Souvenir City! O's Sweep Sox 8-5 - N51_rob's Blog

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Souvenir City! O's Sweep Sox 8-5

Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:08 PM.

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Dunn hits one of Chicago's 3 homeruns, but it wasn't enough

Chicago, IL The running joke in the press pool after the game is that Batlimore could go 81-0 on the road and probably still miss the playoffs in the AL East given their 2-4 record at home. The Orioles completed the sweep of the Chicago White Sox Thursday in a game that saw five balls leave the park.

It was not a good day to be a starting pitcher. Both Gavin Floyd (0-2, 15.00) and Tommy Hunter (3-0, 5.12) were touched up for a combined 11 earned runs. For Floyd his 6 came in only 4 innings of work. It was an improvement over the 1.2 and 9 ER he allowed against the Tigers last time out. Hunter who pitched 7+ innings gave up 5 ER. Matt Lindstrom pitched a perfect 9th for his 2nd save in place of Jim Johnson as he was given a night off after pitching on 3 straight days.

Baltimore got on the board first in the top of the 2nd inning. Adam Jones hit his 4th double of the year, and he scored when Wilson Betemit drove him in with an RBI single his 10th RBI of the season. Chicago would answer back in the bottom of the 2nd when Gordon Beckham hit a 2 run HR (his 4th) following a single by AJ Pierzynski. The lead would last only one inning. Baltimore came back to retake the leas in the top of the 4th. Adam Jones again got the inning started with a triple into the right center gap. Matt Wieters singled him in, and Betemit followed him with a single and Chris Davis worked a walk to load the bases. 2B Robert Andino came up and promptly brought home Wieters and Betemit with another RBI single his 3rd and 4th RBIs of the year. Adam Dunn and the White Sox answered back in the bottom of the 4th with a solo home run dead center. After 4 innings the game was 4-3.

After the 4th Tommy Hunter settled down and would shut down the Chicago bats, over the next three innings. Unfortunatly, Gavin Floyd did not. In the 5th inning Markakis and Jones singled (leaving Jones a HR shy of the cycle). With runners on 1st and 2nd Betemit singled, Markakis scored and Jones went to 3rd. Mark Reynolds brought Jones home with a sac fly to stretch the lead to 6-3. Baltimore added another run in the 6th when Nolan Reimold hit a solo home run his second off Addison Reed.

Following a Mark Reynolds solo shot in the 8th to extend the lead to 8-3. Manager Buck Showalter let Hunter start the 8th inning. "Any chance you get to save your bull pen in April means more innings they can pitch in September so I let Tommy go out there to try to finish the 8th." Hunter didn't make it out of the 8th. Brent Lillebrige singled, and following a mound visit to give Luis Ayala more time Hunter gave up another HR the 3rd against him to Alexi Ramirez. That would be the last pitch that Hunter threw. Luis Ayala and Matt Lindstrom finished off the game. Despite his ERA reaching 5.12 Hunter improved to 3-0. Baltimore next heads Los Angeles to battle the Angles in the final three games of their road trip.

Brian Matusz and Scott Downs will face off in game 1.

Highlihgt from the game will be posted soon.