This was ugly. Like, really, really ugly. I don’t think we should even talk about this.

Basically, we looked horrible. See? Five runs each were on Dana Eveland and Tommy Hunter, and we weren’t able to answer very well. We just scored five overall.

Oh, but we did get Jim Thome, so now I can say JI-

JIM THOME a lot. He’s expected to be activated tomorrow, so I should honor The Dugout and write tomorrow’s recap in caps lock. Right? Of course I should.

And now…I think I’ll find a way to make this loss feel better. Fortunately, I have sheepdogs and cats for times like these…

She doesn’t like this game very much, but I do.

After four days of working at an anime convention doing cartooning-like things, I got to drive back home…to find that the Orioles won again.

Series win against the Phillies. Cliff Lee is still winless in 2012 (I honestly feel bad for the fellow). And to top it off, this weekend I got to see these people:

I think this was a pretty good weekend on the whole, but let’s talk about why today was good for the Orioles because, well, that’s kind of the point of this website.

The Orioles now have a 9-2 record in extras. That’s insane, to be honest. If any game they’re involved in goes into extras, the odds are roughly 82% in their favor – they’ve now won that many times past regulation game length. This time, it was a shorter affair, with Adam Jones scoring on a Matt Wieters double in the tenth inning, but nevertheless the ridiculous stat stands taller and taller with each passing win.

Things ended up falling on the shoulders of the bullpen this afternoon as they bailed out Jason Hammel, who apparently was quite hot today:

The bullpen’s effort came in support of Orioles’ starter Jason Hammel, who battled through six innings while sweating through three jerseys, matching a season-high 115 pitches in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.

Sometimes I miss being at Gettysburg and running down to Camden Yards in the warmer months. Nope, not today!

To be fair, though, Hammel did struggle with his fastball command today, which is a bit of an issue, but it’s really hard to pitch well when you’re dehydrated beyond belief.

The Phillies piled on most of their runs in the second, adding one more in the fourth after the Orioles initially led the game with one run in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the fourth, though, the Orioles scored three runs, and the game remained tied until the bottom of the tenth. Yeah, it was one of those bullpen games.

Also, poor Steve Tolleson. Kid hits the game-tying homer in the fourth and this is what’s written about him:

With Baltimore down in the fourth, 4-1, the rarely used Tolleson provided the game-tying three-run homer off Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee, who finished with four runs on seven hits and two walks in six innings. Lee took another no-decision to prolong his winless start to the season.

Rarely used. I don’t think he needs that rubbed in, but at least he went yard today!

I like this winning thing. I think I’ll go to sleep happy now.

Adam Jones is the best EVER, okay?

Seriously, a walk-off against the Phillies in the 12th inning. This is getting really fun.

To be fair, errors made it a lot easier – the Phillies made three of them, including a botched double play that occurred because the umpire ruled that Jimmy Rollins was off the bag, and the Orioles were able to capitalize, eventually taking a 4-3 lead after seven innings.

Of course, the Phillies then went and scored in the eighth, but that just made things Advantage Orioles because it led to the game going into extras. The Orioles are now 8-2 in extras, and apparently Adam Jones likes winning those for us with home runs..

I’m at an anime convention all weekend (cartooning being my other career besides historian/sportswriter), so I apologize in advance that these recaps haven’t been as detailed lately. To make up for that, here is a picture of Thor drinking in a bar. I witnessed this last night.

…oh. Right. Bad Arrieta. Damn.

Arrieta gave up all nine of the runs in his four innings of work. Relief came along in the fifth and the Phillies never scored again. Here’s the dreadful box score:

That’s pretty ugly. It’s also pretty clear what the Orioles’ problem was during this game. I mean, if Arrieta hadn’t given up nine runs over his four innings of work – especially the six in the second inning – things might have been better, right? Right?

The problem here is that Arrieta is Matusz from last year. It’s depressing.

On the other hand, I like the way the Orioles find ways to score throughout the game. Their runs are scattered throughout the box score, which, strangely enough, indicates to me that they never saw the game as over despite the fact that they were down 7-0 before they even got to take a turn at bat in the second inning. After Arrieta was out of the game, the Orioles scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning and then managed to add on two more in the seventh. This game ended a lot closer than it should have, but this team has heart.

I need sleep. Conventions make me tired.

FIRST PLACE. WE ARE IN IT. ALONE.

Yeah, I went there.

Wei-Yin Chen is back up to form – tonight he went seven innings, only allowing one run in the third on a sacrifice fly. Josh Beckett matched him through five, but the Orioles managed to tack on two runs in the sixth in an offensive explosion. I’m trying to think of a golf pun here, but golf isn’t the most explosive of sports, so I’m struggling.

There’s really not much else to this game – it was dominated by pitching for the most part. The Orioles have one more game in Boston before they head to the Land Of Pitching (TM), Philadelphia. To be fair, I’m not sure if I can really call it that right now since a lot of their pitchers are injured and poor Cliff Lee is still winless on the year, but the general idea is that at one point the Phillies rotation looked really stacked on paper. It’d be interesting to see if things actually played out the way they’re supposed to on paper – lots of pitching duels would be expected for the upcoming series. The problem is that Citizens Bank Park is the size of a sandbox, so a three-year-old T-ball player could homer there. Things really never work out the way they do on paper.

Let’s just finish up in Boston first before we think about any of this business, though. (If we sweep, I’ll be so entertained and confused. Really, really confused.)

Here’s your last-minute lineup for today!

ORIOLES
Randy Winn, CF
Brendan Harris, 2B
Nolan Reimold, LF
Jake Fox, DH
Josh Bell, 3B
Brandon Snyder, 1B
Nick Green, RF
Craig Tatum, C
Robert Andino, SS
Justin Duchscherer, SP

PHILLIES
Shane Victorino CF
Placido Polanco 3B
Jimmy Rollins SS
Ryan Howard 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Ben Francisco RF
John Mayberry DH
Carlos Ruiz C
Josh Barfield 2B
Cole Hamels P

Also expected to pitch today are Brian Matusz, Michael Gonzalez, and Jim Johnson. None of the Orioles reporters have mentioned who else is going to pitch for the Phillies today.

I am again going to miss this game due to my senior seminar, but here are the lineups for today’s game:

Lineups:

ORIOLES
Randy Winn, RF
Felix Pie, CF
Josh Bell, 3B
Matt Wieters, DH
Nolan Reimold, LF
Jake Fox, C
Brendan Harris, 2B
Joe Mahoney, 1B
Cesar Izturis, SS
Chris Tillman, SP

PHILLIES
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Placido Polanco, 3B
Raul Ibanez, LF
Ryan Howard, 1B
Ben Francisco, DH
Shane Victorino, CF
John Mayberry, RF
Brian Schneider, C
Brian Bocock, 2B
Roy Oswalt, SP

Other pitchers expected for the Orioles today are Zach Britton, Michael Gonzalez, Jim Johnson, Pedro Viola, and Nick Bierbrodt; for the Phillies, expect to see Vance Worley, Brian Bass, Justin DeFratus, David Herndon, and Brad Lidge.

I will get the first two prospect previews up tonight, as well, as I was a little occupied last night and failed to get up the first post. Expect that later, as well.

For the Phillies’ perspective on this game, check out Hitha Palepu at Citizens Bank Broads.

(As an aside, I love John Mayberry Jr., if only because Jed Lowrie has described him as his “best friend in the whole world.” This makes him awesome.)