No Happy Ending For O’s……Again

May 24, 2009

 

Today I made the 40 mile trek down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to watch the Orioles go for a sweep of their inter-league rivals, the Washington Nationals, even though all signs pointed to an Orioles defeat. Going into the series finale, the O’s were 2-12 in the final game
of a series, including an 0-6 record on the road. The Birds carried a 1-5 record on Sundays and were 2-10 in day games. Talk about going up against the odds!

We were told parking was limited around Nationals Park, so we took the Metro from the Greenbelt Station and exited at the Navy Yard stop, which put us right at the centerfield entrance to the ballpark. After we got our tickets, we entered the park and had plenty of time to take an informal tour of the home of the Nationals.

 

 It was my first visit to Nationals Park, and I must admit, I was impressed. Unlike Oriole Park, which has three basic levels, the seating bowl in Nationals Park is broken up into five or six different tiers, giving fans plenty of unique views of the action. I love the open concourse area, which gives you a view of the entire field as you navigate your way around the inside of the park.

As for the game, it was an all too familiar story for the Orioles this season. Once again, the Birds jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, only to see the Nats come back with two in the fifth, and two more in the sixth, on an Adam Dunne two-run blast to gain the advantage.

 

Following a leadoff single by Brian Roberts to start the top of the seventh, Adam Jones, who’s had an All-Star like start to his season, recaptured the lead for the O’s with a two-run bomb of his own.

 

In the bottom half of the inning, Anderson Hernandez and Willie Harris singled off of struggling reliever Chris Ray. Following a sacrifice by Cristian Guzman, Ryan Zimmerman was walked intentionally to load the bases. That’s when Orioles manager Dave Trembley made the ill-fated decision to bring in left-handed reliever Jamie Walker to face Adam Dunne. As has happened all too often the last two seasons, Walker failed to get the job done and Dunne crushed his second home run of the game, a grand slam, to put the Nats back on top, 8-5.

The Birds went quietly in the eighth and ninth and had to settle for taking two out of three from their National League rivals.

Written by mlblogsbirdbuzz Posted in Dailies Tagged with Adam Jones, Chris Ray, Jamie Walker, Nationals, Nationals Park, Orioles