Baltimore Orioles beaten by Cleveland Indians 2-6 at Oriole Park – MLB Update
Baltimore Orioles lost to the Cleveland Indians 2-6 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, July 1 in the finale of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Ryan Flaherty put the Orioles on the board in the fifth inning after the Indians had taken an early 5-0 lead. Adam Jones doubled to deep-centre in the sixth to keep Baltimore in the game, reducing Indians’ lead 2-5. However, apart from Jones and Flaherty
none of the Orioles’ hitters could convert scoring opportunities and the Indians held on to their lead comfortably to complete an emphatic series victory.
Orioles’ starting pitcher Brian Matusz took his fifth straight loss as he allowed five runs and seven hits with three walks in just over four innings. In his last five lost starts, he has allowed 20 earned runs and 40 hits.
"No, not at all. In my last five, six outings just haven't been getting the job done," Matusz said. "Today was just really inconsistent, I had some signs of good pitches, just haven't been putting it together. It's killing the bullpen. It's making it tough,
so moves have to be made. I have to go down and get better."
"Being able to finish by winning three of four boosts the boys as we head back home, finally," Indians’ starting pitcher James Masterson said.
Cleveland Indians entered the game with a 2-1 series lead and they were the favourites to emerge victorious.
Orioles, on the other hand, had the home conditions working in their favour but they were unable to use them effectively. Manager Buck Showalter will be very disappointed with his teams’ performance in a series that was important to them in more than one
way.
With a series sweep against the Indians, the Orioles could have replaced the New York Yankees at the top of American League East Division standings table.
However, that did not turn out to be the case as they lost three out of four against Cleveland. It will be interesting to see if Baltimore can up their game-play a bit in the upcoming months to give the Yankees a tough time at the top of the standings table.
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