Jason Berken gets the hard luck loss, his 6th.
We really can’t hit left handed pitching. And we’re seeing alot of it. The offense could only manage 5 hits and they were all singles. Luke Scott had 2 of them. Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and Melvin Mora had the others. Mora also had a walk, as did Matt Wieters and Cesar Izturis. There has to be something Terry Crowley can do to prepare our hitters better for lefties. Its not even just this year, we’ve struggled against them historically in the past 10 years or so too.
The way Berken pitched, he deserved a better outcome than another loss on his resume. Thats 6 straight losing decisions since he won his major league debut. He went 5.2 innings giving up 5 hits, both runs, 2 walks, and had 1 strikeout. Matt Albers continued his recent success by pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless ball. He looks like the Albers of last year. Must be feeling recovered from the labrum problems. Kam Mickolio pitched a scoreless 9th.
Player of the game: Matt Albers (2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, K (3.58 ERA))
We face yet another lefty tonight in rookie Ricky Romero (7-3, 2.96). We’ve got our own lefty on the hill, Rich Hill (3-2, 7.43).
