runs, both earned. Greg Aquino pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.
Baysox Rolling
Bowie leads Reading tonight 8-2 in the 9th. Starter Chris Tillman pitched six shutout innings, giving up just three hits and he fanned eight. Tillman has now pitched 12 scoreless over his last two starts.
Tonight's Attendance
Is 33,364, the smallest crowd of this series. The three-game series drew 122,364.
More Mora
Melvin Mora's three-run homer off Javier Lopez in the 4th gave the O's a 10-4 lead. It will feel good to Mora for several reasons. First, Mora was 1-9 in this series until he hit that one out. Second, he was hit by a pitch, high and tight, an inning earlier. It was vs. a different pitcher, but the homer still should feel good. Third he entered tonight just 4-42 this year vs. Boston pitching.
It's Mora's 4th homer in six games, his 10th since the All-Star break and 21st of the year. He now has 15 RBI the last 9 games, 28 in 18 games and 46 in the second-half.
The Playoff Push
With their magic number at five to clinch their first playoff berth since 1997, Bowie leads Reading 4-0 in the 5th tonight. Matt Wieters has hit his 10th Baysox homer and has 2 RBI. Chris Tillman has allowed just one hit through four with six strikeouts. That's one club playing well right now, those Baysox. Check this site tomorrow as I have a story coming on the Baysox ending their playoff drought.
Nice Play
Nick Markakis just came up with his 13th outfield assist in a kind of unusual way. With Jed Lowrie on second and none out in the Boston third, Jeff Bailey hit a liner to right. Markakis made the catch. Lowrie took a couple of steps toward third to draw a throw. He did, but Nick threw behind the runner and put a strike right on the bag at second where Juan Castro tagged out Lowrie. Another perfect Markakis throw.
AL Outfield Assists Leaders (before tonight)
13- Alex Rios, Toronto
12- Nick Markakis, Baltimore
11- Ben Francisco, Cleveland
10-BJ Upton, Tampa
Behind Again
It would be nice if the O's didn't give up a first-inning score. It would be nice to score first against the Red Sox. Didn't happen and won't in this series. For the third game in a row, Boston scores first. The O's have not even had a lead in this series yet. By the way, tremendous effort by Jay Payton on Pedroia's triple in the first. He threw his body into the wall, but could not come up the with the ball.
Play Ball in Baltimore
Tonight's first pitch was thrown at 7:05pm and game three of the O's-Boston series is unerway. It's 79 degrees. Check back here during the game for news and updates live from the Yard.
Starting Lineups
Red Sox
RF Jacoby Ellsbury
2B Dustin Pedroia
DH David Ortiz
3B Kevin Youkilis
LF Jason Bay
SS Jed Lowrie
1B Jeff Bailey
CF Coco Crisp
C Kevin Cash
P Clay Buchholz
Orioles
2B Brian Roberts
RF Nick Markakis
3B Melvin Mora
1B Aubrey Huff
DH Luke Scott
C Ramon Hernandez
LF Lou Montanez
CF Jay Payton
SS Juan Castro
P Chris Waters
Mickolio Joins The Club
Kam Mickolio joined the O's today, taking the roster spot of the injured George Sherrill. It's Mickolio's first-ever day in the Majors. At Triple-A Norfolk, he had an ERA of 1.50 (3ER-18IP) with seven walks and 20 strikeouts in 15 games. He began the season at Double-A Bowie. Mickolio was drafted in round 18 by Seattle in 2006 and was traded to the O's as part of the Erik Bedard deal on February 8th.
Trembley's Talk
Dave Trembley told reporters today that he would announce the identity of Friday's starter vs. the Yankees, after tonight's game.
Trembley said Jim Johnson will get chances to close games now that George Sherrill is out, but he doesn't want to go with only one closer while Sherrill is sidelined.
"Johnson is a guy that figures prominently in getting those opportunities but I don't want to get locked into naming a closer while Sherrill is out. I'll play it game by game and situation by situation. Kranitz and I will talk to that person before the game and let him know who the guy will be. That's how I'm going to do it."
Trembley did not say what role Kam Mickolio would be used in.
"He'll be a bullpen guy. I'm not at liberty to tell you if it will be the 5th inning, 6th inning, setup guy or closer. He's a bullpen guy and we'll leave it at that."
Trembley talked about the solid reports he had gotten on Mickolio.
"He was very good against right-handed hitters, he's got movement, arm angle is a little different. His size factors into it (he's 6-9). He has late life on his pitches. He's very excited, not too many guys from Montana get to come to the big leagues."
Trembley was asked about the O's hitters chasing pitches out of the strike zone the last two nights and said give credit to Boston starters Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka for getting the O's hitters to chase.
Game Preview
Boston (73-53) at Orioles (60-65)
After scoring 30 runs in winning a series over the weekend in Detroit, the O's have been held to just five runs in losing the first two games of their series with Boston. The Red Sox have hit five homers in the series and the O's have scored just five runs. Boston has posted wins by scores of 6-3 and 7-2.
Tuesday, Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched five innings to improve to 15-2 and Daniel Cabrera allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings to fall to 8-8. Cabrera has an ERA of 7.15 since the All-Star break.
Kevin Youkilis homered with 3 RBI in last night's win when Boston banged out 15 hits in improving to 12-5 in August. The Sox are now 23-23 in games vs. AL East opponents including a mark of 8-15 on the road vs. the East.
The O's, who have a team batting average of .308 since the All-Star break, have just 14 hits in this series and are batting .209 the past two games vs. Boston. The O's failed to get one extra-base last night for the 6th time on the season.
Melvin Mora, who went 10-13 with 10 RBI in the series at Detroit over the weekend, is just 1-8 in the two games with Boston.
The Orioles are now 9-9 in August and 5-9 on the season against the Red Sox.
Pitching Match-Up
LHP Chris Waters (1-0, 4.32) called up from the Minors on August 5th, tonight makes his 4th start of the season, his 2nd at home and the first of his career vs. Boston.
After holding the Angels to just one hit in 8 shutout innings in his first start, Waters has allowed 8 ER over 8 2/3 in his last two outings.
A unique trend is developing in these starts for Waters. He has allowed 6 hits in 8 at bats vs. left-handed hitters for an average of .750 with three extra-base hits. Right-handed batters are hitting just .175 (10-57) against him.
He has recorded one quality start and the Orioles have won 2 of his 3 starts so far.
Waters began this season at Double-A Bowie and went 5-0, 1.69 in six starts. He was then sent to Triple-A and went 3-6, 5.70 in 18 games for Norfolk. He pitched to an ERA of 3.60 in July with the Tides and his combined record this season in the Minors is 8-6, 4.65, in 22 starts.
Waters pitched in 185 Minor League games and pitched 1040 innings in the Minors before making his first start in the Majors August 5th vs. the Angels.
RHP Clay Buchholz (2-8, 6.35) tonight will make his 15th start of the season, his 10th on the road and his second this year vs. the Orioles.
Buchholz pitched one inning in relief on Sunday vs. Toronto, allowing one run and one hit. In his three previous starts, he is 0-3, 8.22. Buchholz has lost his last six decisions and has not picked up a win since May 2nd.
Last September first, in just his second Major League start, Buchholz pitched a no-hitter at Fenway Park against the Orioles. He walked three and fanned one that day, throwing 115 pitches.
Buchholz, the 42nd overall pick in the 2005 draft, gives up a batting average of .300 vs. right-handed batters and .298 vs. lefties. The Sox are just 3-11 when he starts in 2008. In nine road starts, he is 0-6, 8.18.
The 24-year-old took the loss on July 11th vs. Baltimore, giving up 4 four runs over five innings. That was his only start this year against the O's. In his career, he is 2-1, 2.12 vs. Baltimore in three games, two starts and has given up just 6 hits in 17 innings.
Strange Mora Stats
So Melvin Mora is having a great year and recently was on an amazing hitting tear that raised his average into the 280's. But did you know Mora is just 4-42 this season, batting .095 vs. Boston? He has just 1 hit in his last 16 at bats vs. Boston and is 1-8 in this series. Even with that, here are some updated and still impressive Mora stats.
Last 8 games: Batting .528-3-12
Last 17 games: Batting .459-5-25
Since All-Star break: Batting .413-9-43 in 32 games
O's offense:
Detroit series: Hit .372, 30 runs, 15 doubles, 1 triple, 6 homers
Boston series: Hitting .209, 5 runs, 2 doubles, 0 triples, 1 homer
Since All-Star break: Batting .308, 6.1 runs per game, 79 doubles, 41 homers
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