W – Max Scherzer (6-6)     L – Brad Bergesen (3-6)     SV – Phil Coke (1)

The good news about last night is that our core young positional players continued to play well after such a terrible start. The bad news is that we lost again. We only scored two runs but it was the same two players involved in each situation. Adam Jones led off the 7th with a double down the left field line and scored on a Matt Wieters line drive single up the middle. Jones was going to stop at third but the centerfielder let the ball trickle past him and the run to score. In the 9th Jones led off with a triple down the right field line and scored on Matt Wieters’ sacrifice fly. Nick Markakis singled and walked, Felix Pie tripled, and Josh Bell hit a single in three at bats. Cesar Izturis singled and walked in the game. Tigers starter Max Scherzer has been pitching very well since a short trip to the minors about a month ago and he continued that last night. He overpowered the Orioles early on and limited the damage in the later innings.

Brad Bergesen did a decent job getting ground balls but he just gave up too many hits and on a couple of occasions when he left the ball up he got hit hard. The first batter of the game doubled, moved to third on a bunt, and scored on a groundout. He hung a slider to the number nine hitter to lead off the 3rd inning and he hit it out of the ballpark to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Detroit made a two out rally in the 5th to score two more runs with a double, single, double string. Bergesen came out for the 7th but gave up a single and a walk without recording an out and was taken out of the game. His final line was 6 IP, 11 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Matt Albers came in and was able to get out of that jam in the 7th and pitched a perfect 8th inning to keep the game close. Its clear that Juan Samuel doesn’t trust Albers as much as Dave Trembley did. He was Trembley’s go to guy in the beginning of the season but doesn’t see near as much time nowadays. You can see why a manager might like him in outings like last night but hes way too inconsistent to be put in many high leverage situations.

Player of the game: Adam Jones – 2-4, 2 R, double (11), triple (4) (.275 AVG)

Its off to Texas now for a four game series with the Rangers. Jeremy Guthrie (3-10, 4.64) starts things off against another rookie thats been on a roll, Tommy Hunter (5-0, 1.98).

W – Ryan Perry (2-4)     L – David Hernandez (3-7)

Jake Arrieta pitched a very good game and deserved to be rewarded with a win on his record but the bullpen made sure that didn’t happen. Arrieta gave up a run in the bottom of the 2nd inning but was able to keep Detroit off the board other than that over 6.1 strong innings. He gave up 7 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 4 batters. Hes really bounced back from those two consecutive bad outings which is encouraging. The young guys have been pitching better than the veterans recently. With one out and a runner on second with a lefty due up, Will Ohman came into the game. He got Johnny Damon to ground out and then Jason Berken was called upon. He struck out the first batter he faced to end the inning and came back out for the 8th. Unfortunately he didn’t have much success after the break between innings. He gave up a triple to lead it off, then a single, a strikeout, and another triple knocked him out of the game. Alfredo Simon came in and got out of the jam without allowing any more damage. While I would’ve went with David Hernandez in the save situation, Simon is our “closer” so he stayed on for the 9th. With a two run lead he walked the lead off batter. After a strikeout Miguel Cabrera made him pay with a two run bomb to tie it up. Hernandez did come in for the 10th and got a 1-2-3 inning but gave up the game winning two run homer without getting an out in the 11th.

The offense was all over Tiger pitching, lashing out with 17 hits in the ballgame. The problem was we were 3-17 with runners in scoring position and only three of the hits went for extra bases. In the 7th Miguel Tejada led off with a single and Nick Markakis gave us a 2-1 lead with his 5th homerun of the season. It was a laser beam into right center field. After a couple of outs Matt Wieters laced a triple into the right center field gap and scored on Felix Pie’s single. Wieters also doubled in the game and his swing looks much better than it had for the past couple months. I have a feeling hes much more comfortable at the plate and is about to break out like we’ve all expected him to. Pie made a nice return from the disabled list with a pair of singles in the game. Markakis brought in another run in the 8th when he singled in Cesar Izturis after an intentional walk to Tejada. Adam Jones led off the 9th with a single and scored on Julio Lugo’s single. Jones had a pair of hits in the game. He also walked and was hit by a pitch to help out his on base percentage. Ty Wiggington punched in two singles of his own. The only starter without a hit was Corey Patterson (0-6) but he got on base with a walk.

Player of the game: Nick Markakis – 3-6, R, 3 RBI, HR (5) (.308 AVG)

The series comes to a close tonight as Brad Bergesen (3-5, 6.44) tries to repeat his last performance against Max Scherzer (5-6, 4.88), who has been pitching good as of late.