Saturday, May. 28, 2005
Tigers victory, posted at 12:05 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com That very well have been one of the most exciting major league baseball games I've ever been to. Nate Robertson - one of my favorites, on my fantasy team, a nice guy when I met him last summer - pitched very, very well, making the Orioles look silly most of the game. His velocity seems to be increasing; he's up to the low-90s, which makes his changeup look very good. He's had a weird season so far - a great ERA, but a ton of unearned runs have scored, and he's got a terrible K/BB ratio after having a good one last year - but looked very solid and confident tonight.And the Tigers' offense got going a bit. Craig Monroe, another on my fantasy team, hit a 2-run homerun, while Dmitri Young, who I derided pretty heavily on the Detroit Tigers Internet Forum today for not doing anything since Opening Day, hit a solo shot. Carlos Pena showed signs of life, getting on base twice, including with a single.
After Robertson dominated the game for the first 7.2 innings, the 8th and 9th innings saw the game swing in the Orioles' direction. Robertson left with two outs in the 8th inning, and reliever Farnsworth comes in and promptly allows both inherited runners to score before getting an out. In the 9th inning, Ugueth Urbina (a guy I love to see pitch but would hate him if he were an opponent... he works sooo slowly and is so cocky and emotionless, but I guess when your mom is kidnapped in your hometown and held hostage for six months, you can handle anything) managed to load the bases. Thank god BJ Surhoff blew a chance to get that runner in from third with less than two outs. The rest of the inning was still nail-biting, but in the end, even the umpire giving Brian Roberts five strikes to work with (talk about Urbina being squeezed...) didn't thwart the Tigers' victory. I'm glad it didn't go into extra innings, because it's pretty clear that if the game had gone on much longer the Orioles were going to take it back.
What a great night. Great game, great weather, great dinner, great company (I went with my British friend Brenden, who commented that I was "looking a bit thick" and asked if I was still working out, and with Renee, the girl I should probably be married to by this point but instead she's dating some old guy).
Tomorrow the O's are throwing a kid making his major league debut in there. I hope James Baldwin is ready out there in the bullpen; I think they're going to need a long reliever. College friends are coming up from DC and I think we're going to cause some trouble after the game in the Federal Hill area.