The O's would strike first when in the top of the 4th inning Boog Powell singled up the middle with two outs. Davey Johnson followed up with line drive homerun that just hooked inside the right field foul pole. Then in the 7th they would rally, starting with a lead off double by Ellie Hendricks, who would score when Mark Belanger singled over Pepper Martin's head and down the third base line. Palmer, who was on cruise control, was not pinch-hit for and grounded into a double-play but the top of the O's lineup would come through. Lead-off man Merv Rettenmund singled in between short and third and was followed by a gapper into right field by Paul Blair, scoring Rettenmund.
That would be all the scoring Baltimore needed with Palmer pitching his best game of the young season. St. Louis, who had threatened early in the game, came up short thanks to timely strikeouts (Palmer finished with seven) and routine groundballs that the solid Oriole infield ate up all day. The Cards would finally get on the board in the bottom of the 7th, after Virgil Davis would start with a leadoff double, Leo Durocher would single with a hotshot back up the middle, glancing off of Palmers glove and into the outfield. Durocher would score on the play but pinch hitter Bill DeLancey would strikeout and player/coach/lead-off hitter Frankie Frisch would ground to short to end the inning. St. Louis would only muster one hit in the last two innings as Palmer finished for the complete game, his second of the year.
The O's moved to 1-6 on the year while the Cards drop to 5-2.
WP: Jim Palmer (1-1)
LP: Tex Carleton (1-1)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||||||
| Orioles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| Cardinals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
Well it's about time. The Orioles balance of pitching, hitting, and fielding was bound to come out sometime. Maybe this will jump start their season - they've dug a nice hole for themselves. With 33 games remaining, they'll have to go 19-14 the rest of the way just to get to .500.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Cards, they got a nice outing from Carleton, too bad they wasted it. You know what they say about good pitching. I always like managing a team that has good hitter like Delancey coming off the bench. Maybe next time.
Yeah the Orioles fielding was something I forgot to mention in the Meet the Teams section. The O's and Dodgers are almost definitely the best fielding teams in the league.
ReplyDeleteBaltimore finally got some hitting in this game and hopefully this does start up their season and become more competitive. It would help the league out a lot in my opinion.