So this first post will be about last night.
Hitting:
| AB | R | H | RBI | HR | BB | K | SB | LOB | Season Avg | ||
| B. Roberts 2b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .000 | |
| A. Jones cf | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .600 | |
| N. Markakis rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .333 | |
| M. Tejada 3b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | .000 | |
| L. Scott dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | |
| M. Wieters c | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .500 | |
| F. Pie lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .250 | |
| G. Atkins 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .250 | |
| C. Izturis ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .500 | |
| Totals | 37 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 21 | ||
Well, it's a two-sided issue. On the bright side, 7 of the 9 guys in the lineup hit safely. That is a positive that most of the lineup was able to produce a hit. The main negative was being 1-12 with RISP. That's just sad. We can hit, but not in the clutch. I think it's not only up to the players to produce at those times, but to the coaches, specifically Shelby and Samuel, to give the right signals for the situation and the guys at bat to give them the best opportunity to succeed.
Update: I did just hear Roberts talk. He brought up a good point. Three times (Tejada to LF in 9th, Roberts to SS, and Jones to 2B) there were hits with RISP that were great defensive plays. Jones' hit would've gone through by most 2B, then Roberts and Tejada just got unlucky because both of theirs were beautiful hits every day except the guy happened to be RIGHT THERE. Hopefully the ball location can be better now!
Cesar Izturis went 2-4. That's a stupid stat to read too much into. Both hits were blooper infield taps that were both just played badly by the shortstop. Don't expect him to be a consistent hitter, although I wish he was. Put Lugo in there!
Pitching: Looked quite good through 8. Millwood came out and pitched 5 innings of 2 run ball. With a solid 6:2 K:BB ratio, he will want to work on inducing more ground balls for DP and some fly balls too. He allowed 9 hits in those 5 innings, which means he leaves his first game with a horrendous WHIP of 1.83. The bullpen proved to be great in middle relief last night. Albers threw 1.1, Ohman 0.2, and JJ 1, allowing only one hit between the 3 in those 3 innings and no runs. The issue came with Mike Gonzalez. Throughtout Spring he had said he was down in speed and with health but would show up in the regular season. He told the truth about the speed, breaking 90 and hitting 93 at his max for the night. The whole health thing, I guess he was healthy enough to pitch, didn't look in pain. But about showing up to play well, he didn't exactly do that. Gonzalez had his big debut in the 9th. The Orioles had the 3-2 lead, and although that wasn't a huge lead, it should still be enough to hold a win for our much touted new closer. He struck out the first batter of the inning. From there, without going into details, he walked one, allowed 3 hits, 2 runs, and got the blown save. Lost it on a 2 run scoring single by Carl Crawford. He said in post-game interviews that he is disgusted by his performance. I guess he gets by with that response, but I didn't need to hear it. It was known to all.
The O's come out tonight to battle again at the Trop. My hopes for tonight:
-Guthrie throws some good stuff and keeps the hits down. The Rays only scored their first two runs last night because of so many hits, not much slugging except Longoria's 437 ft. blast. Can he please return to '07 form? I just want 6 innings of low run count baseball out of him!
-Clutch hitting needs to show up. When there's men on second and third with no outs (happened last night), don't pop up, strike out, then ground out. Get some guys in!
-Bullpen needs to continue to be solid. We saw some last night, so expect Hendrickson and/or Berken to make their debuts.
-I know the bottom of the lineup sort of produced, but I much rather see some production from Roberts. He leads off and even Adam Jones said in a pre-game interview how Roberts sets the tone right from the beginning. Tejada too. Come on.
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