Tigers complete sweep of Orioles
The Detroit Tigers did what many expected of them by completing a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday in Detroit.
While the 4-2 result may have been closer than anticipated, it shouldn’t come as any surprise. The Tigers are the best team in the American League at home, with 30 wins and 12 losses, and the Baltimore Orioles are simply the worst team in the major leagues with a 25-59 record and a disappointing .298 winning percentage.
It was Max Scherzer who was the star of the match in his role as the Tigers’ starter. He pitched seven strong innings and let in only one run, as the Orioles sprinkled six hits throughout his innings, and he walked two and struck out six. From there his bullpen came in and pitched two innings and allowed one run. Phil Coke continued a strong season by picking up his first save of the year. He’s been a good omen for the Tigers - the past seven games he’s pitched in, they’ve won.
For the Orioles, Brad Bergesen continued a difficult season by allowing four runs over six innings. While it may not be a terrible number, it means he hasn’t picked up a win since May 17, a streak going on nine games. A slightly brighter spot was Matt Albers, who pitched two no-hit innings in relief and didn’t let in a run.
Scoring Summary
In a low scoring game, both teams grinded out their runs. Magglio Ordonez knocked in the game’s first run for the Tigers to score Austin Jackson from third. Shortstop Danny Worth hit a solo shot in the third innings to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Finally they added two more in the fifth as Carlos Guillen singled in Brad Boesch, who beat out a throw at home. He then scored off of Brad Inge’s single.
In the seventh, the Orioles finally managed to break through Scherzer, with Adam Jones scoring off of a single combined with an error by Jackson. He scored again in the ninth on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2, but that was all the Orioles could muster.
Scherzer rolls on
Scherzer pitched his fourth straight solid performance, having let in just three runs in his last four starts and is now 4-0 in his past five. He hasn’t lost since June 10th and has seen his ERA drop from 6.30 to 4.61 in that span.
After the game, Detroit manager Jim Leyland praised Scherzer’s performance.
“His command is good and the ball is coming out of his hand an easy 94, 95,” Leyland said. “He’s on a pretty decent roll right now.”
He said he had to pull him out after the seventh because his pitcher was simply too tired, but other than that he had nothing but good things to say about his starter.
"He pitched great," Leyland said."He was spent after getting out of the seventh, but he pitched a great game against a good hitting team."
As for Bergesen, he said he attempted to let them put the ball into play and try to limit their extra bases, but was a little disappointed with his performance.
"It's a great lineup." Bergesen said. "I wanted to pitch to contact, limit them to singles, but a couple of times I didn't do too good of a job with that."
Orioles continue to have clipped wings
The Orioles dropped to 34 games under .500, easily the worst in the majors. Juan Samuel is now 10-20 since taking over, which, surprisingly, is better than Dave Trembley did before him.
The victory puts Detroit a game above the Chicago White Sox at the top of the AL Central standings.
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