Matt Wieters Wins It For The Orioles With A Late Night Homer On His Birthday

Pretty crappy game for the O’s before the ninth inning last night. They faced Matt Shoemaker, and gave him his best start of the year. Struck out 12, walked none, gave up 0 runs, and only allowed 3 hits in 7.2 IP. Not bad for a guy who before the game had an ERA above 8. Naturally he held the O’s in check, because they can’t seem to hit average pitchers, they just rake against aces.

Fast forward to the top of the ninth, Machado pops out, Jones grounded out, and it looked like it was over for the O’s and we had waited until 1 AM to see them get shutout. Not so fast my friends, Davis pokes a single for a base hit, Mark Trumbo drew a walk in a very patient at-bat, and Wieters steps up and absolutely pisses on a 1-0 slider and deposits it over the wall in left center.  An absolute shot. Ends up being the game winner, as Zach Britton was able to get the save in the bottom of the inning. I get the Angels are bad, but they’ve been hot as of late, and Mike Trout is back to being Mike Trout. The ump show has been out this series as well, mostly benefitting the O’s, but the two calls to Escobar and Trout last night were god awful, and I understand why Escobar was tossed. That being said, I’ll take a win anyway the Birds can get one.

This win also helped keep Kevin Gausman out of the loss column again, a game he definitely did not deserve to lose. Gausman was fantastic, and looks like the real deal this season. Last night was no difference. 6.2 IP, 8 H, 6 Ks, 1 BB, and lowered his ERA to 2.70 on the season. You gotta love what you see outta the guy on the bump everytime he’s out there.

26-15, and going for the sweep this afternoon, at least this game we won’t have to wit up until the middle of the night to see the end of the game, IDK how people deal with these west coast games, they’re the worst. O’s won the series, and helped give them a 1 game lead over the Red Sox in the division. Best record in the American League, and second best in MLB.