Erik Bedard gets the win to take him to 13-9.

Bedard went 6 innings and gave up 2 runs, 4 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 8 batters. It was basically the same game hes been pitching for over a month, but this time he gets the win. After his spell of pitching dominantly, Bedard settled into a rhythm of 6 or 7 innings, 2 or 3 run outings. That is not a bad thing at all. Its nice to finally have a pitcher with some consistency… good consistency that is. Todd Williams and James Hoey pitched perfect innings each in the 7th and 8th. Brian Burres made his Oriole debut in the 9th. He gave up 3 hits and a 2 run homer, but managed to get 2 outs before leaving the game with a nose bleed. Too early to judge the guy at this point. Julio Manon came in and got the final out.

The offense relied on the longball tonight. Jay Gibbons hit his 12th homerun, Melvin Mora his 15th, and David Newhan his 3rd. Brian Roberts had a couple of hits in the game. Everyone else besides Brandon Fahey had a hit in the game. The production was there early on and that was all we needed to cruise to victory tonight.

Markakis watch: 1-3 (.303)

Tomorrow its Adam Loewen (5-4, 5.55) matched up against Chien-Ming Wang (16-5, 3.69). Go O’s.

Chris Britton gets the loss, his 2nd.

Daniel Cabrera pitched poorly again. This time he went 5 innings, gave up 4 runs, 8 hits, and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts. Hes frustrating to watch to say the least, but you have to keep throwing him out there because of his potential. Britton came in for the 6th and gave up the go ahead run in his only inning. Todd Williams then pitched an inning, giving up another run. James Hoey was next, he gave up 2 runs and only got 1 out. Then Winston Abreu came in and played the role of stopper. Abreu has looked good in his time with the O’s. He could be a player for the O’s bullpen next year.

The hitting was its good old self, getting a few runs across the board, but not enough to win the game. Brian Roberts had a nice game, hitting 2 blasts, his 8th and 9th homeruns of the season. Melvin Mora had 2 hits including a double. Kevin Millar had 2 hits including his 11th homerun. And David Newhan had 2 hits. That was it. All of our hitting was tied up between 4 players. Miguel Tejada has been in a slump these past 2 days, but I wouldn’t be worried.

Markakis watch: 0-4 (.303)

The Orioles return home to face Corey Lidle (11-9, 4.46) and the New York Yankees. Erik Bedard (12-9, 3.94) is set to face off against them in game one of the series. Go O’s.

Julio Manon gets the loss, his first.

Well I was kind of right about Kris Benson getting screwed over with a no decision or loss. He pitched 8 innings, gave up 9 hits, walked 3, gave up 2 runs, and struck out 5 batters. Thats some quality pitching. Chris Ray came in for the 9th in a tie ball game. He struggled a little, but got through the jam and sent it to the tenth. Thats when Manon came in and gave up 3 consecutive hits, the last one being a 3 run homerun to Adam Kennedy, to lose the game. Manon isn’t exactly helping his cause to land on next years bullpen. Which is probably while he end up being there…

The hitting was poor in the run production column yet again last night. A few guys had some nice games, but we couldn’t put together a string of hits. Brian Roberts had 4 hits, Nick Markakis had 2, and Melvin Mora had a hit and a stolen base. Jay Gibbons hit a double, Ramon Hernandez hit a double, and Kevin Millar hit a pair of doubles, while also getting robbed of another one in the 7th. The only hitless starter was Miguel Tejada, not many games when you can say that.

Markakis watch: 2-5 (.306)

Tonight is another tough match up as Daniel “Box of chocolates” Cabrera (7-9, 4.74) pitches against Ervin “Almost an Oriole” Santanna (13-7, 4.50). As for Cabrera, you never know what your gonna get. Go O’s.

Rodrigo Lopez gets the hard luck loss. Its his 15th of the season.

Lopez pitched good. He didn’t deserve the loss, but when your offense scores 0 runs, its hard to avoid. He pitched 7 innings and gave up the only run of the game. He also walked 3 and gave up 5 hits. He struck out 4 batters. James Hoey continued where Lopez left off, going one perfect inning. Here is yet another example of why you can’t base a pitchers ability on their record alone. Sure Rodrigo is having a terrible season and by all indicators he shouldn’t be kept around for another year, but he didn’t deserve the loss this time. On another note, Hoey has looked good since a shaky first couple of outings.

The hitting was anemic and couldn’t even muster up a run. As a whole they had 7 hits, all singles, and were caught stealing twice. Miguel Tejada and Kevin Millar had 2 hits each. Melvin Mora, Jay Gibbons, and David Newhan had the other 3. So Jered Weaver keeps up his dominating pitching against the O’s, along with the rest of the league. And to think I traded him in my keeper fantasy baseball league…

Markakis watch: 0-4 (.304)

Tonight its Kris Benson’s (10-10, 4.78) turn to most likely get the hard luck loss, or no decision. The Angels are going with John Lackey (11-9, 3.63), one of the most underrated pitchers in my opinion. Go O’s.

Hayden Penn gets the loss in his debut. He is now 0-1 with an ERA of 108.00.

Penn couldn’t even get out of the first inning. He pitched 2/3rds of one and gave up 8 hits and 8 runs, including a grand slam by Dan Johnson. Shaky outing to say the least for Penn, but I wouldn’t dwell on it. He was leaving pitches in the middle of the plate and throwing mostly fastballs. There are many things that could have been the cause of the outing, but lets just see it for what it is and move on. Obviously Penn isn’t this bad and you should’nt make any judgements on his ability from this start. He’ll be a great pitcher for us, don’t worry about it. My man Russ Ortiz came in for Penn and immediatly gave up a homerun. By the end of his 3 and a third he gave up another one, along with 3 other hits and a walk. He did have 5 strikeouts though…(sigh). Winston Abreu shows why he should’nt have been sent down earlier in the year by tossing 3 shutout innings with 2 K’s. Bruce Chen also threw a scoreless inning somehow, despite walking 3 and giving up a hit.

The offense got a run on the board in the first and then immediatly shut it down for the day. Miguel Tejada went 3 for 3 with a double. Fernando Tatis hit a double. Brian Roberts, Brandon Fahey, David Newhan, and Chris Gomez had singles. That was about it for the hitting. Not gonna get too much production when you have that to look back on. Just one of those games you pretend never happened…

Markakis watch: 0-4 (.307)

Tomorrow night we go from Oakland to Anaheim to battle the Angels. Rodrigo Lopez (9-14, 6.17) gets a start against rookie phenom Jered Weaver (9-2, 2.33) who got his first start against the O’s. Lets put an end to his hot streak. Go O’s.

Adam Loewen gets his 5th win of the season. Chris Ray earned his 31st save.

Loewen was very strong through 5 innings before he fell apart a little bit. His final line was 5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 7 K. 2 of the walks came in the 6th inning, where he couldn’t even record one out. Julio Manon came in for him and gave up a homerun in an inning of work. James Hoey followed with a scoreless inning. LaTroy Hawkins got 2 outs in the 8th before Chris Ray came in and finished off the 8th and 9th innings and recieved the save. Pretty solid work from the usually not-so-solid bullpen.

The offense consisted of the first 4 hitters of the order. Brian Roberts went 2-5 with a triple, Chris Gomez went 2-5 with two doubles, Nick Markakis went 2-5 with a double, and Miguel Tejada had a hit. The rest of the lineup went a combined 1 for 16 with 2 walks. Luckily for us we at least have that strong top of the lineup. You can really tell the difference with Patterson, Hernandez, and Mora not in the lineup, and they’re not even having that good of seasons.

Markakis watch: 2-5 (.311)

Today is Hayden Penn’s (0-0, 0.00) long overdue season debut. In his first start he will be facing Esteban Loaiza (8-7, 4.82) who has struggled this year. Go O’s.

Todd Williams gets the credit for the loss, thats his 4th.

Erik Bedard started and pitched a solid, but not spectacular game. He gave up 3 runs over 6 innings and struck out 6. He also gave up 6 hits and walked 4. Thats alot of sixes, probably why we lost the game. Bedard was in line for the win before Todd Williams came in and gave up a 2-run homer to Frank Thomas in the 7th. But you really can’t blame Williams. Melvin Mora fielded the ball for what should have easily been the final out of the inning, but chucked the ball over the first baseman’s head. The next batter, you guessed it… Frank Thomas. James Hoey pitched a perfect 8th to round things off, he struck out a batter too.

Mora may have made the crucial error, but he did have a big night at the plate, going 3-5 with a double and his 14th homerun. Copying off of Nick Markakis, who went hitless for the first time in a while. David Newhan led off and also had 3 hits, including his first double of the season. Chris Gomez hit a double and newly called up Jeff Fiorentino came in with a 2-RBI single. The hitting wasn’t especially bad, but it sure wasn’t good enough after the error in the 7th.

Markakis watch: 0-4 (.309)

Adam Loewen (4-4, 5.56) gets his first shot at the Oakland A’s in his career. He’ll be sharing the mound with Dan Haren (12-10, 3.80). Go O’s.