Baltimore O's Examiner

Baltimore Invaded by Red Sox Nation

It’s been a tough weekend for an Orioles fan. 

Trying to navigate the summer crowd downtown can be tough enough, but when you’re a single floating Orioles cap in a sea of Red it’s hard to keep good humor. 

Add painful losses to the mix and the early summer heat will get to you very quickly.

The Orioles took their fourth loss in a row Sunday and their third in three against the Red Sox on the weekend. 

On Saturday night, the bullpen was overpowered giving the O’s a 6-3 loss.  Chad Bradford gave up Manny’s number 500 and has surrendered homeruns in his last two appearances while recording only 2 outs total.

There was a time when Chad Bradford was a submarine specialist – now he’s got some work to do.

Things only went from bad to worse as the weekend progressed and the Orioles gave up 9 runs Sunday to lose 9-4.

Burres and Trachsel combined as an unlikely fourth starter by committee to lose this one.

Burres clearly struggled through his short 4 inning, 7 run outing.  After a strong April, Burres has hit some trouble while raising his ERA from 2.49 to 4.15 over the course of May. 

Trachsel unexpectedly pitched the last 5 innings of the game coming out of the bullpen.  He went on to give up 2 runs, but on the Trachsel scale that’s actually a very successful outing.

This assures that Trachsel will not start on Tuesday (I hear your sigh of relief) and we won’t hear from Trembley if it will be Matt Albers until after Monday’s game. 

The offense hasn’t had enough to overcome the Red Sox power, even with a strong 2 for 4 out of Luke Scott Sunday including a homerun, a double, and 2 of the team RBI. 

Young Boston right fielder Jacoby Ellsbury stole 7 bases this weekend, 6 on Ramon Hernandez.  Hey Ramon – I think he’s going.  You might want to think about keeping him on first Monday night.

The recent string of losses drop the O’s 3 games below .500 and a game and a half behind the Yankees.

On Monday, Jeremy Guthrie (2-6) attempts to save some home field dignity and avoid the dreaded 4-game sweep against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (3-4).  

‘Baltimore’ is Back on Uniform

Starting in 2009 the word Baltimore will once again appear on the front of the Orioles away jersey. 

Since 1972 the Orioles have been one of the 5 teams to feature their nickname on the away uniform, which has drawn some intense fan disapproval. 

Credit for the change is going to Peter Angelos, but no word yet on what has changed his mind. 

I know it’s not Andy MacPhail’s job, but when you think of what’s different from previous years and this year, and you look at MacPhail’s other good decisions, I start to wonder if he doesn’t have at least something to do with it.

(AP Photo) Pat Dobson 1971

 

Topics: Orioles , Steve Trachsel , Brian Burres , Baltimore

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