Luke Turns the Tide

Some game tonight.

Two-out hits, clutch relief pitching, good baserunning, some good small-ball. And then of course it almost all falls apart on yet another hard to believe error by Cesar Izturis. (Even the game-ending groundout by A-Roid was almost flipped away by Lugo. And was surprised to see Rodriguez first-pitch swinging.)

But there were plenty of stars tonight.

Rhyne Hughes continues to get huge hits and look good at first. I think Trembley would be crazy to sit him tomorrow night, even against the lefty Sabathia. Go with the hot hand. This kid seems to be sparking the offense.

Izturis finally showed some life with the stick, with 3 ribbies.

Reimold had a big hit.

Wiggy found his way on base a bunch of times and scored the go-ahead run.

Lugo stole a big base and advanced to third on Posada's errant throw, eventually scoring the much-needed 5th run.

Castillo continued to look fantastic, JJ was back to himself in his more comfortable 8th (although he still doesn't look the same), and Simon was electric in the closer's role on his first day back in the bigs.

But I'd like to be the first (I think) to bring up the fact that Luke Scott had a tremendous at bat in the 6th inning. He was down 0-2 in the count and worked a tough walk off of Logan who was brought in to face him. Seemed trivial at the time with two outs, but then the gates opened up and the O's scored three times for the 4-2 lead.

I think that Scott's walk was the turning point in the game. It would have been quite easy for Luke, who's now batting .217, to be swinging for the fences - down by one run and trying to protect the plate.

Give him credit where it's due on a night of many heroes.

Why Darnell? Why Tonight?

At the start of the evening last night, one small thing an O's fan could take solace in was the fact that the smug fans of the Boston Red Sox had to look at the standings, too, and see their beloved team sitting at 4-9. I happened to glance at the scores at some point last night to see the Sox losing once again, 6-4 in the 8th inning to the Texas Rangers. Maybe I'm a small man, but that made me feel a little better.

You can imagine how much it pained me, as I'm sitting there watching another O's lifeless defeat, to see that the Red Sox came back to win the game, 7-6.

Then to learn how they did it was yet another dagger in a painful season.

Darnell McDonald, former 1st round pick of the Orioles in 1997, and one of many busts for the organization over the last 20 years (Beau Hale, Mike Paradis, Chris Smith, Richard Stahl, Mark Smith, and the list goes on and on ...), tied the game with a pinch-hit 2-run-HR in the bottom of the 8th and then won the game with a single off the Green Monster in the bottom of the 9th.

Now, I'm under no impression that this is a case of the O's giving up too soon on a guy. Far from it. They obviously made a mistake even drafting the guy. (This is his 6th club over the course of an almost non-existent career.)

But to see the also struggling Sox get an emotional walk-off win spurred not once, but twice, by another example of why the Orioles organization has been a disaster for oh-so-many-years is yet another indignity suffered. All while watching a passionless, emotionless, apathetic Orioles club meekly lose again.

We get Boston Red Sox cast-off Julio Lugo not running out ground balls.

They get game-saving heroics from Darnell McDonald.

And who thought things couldn't get worse?

Now pitching for the New York Yankees, Adam Loewen ...