Orioles Shut Out Braves For 2nd Straight Day

For the first time since August of 2010 the Orioles have posted back to back shut outs. You got to love quality pitching from the Orioles. The Orioles beat the Braves 2-0 due to the shutout. Tonight's brilliant pitcher was Wei Yin Chen. He went seven scoreless for the victory tonight. Chen lowered his ERA to 3.36 and picked up win #7 in the process. He now joins Hammel in the 7 win club, in fact they are the 1st Orioles teammates to record 7 wins by this point in the season since 1999. In 1999 Mussina had 8 wins at this point and wait for it...Sidney Ponson had 7 wins.

Obviously, since Chen pitched only 7 innings there were others involved in the shut out. One of those pitchers was Darren O'Day, who did not even record an out. That has got to be an interesting piece of history. The bullpen's effort was led by Jim Johnson who picked up his 20th save of the season. No way Johnson doesn't get an all-star appearance. He lowered his ERA to 1.21. The other bullpen stud also came through as Pedro Strop lowered his ERA to 1.42 and picked up his 12th hold. One other pitcher was involved in the shutout and his name was Troy Patton. Patton's ERA now sits at 3.45 as he pitched 2/3 of the 8th. Strop retired the only batter he faced.

Brian Roberts had the day off for the offense as they were pretty stagnant today. They did manage to get two runs today though. The offense was paced by Steve Pearce and Adam Jones who each scored a run. Even without Markakis and Reimold, the offense is being carried by the outfield. This Jones guy might be an all-star.

-Noland

Hammel Throws 1 Hitter Against Braves

Can the Orioles move to the National League? After destroying the Pirates in a sweep and running the NL starter with the best ERA out of the game yesterday I think it may be the way to go. Oh ya and Jason Hammel went through the Braves lineup like it was nothing.

Jason Hammel threw a complete game 1 hit shutout. Amazing. Before I go on, I need to give Dan Duquette mad props on the trade that brought in Hammel. I was not a believer in this trade at first, because I loved Guthrie, but man was it brilliant. We got two stud pitchers for a pitcher that is struggling currently. Great job Duquette. During the spectacular performance, Hammel had 8 strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.87. He is now 7-2 and that performance may have earned him an all-star spot. It sure will be exciting to see the Orioles with multiple all-stars this season.

While Hammel was the big star he wasn't the only star. The bats were working too as the Orioles won 5-0. It was a bit of an overreach to say the Orioles ran Beachy out of the game, because he was hurt. However, they did get a run off of him and raise his ERA to 2.00. Following Beachy's removal, the O's made the Braves bullpen look horrible. The offense was lead by somebody you might not expect either. The new and improved Brian Roberts went 2-4 with 3 RBIs. An awesome effort from Brian who raised his batting average to .318. If BROB is hitting like that, this team is going to be difficult to stop. Steve Pearce was also 2-4 in the win.

Feel free to check out my new superhero blog I am starting in a couple minutes. The site should be up and running within the hour. It can be found at superheroscoop.blogspot.com.

-Noland