K-Rod has rare bad performance, Orioles rally to beat Mets in 9th / Stammen, Nationals shut out Yankees

6/18--Baltimore, MD. Francisco Rodriguez did not have his best stuff tonight and the Baltimore Orioles were able to rally for 2 runs in the 9th to defeat the New York Mets 5-4. Matt Weiters led off the inning with a double and was lifted for pinch runner Felix Pie. Nolan Reimold came up next as a pinch hitter for SS Robert Andino and drew a walk. The next batter was Brian Roberts. He bunted and catcher Omir Santos elected to throw to third but it was not in time, loading the bases for Adam Jones who walked in the tying run.The next batter was Nick Markakis. Carlos Beltran then came in to be a "5th infielder" in case of a ground ball that was unreachable for second baseman Luis Castillo. Rodriguez was able to strike Markakis out to birng up the hero, Aubrey Huff. Beltran was sent back to play his normal center field position but it would make no difference where he stood as Huff singled giving the O's a 5-4 win. Said Rodriguez “It was awful. I didn’t get the job done,” he said. “I’m a human being. Unfortunately, days like this are going to happen. It happened to me and I’ve just got to move on.” (Source: David Ginsburg, AP sports writer - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=290618101)

All of this came after a 7th inning in which both Daniel Murphy and Carlos Beltran each singled home runs giving the Mets a 4-2 lead.

Mets starter, Livan Hernandez was very good allowing only 2 runs on 8 hits over 7 innings. He struck out 4 and walked 1. Despite his team letting him down, Hernandez remains unbeaten since April 23rd.

Orioles starter Jason Berken pitched well in his 6.2 innings of work. He allowed 4 runs on 7 hits while striking out 8 and walking only 1. He stared to weaken in the 6th and 7th when he allowed the tying runs to score and the lead runs to get on base before bieng replace by Danys Baez with 2 outs in the 7th.

6/18--Bronx, NY. After a 5 1/2 hour rain delay, the Washington Nationals shut out the New York Yankees 3-0 behind Craig Stammen who got his first major league victory. This was also the first game at new Yankee Stadium in which no home runs were hit.

The Nationals were led by Ryan Zimmerman's 3 hits and slick fielding to give them they're first 2 game win streak since they had a 3 game streak from May 7-9. They also became the last team in the majors to record a shutout as Stammen, Ron Villone, Julian Tavarez, Joe Beimel and Mike MacDougal (second save) combined on the effort.

Starter Stammen went 6.1 innings allowing 6 hits, striking out 2 while not walking a batter.

Adam Dunn, Wil Nieves and Ryan Zimerman drove in the Nationals runs. They were numbers 47, 10 and 43 respectively. Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher led the Yankees with 2 hits each. 7 Yankees were left on base in the game.

Whats on tap:
Mets vs Rays
Yankees vs Marlins

Huff's home run leads Orioles to victory over Mets

6/17---Baltimore, MD.Pedro Feliciano has been pitching exceedingly well as of late. He has not given up any runs in 29 of his 33 appearances this season before play began. Coming into the game u with one out in the seventh, Nick Markakis greeted Feliciano rudely with a single. The next batter was Aubrey Huff. He proceeded to deposit a cutter that caught too much of the plate over the right field fence to give the Orioles a 6-4 lead that would prove to be the final score. "I hung it inside," Feliciano said. "He had a good swing." (Source: Anthony DiComo, mlb.com -http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090617&content_id=5373180&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym ) George Sherill pitched a perfect ninth for his 13th save of the season.

Mets starter Tim Redding went 5.1 innings giving up 4 runs on 7 hits. He struck out 2 and walked 4. O's starter Koji Uehara went 5 innings giving up 2 runs on 7 hits. He struck out 5 and didn't walk a batter.

In the game Orioles rookie Matt Wieters hit his first major league home run in the 2nd inning.

Whats on tap:
Weekend baseball report will be up on either Sunday night or Monday morning.
Ring of Honor on HD Net from 6/20

Strong outing for Pelfrey as Mets defeat O's / Cano/Sabathia lead Yanks past Nats

6/16--Mike Pelfrey hadn't won in his last 5 decisions before last night's 6-4 win at Camden Yards. Pelfrey went 5.2 innings allowing 2 runs on 2 hits while walking 3 and striking out 2 to improve his season record to 5-2. Pelfrey's velocity increased over the course of his outing as his fastball was able to max out at 94mph in the 5th inning.

The Mets got their big break offensively in the 4th inning which also saw the Orioles play some bad defense. Fernando Martinez lead off with a walk that was followed by a Brian Roberts error that allowed Carlos beltran to reach safely.Wright then singled Martinez home and Beltran was able to advance to third on on a bad throw from the outfeild. Ryan Church came up next and singled Beltran home and then Gary Sheffield singled to load the bases. The next batter, Daniel Murphy, hit a sac fly and Brian Schneider singled home the Mets fourth run of th inning before Louis Castillo grounded into a double play.

The Orioles made it 4-2 in the 6th inning with a Nick Markakis home run with Adam Jones singling before him. In the 7th the Mets were able to plate two more due to more poor defensive play by the O's, with Alberto Castillo having replaced Jeremy Guthrie on the mound. Two singles by Alex Cora and Fernando Martinez chased Castillo from the game and h was replaced by Danys Baez. A David Wright pop up was dropped by first baseman Aubrey Huff leading to two Mets runs scoring.

In the 9th, the Orioles tried getting the game tied by getting the first two men on against Bobby Parnell. Francisco Redriguez came into the game next and the Orioles could only manage 2 more runs before K-Rod closed the door for his 17th save in 18 trys.

Jeremy Guthrie ptceh farily well for the O's. Of the 5 runs he gave up in 6.1 innings, only 3 were earned. He struck out 4 and walked 2.

The combination of Sean Green and Pedro Feliciano continued they're fine pitching that they have been doing of late. Green went 1.2 innings and Feliciano 0.2 allowing nothing in they're combined efforts. Green continues to improve,looking nothing like he did when he struggled mightliy from May until this recent hot streak.


6/13 -- Bronx, NY. The Yankees were able to get another strong outing from ace CC sabathia as they defeated the lowly Washington Nationals 5-3. Sabathia pitched a strong 7.2 innings while striking out 2 and walking 1. The only hiccup in his outing was a 5th inning 3 run home run off the bat of Anderson Hernandez who is not known for his power.

The New York runs came on RBIs by Mark Taxiera, Melky Cabrera, Ramiro Pena and 2 from Robinson Cano, his 40th and 41st of the year.

Sabathia was able to keep his team in the game after the Hernandez home run until the offense was able to tie and eventually get the lead. Mariano Rovera cam on in the 9th to get his 15th save.

Nat's starter Shairon Martis was solid, keeping his team in the game during his 6 innings on the mound. Martis' problem was 5 walks which shortened the length of his outing. “His sinker was working real good but he started a little up and that’s why he threw so many pitches,” catcher Wil Nieves said of Martis. “His sinker was moving so good it was running away from the corner.” (Source: Jay Cohen, AP sports writer - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=290616110)