Soccer Dad: Orioles 2

August 26, 2005

Orioles 2 - angels 0

A friend had tickets for tonight's Orioles-Angels game that he couldn't use. So he offered them to us. We don't get out much so this was a perfect opportunity to get out and spend some time alone. With about 24000 other people.

The players of the game were the Lopez's - Javy and Rodrigo. Javy's fourth inning home run provided all the offense for the game; Rodrigo pitched seven strong innings shutting down the Angels' offense when it mattered most.

I most feared Vladimir Guerrero. After having a little adventure in the third, Rodrigo faced Vlad in the fourth with one man on and no one out. I had figured that Vlad would get an extra base hit. But it didn't happen. He hit a chop to Miguel Tejada. Tejada had it, but then dropped it, putting Rodrigo into an even more difficult situation. But Rodrigo got the next three batters.

The bottom of the fourth did not start auspiciously. The play by play says that Melvin Mora grounded to third. But it wasn't that simple. Most of his bat made it to short.

Usually I'm an obsessed scorekeeper at a baseball game, but I had little interest in doing so tonight. Tonight I wanted to play sports photographer with my wife's camera. Usually I focused on batters, tying to get the timing right and catch someone hitting one out. But it's not as easy at it looks. I'm not sure that I got Tejada's double swing, but I did get Javy's home run swing. Unfortunately I had him at the back of the frame not the front. Oh well.

In the end, I probably photographed the most significant moment of the game.
In the fifth the Angels loaded the bases and Rodrigo was on the ropes. With two outs, he had to face Vlad.

And with that pitch, Rodrigo struck Vlad out, preserving the O's lead.

Until the fifth inning both pitchers had thrown about the same number of pitches but Lackey's S/B ratio was about 2:1 while Rodrigo's was closer to 3:2. I thought that that difference was going to come back and haunt Rodrigo; but he prevailed. After the fifth inning Rodrigo's had thrown 10-20 more pitches than Lackey. The difference was the home run. Lackey pitched better than Rodrigo, but in the end his mistake cost some runs; but Rodrigo stranded 7 runner in 7 innings.

Finally in the 6th inning I got the batting shot I wanted. Tejada hit a single that I caught.

Rodrigo surprised me by finishing the 7th, I had thought that he would have been removed after 6. Still after his day was over, he had thrown 112 pitches or about 20 more than Lackey threw in an extra inning of work.

A few observations.
1) I thought that Gibbons looked pretty good in right. He seems to judge the balls pretty quickly.
2) I was surprised at the level of booing for Raffy. I understand booing him when he comes up the first time. But twice he came up with men on and he was booed then too. The radio guys have said that his at bats have been accompanied by a mixed reaction. What I heard tonight was not that mixed.
3) The double by Quinlan against BJ Ryan in the 9th was a very questionable call. Everyone near where I was sitting saw the ball on the foul side of the foul line. It seemed that only the umpire saw it fair. Though Perlozzo did not come out, Raffy seemed to have a few words with the ump.

All in all. The O's played well and won. We had a great time.