This man is part of the reason we lost tonight (even though I also won because I like both teams). (Photo by me on 4/27/11 at Nationals Park.)

Unlike the rest of you, I both won and lost tonight because I happen to be a huge Mets fan, but I’ll try to keep my biases towards both teams out of this article for the sake of sounding like a normal person.

Here’s what happened: pitching happened. This game was extremely fast because for the most part R.A. Dickey and recent food poison victim Jake Arrieta were both dealing. In fact, Arrieta turned in his second quality start in a row, although the word ‘quality’ is sort of questionable because he sort of gave up a grand slam to Ike Davis in the sixth inning. He still pitched seven innings, though, saving the bullpen, and since he gave up the grand slam Buck Showalter was able to give Kevin Gregg some work. (Gregg promptly gave up a triple which led to a run and made the score 5-0 Mets in the eighth inning.)

On the other side, R.A. Dickey threw a one-hitter, his second in a row. A National League pitcher hasn’t pitched back-to-back starts and given up one hit or less since the 1940s. I mean, that’s just incredible. There’s nothing the Orioles could do tonight – at least they got to be part of history in a way, albeit negative.

I’m sad because my standing appointment on Tuesdays is going to prevent me from watching the game tomorrow night, but I shouldn’t be selfish and wish for extra innings even though both teams have well-rested bullpens right now. What I can wish for? The Orioles need to figure out how to score runs without relying on the long ball. It’s a tall order at Citi Field. If they could at least learn to play a little small ball, they might not end up on the wrong end of games like this.

(I’d be fine if they don’t do it against the Mets, though. I like them very much, too.)