Joe Guerrin tossed 4 innings of shutout ball allowing 1 hit and striking out 9 last night to lead the Orioles to their sixth straight win.
The Orioles once again used a balanced attack with 9 O's getting at least one hit and 8 different O's driving in at least one run. Mark Lennox led the way with three hits and John Pologa, Mark Dabney, Tony Nardacci and Joe Careccia each had two.
Mike Hart tossed five innings striking out 6 for the Peppers.
The Orioles improve to 6-1-1 and the Peppers fall to 2-6.
for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of facing the orioles, let me add to dick's summary.
dick's comments echo earlier ones but they don't tell the full story of why the o's are so good - and they are as good as their record indicates. it's not just that they have hitters in every part of the lineup -there's no rest for an opposing pitcher, i can promise that - but they play the game at a speed that's faster than most. they get on base - their hits crack off bats for liners left and right or they walk - and then they run. a good example: second baseman tony nardacci hit a liner a fair distance to the right field gap which our right fielder caught on one or two bounces. most hitters would have settled for a single. - but tony saw something: our right fiielder had to reach for the ball, stretching his left hand forward and in doing so, gave his back momentarily to the infield. the second tony saw the right fielder's back, he lit out for second, and made it, sliding in ahead of the throw. that sort of thing happens all game long.
it's a quicker game with these o's - and perhaps with every team in the top five or six - and to play with them, maybe beat them, other teams will need to wear their lighter baseball shoes, or have cannons in the outifield.
one note: our book shows the score was 15-3. don't know if that matters anywhere.