Thoughts and Notes on Tonights 4-1 Victory

     This is my blog, so I can give two Player of the Game Awards. The first recipient is obviously Zach Britton. The rookie pitched 6 solid innings tonight, and worked himself out of some tough situations. He really impressed me with his poise tonight, most notably in the 5th inning. Facing Adrian Gonzalez in the top of the 5th with the bases loaded, Britton was able to keep the game at 2-1. Britton had attacked Gonzalez on the inside part of the plate in his first two at-bats, so Gonzalez made the adjustment and backed off the plate a little bit in this at-bat. Wieters and Britton recognized this, and attacked Gonzalez away and ultimately forced the Red Sox slugger to hit into a fielders choice to end the Red Sox threat.

     The second recipient of the Player of the Game Award goes to a player who did not even record a hit in the game. That player would be Adam Jones. Jones had three quality "team at-bats" that while they all resulted in outs, were productive. In his first at-bat in the bottom of the 2nd, Jones battled Buchholz in an eleven pitch encounter. Jones continually fouled off Buchholz's pitches, allowing him as well as the rest of the team to see more and more of the Red Sox pitcher's repotoire. Jones also picked up two RBIs with sac flies in the 3rd and 5th innings. While Jones finished the night 0-1, he had three productive at-bats, picked up 2 RBIs, and was intentionally walked in his only other plate appearance.

     It was good to see the Orioles 3-4-5 hitters have a good game at the plate. Derrek Lee, Vladimir Guerrero, and Luke Scott went a combined 7 for 12 at the plate and scored all four of the Orioles runs. Six of those seven hits were singles, with Luke Scott providing the only extra base hit with his 7th inning double, but it was still good to see this kind of production from the middle of the lineup.

Notes
- Matt Wieters came into the game a perfect 6 for 6 with runners in scoring position. He extended it to 7 for 7 with his infield single in the 2nd inning, but ended his streak with a ground out in the 7th.

- Brian Roberts extended his hitting streak to 12 games with his 6th inning single.

- Jim Johnson recorded held the opponent scoreless for his fourth straight appearance spanning five innings. Johnson has struck out six over that span, including four in two innings tonight.

- Adam Jones' two sacrifice flies in a game fell one short of the Major League record of 3 in a game,which has happened 11 times, the most recent in 2002 by Edgar Martinez.

- Zach Britton is the first rookie pitcher in the history of the St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles franchise to record 4 wins in the month of April.

- Britton has also pitched at least 6 innings in each of his five starts this year.

- Kevin Gregg recorded his third consecutive scoreless appearance after giving up runs in two straight appearances against the Yankees and Twins on April 14th and 18th.

- All nine Orioles' starters reached base. Adam Jones and Robert Andino were hitless in the game, but both reached via walks.