Baltimore Orioles beat Oakland Athletics 6-1 to avoid series sweep – MLB Update
Baltimore Orioles secured an important 6-1 against the Oakland Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, July 29 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Adam Jones doubled to deep-centre in the third to break the deadlock and put Orioles on the board. Matt Wieters homered to left-centre in the third and he later grounded into fielder choice to third to extend Baltimore’s lead to 5-0.
Second baseman Omar Quintanilla hit his second home-run of the season in the sixth to help his side take an impassable 6-1 lead. Orioles’ starting pitcher Wei Yin Chen struck-out season high 12, allowing just a run in five plus innings for his ninth win.
"When he has stuff like that today, he's going to get some strikeouts," said Wieters, Chen's battery mate. "More importantly, their team was trying to be patient and wait him out, and that's going to get you in some deeper counts. When he got the two strikes,
he was able to put them away."
"I'm sure he'll be modest about it, but there's not a second you don't take that in and realize (what it means)," Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter said.
It was a much needed win for the Orioles who had lost the first two games of the series. The A’s, on the other hand, will be disappointed with the fact they lost an excellent chance to wrap up a rare series sweep at Oriole Park.
Despite losing the game on Sunday evening, Oakland has moved to second place on American League West Division standings. Not too long ago, the Athletics were at the bottom of the league standings. Credit should be given to them for turning things around
dramatically.
Orioles, on the other hand, will take a lot of confidence from their win on Sunday. Right now, they are tied for the second place on AL East with Tampa Bay Rays and it will be interesting to see if Buck Showalter and company can make it to the playoffs this
year after 12 consecutive lost seasons.
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