Bergesen brings a silver lining

Before you completely erase last night's game from your memory, you might want to pause and reflect on Brad Bergesen's effort. The night wasn't all bad. Bergesen gave the Orioles two scoreless and hitless innings, striking out two and lowering his ERA to 3.18 in two appearances. I guess that wasn't two much to ask (see what I did there?) Bergesen was officially recalled from Triple-A Norfolk earlier in the day, though he never wore a Tides uniform. I'm not sure he even washed one in Tide. He was waiting in Baltimore and waiting in New York until shortstop J.J. Hardy went on the disabled list. Last night's 24-pitch outing served as a bullpen session of sorts for Bergesen, who's still scheduled to start Sunday in Cleveland. He hadn't faced hitters in a week. He needed the work and the positive results. The rotation is a mess beyond Jeremy Guthrie and Zach Britton (and it's unreasonable to expect Britton to plow through major league hitters all season.) Somebody else needs to step up. Bergesen gets another chance on Sunday. It's also worth mentioning that Mark Reynolds went 2-for-4 to raise his average to a team-leading .273. I'm not counting Felix Pie's .357 average because it's come in only 14 at-bats. Reynolds is 5-for-9 with three doubles, a homer and eight RBIs with runners in scoring position. I can live with those 10 strikeouts, which tie him with Adam Jones for the team lead.