O's From the Booth - May 15, 2012 - AM

Good morning Orioles fans.  I was not able to post last night.  I am home with a sick little one today so I figured I would post now.

The O's let a couple of leads slip away last night.  They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones RBI's.  The Yankees battled back with 2 to tie in the 4th on a two run double by Nick Swisher.  

The Yanks took the lead in the 5th on a Eutaw Street blast by Curtis Granderson. It always seems to be Granderson, Swisher, and Jeter that really kill the Orioles pitching.  

The O's battled right back in their half of the 5th scoring 3 runs to take the lead 5-3.  J.J. Hardy hit his 9th home run of the year way up in the left field bleachers. 

Jason Hammel ran out of steam in the 6th inning not getting an out.  The Yanks scored two to tie the game.  Hammel gave up 5 runs, 4 of them earned on 7 hits in 5+ innings. Chris Davis did not help as he had a rough night at 1st base.  He botched a double play ball earlier in the game allowing the inning to continue and a run scored.  He then let a ball get by him in the 6th inning allowing 2 runs to score.  Needless to say the two corner positions have not been good for the O's this year.  

The O's have now committed 35 errors.  The defense has to get better if this team wants to stay in contention.   On a positive note, Xavier Avery had a double and a triple last night for his first two major league hits. How cool for him for Derek Jeter to greet you at 2nd base on your first major league hit.  You could see Derek acknowledge it too and he threw the ball into the O's dugout.

I love Derek Jeter. He is just a class act and reminds me so much of what Cal Ripken was to the Orioles.  Xavier Avery could very well be our lead off hitter of the future.  We will see.  He seems to have all the tools.  

The Yankees tacked on 2 more runs in the 8th and one more in the 9th and won the game 8-5.  The O's are now tied for 1st as the Rays won their game against the Blue Jays.  

The O's need to win tonight to get the split of this short two game series and go on the road on a winning note.  They go to Kansas City for a short two game series and then to DC to battle the Nationals in a 3 game Parkway series.

Phenom Bryce Harper hit his 1st Major League home run last night for the Nats at age 19.  He seems to be the real deal.   Let's hope Wei-Yen Chen can get the O's back in the win column tonight.  It will not be easy as he opposes C.C. Sabathia. This should be a great pitching match up. Go O's!!!!!