It’s only game 19, and I’m already in that “Oh Crap! Starting pitching has us down 4-0 in the second, time to hit FF on the TiVo!” mode. That’s not good this early in the season. However, after that, Matt Harrison got it together, and stuck around. All the Orioles runs came in the first two innings. After that, Matt Harrison stuck around for five more innings, making his final line fairly respectable. He ended up going seven innings and throwing 112 pitches, seven hits, four runs, one walk, three strikeouts. Not all that bad, given how the game started. Darren O’Day, CJ Wilson, & Frank Francisco followed up with two innings of shutout ball. There was just one hit, by Frankie. In all, not bad.
On the other side, we had an odd stat. The Rangers had ten hits. However, just by five players, who had two each. The five Rangers were David Murphy (2x singles), Michael Young (double, home run), Hank Blalock (single, double), Marlon Byrd (2x singles), & Taylor Teagarden (2x singles). Not a ton of power there, it’s mostly singles. But it was enough to get the job done. A single run in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the sixth. Michael Young’s home run at that point didn’t give us the lead (we were still behind 4-3 then), but it was an emotional home run, as you felt the game was in our hands at that point.
David Murphy is looking up. After 19 games, his batting average is .100. Which is fairly pathetic, until you realize it was .000 after 17 games. So maybe he’s figured out his bat again, and we can get him involved, which might be needed if Josh Hamilton is going to miss any length of time.
Not a ton to say about this one. Nice to get out of there winning three out of four games.