Dear John Farrell,
Folks around here will tell you that I'm not a young man (lousy little soon to be banned folks), though I don't feel like I'm old or anything, I don't think my heart/blood pressure/laptop computer can stand Jon Rauch pitching in a 9th inning save situation game. Please find some other arrangement could you.
Thanks,
Tom
Other than the bottom of the 9th, that was a fun game. Brett Lawrie had a hit and a RBI in his first MLB at bat. We had 11 hits in all. Yunel Escobar, Colby Rasmus and Brett had 2 each. All the other starters had 1 except for J.P. Arencibia who took an 0 for 4 but he's been so hot lately, we'll allow him an 0 for. Aaron Hill drove in 2, Yunel, Rasmus and Lawrie drove in 1 each. Edwin Encarncion scored 2 runs and tried for a 3rd on a run on contact play, getting thrown out at the plate.
We could have scored more but we got enough.
Brad Mills had a pretty good start. He seemed to be leaving more pitches up than his first start but got the win with 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 3 earned, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. Not great, not terrible. Adam Jones took him deep after a long at bat where he finally left a pitch up across the middle of the plate.
Our relievers did a good job, if you ignore Rauch. Luis Perez came in with 2 on and 1 out in the 6th and got out of the jam. He gave up a single and made an error before getting a strikeout to start the 7th. The error was on a swinging bunt, the ball stopped near the line, Luis tried to throw past the runner, Robert Andino, who was clearly inside the running lane. 90% of the time he would have been called out for that, but not tonight. John Farrell got ejected from the game in the argument that followed. Jesse Litsch came in, with the 2 on and 1 out and got out of the inning quick. Frank Francisco had a 1, 2, 3 8th inning.
Then Rauch came in for the save in the 9th. He got 2 quick outs, then gave up a single and a run scoring double to worry us. But he got Adam Jones to pop out to end the game. Amazingly enough he didn't give up a home run for a change.
Jays of the Day are Litsch (.188 WPA), Rasmus (.151), EE (.115) and Yunel (.105). Suckage numbers went to JP (-.138), Thames (-.109 despite his first hit in a week) and Mills (-.120).
Lawrie had a nice day with the bat, but not a great day with the glove. He made 1 error and had another hard hit ball go through him, that he could have been given an error on. Also there was a throw to second that wasn't prefect on what could have been a double play. Likely opening night jitters.
Colby Rasmus had his hand stepped on, on a play at the plate. He was thrown out on a prefect throw by Orioles LFer Nolan Reimold. He came out of the game with a cut on his middle finger but should be able to play tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have a night game. Brandon Morrow (8-5, 4.58) gets the start. The Orioles go with Chris Tilman (2-4, 5.16). It would be a pretty tough transition from the soft throwing Mills to Brandon Morrow.
Game thread was fun tonight with everyone excited to see Lawrie. He didn't let us down.