Game 78: Back and forth, back and forth.

If there's one kind of game I hate, it's the kind where we're winning than losing, winning than losing.  We won in the end so it's all good, but it's annoying as hell to keep taking leads only to have our pitching staff blow them.  Now, speaking of blowing leads.......how about that Red Sox/Orioles game?  The Sox were up by 9 at one point and the pen gave up 10 runs in 2 innings.  Amazing.  It was the biggest comeback in Orioles history.  Every now and again they manage to something right.  Ordinarily I can't stand Baltimore because we can't seem to beat them, but at least right now I like them.  Do that again a couple more times and I won't loathe you, I'll just dislike you.

Now while Boston's pen was blowing leads, our pen was doing the same but first let's get to our starter tonight.  Joba didn't do bad, but he was hardly stellar.  He went 5.1 innings, gave up 3 runs on 9 hits and walked 3 while striking out 4.  Again, not the best line we could hope for, but it's not the worst he could have done either.  We'll call it solidly mediocre.  The Twin Phils then came in (Coke and Hughes) and did a great job.  Then Brian Bruney came in to relieve Hughes and well.....let's just say we've seen him pitch better.  He gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and yet still got the win anyway.  Mo came in for save #501 and Yankees win.  Voila.  Speaking of Mo, he threw out the first pitch in the game tonight in honor of getting save #500 on Sunday.  

Our offense tonight was a bit blotchy.    Yes we got 8 runs on 11 hits, but we squandered too many chances to blow this game wide open early.  Fortunately the offense DID show up or else all those times our pen blew the leads we gave them would have sunk the game before it started.  Everyone in the starting lineup got a hit tonight, which is a good thing.  Derek went 1-5 with 2 RBI, Johnny Damon went 2-4, Alex went 1-4 with 2 RBI which came off a HR in the  7th that gave us a 5-3 lead (that promptly disappeared in the next inning) and the Cardiac Kids went a combined 3-7 with 3 RBI.  So while the offense came in drips and drabs and we could have done more earlier, at least this was a well-rounded effort.  Also, I'd like to point out that we got some stellar defense in the field from Alex tonight.  I know he seems to be favoring that hip occasionally, but he's been doing great out there so far.  That DP in the 2nd was magnificent.