A beautiful night at "the Bob" on Monday, and a well played game between two long-time rivals. The Marlins got a run in the top of the first and the Orioles matched it in their half of the inning on a RBI single by Doug Reisinger. The Orioles used three singles and two stolen bases to plate two more runs in the bottom of the second and take a 3-1 lead. The O's pushed the lead to 4-1 with an insurance run in the 4th.
The game took on a familiar look in the top of the seventh as the Marlins staged a late rally. Mike Clary started things off with a sharp single to right. After a fielder's choice and a pop out to short, the Marlins got a walk from Paul Miles and a RBI double from Randy Craft. This cut the lead to 4-2 and put runners on second and third with the Marlins 3 and 4 hitters coming to the plate and two out. Orioles' manager, Paul Scuteri, immediately chose to intentionally walk Mike Girard to load the bases and bring Ron Lochner. For those who have been paying attention to the bulletin board, this was a risky strategy. Ron had gone 3-3 in situations where the game was on the line and teams had chosen to try him instead of Girard. This time however, Bob Bolt got Ron out on a gound out. Good call Mr. Scuteri.
The entire game was played in an incredible 90 minutes. Starters Bolt and Gadomski, and reliever Randy Craft got ahead of hitters and made them put the ball in play all game long. Each team gave up just one walk (other than the IBB in the seventh). If all games were this crisply played, there would be a lot more time after the games for those all important cooler sessions.
We all look forward to the rematch later in the year!

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 9th of June 2009 07:46:21 AM