Arrietta Turns the Tides (Again)
Thank God for Jake Arrieta.
The Birds finally won a game on Tuesday night, beating the San Francisco Giants 4-1 at AT&T Park.
Arrieta, making his second Major League start, pitched seven strong innings and allowed just one run off three hits while walking two and fanning three. Arrieta (2-0) has now beat the Yankees and Giants and is the only O’s starter to record a win (two of them, at that) over the last 19 games…
David Hernandez picked up his second save of the season…both his saves have come in games Arrieta has started (this would be a strange coincidence if the O’s had more than two wins in the last two weeks…).
The offense wasn’t spectacular, but they did just enough to give Arrieta a cushion to work with, which turned out to be more than enough. Ty Wigginton knocked in two and Adam Jones slapped a solo shot to left field in the fourth inning. The Birds went just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but were able to plate a few runs early to give Arrieta some breathing room…the Birds scored a run in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings.
After going deep Monday night, Matt Wieters went 0-for-4. Still, this is the first time in a while that the O’s hit homers in consecutive road games…hopefully Wieters and Jones can keep it up.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Birds…Jeremy Guthrie (3-7) goes up against Tim Lincecum (6-2) on Wednesday afternoon. The O’s (18-47) desperately need to start a winning streak, and are now a bit closer to winning 20 games before dropping 50. Here’s hoping…
