The Orioles secured their first win of 2008 with a late-inning comeback victory over the Rays, 9-6. Despite a record-low crowd at Camden Yards, those who braved the cold to attend witnessed a pretty darn entertaining ballgame. Aubrey Huff, booed boisterously in the early goings of ’08, won the home fans back to his side with a pair of huge hits: a homer and a go-ahead two-run double in the eighth. The O’s also got a stupendous performance out of their bullpen, with four relievers combining for five scoreless innings, highlighted by Randor Bierd’s fantastic big-league debut and George Sherrill’s first save as a Bird. It may not be often this year in which so many things click into place for the Orioles. But when they do, it’s a thing of beauty.
There were a ton of things to like about the Orioles’ first night game of the year, but let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Tonight’s paid attendance of 10,505 was the lowest in the just-over-16-year history of Camden Yards. Well, that was fast. Didn’t take long for the jubilation of Opening Day to dissolve into general apathy, now did it? Of course, it didn’t help that the O’s were facing the low-profile Rays, or that the temperature was bone-chillingly cold (would someone please wake Mother Nature and inform her that it’s baseball season?). But I guess meager crowds are to be expected for a team going through a self-described rebuilding process. If casual fans believe this year is a lost cause, they’re less inclined to stop by. It’s just the nature of the beast.
Now, there’s one more bit of bad news to discuss before we get to the good stuff. His name is Daniel Cabrera. You know the drill by now. Every year, we hear talk from O’s higher-ups and buzz from spring training about how this will be the year! This is the year Daniel Cabrera finally gets his act together and becomes the stalwart pitcher he’s capable of! We mean it this time, we promise! Yet all I can think about is Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football (I think you can fill in the analogy there). Over the last three and a half years, the enigmatic Cabrera has been tutored by two Hall-of-Fame-worthy pitching coaches-- Ray Miller and Leo Mazzone-- and neither has been able to harness his immense talent. Now it’s new pitching coach Rick Kranitz’s turn to give it a whirl. Again this year, we heard the standard company line at spring training-- Cabrera’s working hard, he has re-dedicated himself, he’s working well with coaches, he’s going to start throwing the changeup. Yet when the bell rang and Cabrera took the mound for his 2008 debut, well…let’s just say that the results weren’t pretty.
Cabrera recorded two outs in the first with a Carl Crawford single sandwiched in between. Let’s see if New and Improved Cabrera is better at holding runners-- d’oh! Crawford stole second. All right, let’s see if New and Improved Cabrera can harness his control-- d’oh! He walked B.J. Upton. All right, let’s see if New and Improved…ah, forget it, Cliff Floyd jacked a three-run homer. Quickly, Cabrera found himself in a 3-0 hole. Hey, it’s still possible that Daniel will have a breakout 2008 season. That just wasn’t the way to start it.
On a more positive note, Cabrera worked his way out of a self-created jam in the third. After walking the bases loaded (one of them intentional), Daniel racked up a huge called strikeout on Willy Aybar for the second out, then retired Dioner Navarro to end the frame. “To his credit … he could’ve blown up, and he didn’t,” said manager Dave Trembley.
Meanwhile, the O’s offense clawed its way back against Matt Garza, the highly touted trade acquisition making his Rays debut. Brian Roberts continued his sensational start to 2008 by smashing a leadoff homerun-- the 10th leadoff blast of his career-- to put the Birds on the board. Man, Roberts is really playing like he has a new lease on life after not being traded. Or he’s playing like someone who wants to be traded. At this point, I’m not sure which. The dinger was the 53rd of Brian’s career…tying him for 41st place on the all-time O’s homer list with Al Bumbry!
The Birds tied it up in the third. Adam Jones started the rally with a leadoff single, his first hit as an Oriole, and Garza made the mistake of walking guaranteed-out Luis Hernandez. Two batters later, back-to-back RBI singles by Melvin Mora and Nick Markakis knotted the score at three.
Cabrera, though, put the O’s back in a hole. With a runner aboard in the fifth, Carlos Pena swatted a 400-foot homerun into the center-field bleachers, giving the Rays a 5-3 lead. Daniel never recorded another out. After Upton doubled, he gutsily tried to advance to third on a Floyd grounder to the left side-- and made it, sliding in ahead of Hernandez’s throw. Cabrera capped his frustrating night’s work with another walk-- his fifth-- to load the bases, and Trembley had seen enough.
In four innings, Cabrera allowed six runs, six hits, and five walks. Meet the new Dan; same as the old Dan. Okay, perhaps that’s hasty-- it’s only one game, after all. But Cabrera didn’t exactly look like a pitcher on the verge of putting it all together. “Two pitches he wanted back were two pitches that ran back over the middle of the plate,” said Trembley. “If he doesn’t get into a tempo early in the game, you see what happens. I think the next time around he’ll make some adjustments and be better.” Daniel was unfazed by his outing. “The only thing I’ve got on my mind right now is that we win the game,” he said.
In that case, we’ve got good news for him. The momentum of the game turned around as soon as the Birds’ suddenly superb bullpen got involved. Trembley replaced Cabrera with impressive Rule 5 pick Randor Bierd. Wow…that’s some way to make your big-league debut, huh? Okay, kid-- bases loaded, nobody out. Have fun! No pressure! Throw him into the fire much? “I’ve seen him do it before in spring training,” Trembley reasoned. “He seems to match up really well against left-handers, [and] he’s got a lot of confidence.”
Trembley’s faith in the rookie paid off. Bierd did about as stellar a job as humanly possible in the tense situation, inducing a double-play grounder from Navarro that plated a run but essentially quashed the Rays’ rally. He then retired Nathan Haynes on a grounder to end the inning. “Bierd did a nice job coming in there in a tough situation,” Trembley said. The awesomely named Randor followed with a scoreless sixth to cap his brilliant debut.
Again down by three runs, the O’s offense battled back once more. In the sixth, with a runner aboard, a vociferous chorus of boo-birds brought Aubrey Huff to the plate. Huff, of course, is still paying dearly for his derogatory comments about Baltimore this winter, and it appears the hometown fans aren’t about to get off his back anytime soon. Unless, that is, he starts coming up big for the Orioles. Cue…a two-run homer! Aubrey tagged Garza for a monster shot onto the right-field flag court to pull the Birds within a run. Instantaneously, the barrage of boos morphed into a cavalcade of cheers, and all was well again (one particularly vocal booer immediately yelled, “Aubrey, I love you!”).
The bomb was Huff’s 16th as an Oriole, tying him for 109th place on the all-time O’s homerun list with such sluggers as Dave Duncan and Tito Francona! In Aubrey’s case, it may have been his most important blast in a long time, if only to silence the jeers. “It’s probably the best-feeling homerun I’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s a long season, but it’s a start. Hopefully I can win some hearts back.”
The O’s bullpen continued its excellent work. Chad Bradford worked a perfect seventh, and Jamie Walker completely blew away the Rays, striking out the side in the eighth. “Don’t fall in love with it; I’m not a strikeout pitcher,” Walker noted. “It just happens.”
It remained a 6-5 game into the bottom of the eighth, when the Rays brought in setup man Al Reyes. That’s funny-- I remember when the O’s used to have some veteran scrub named Al Reyes nine years ago. …Wait a minute, it’s the same guy?! Oh dear!
Reyes immediately did the last thing you want to do with a late-inning one-run lead: he walked the leadoff hitter, Mora. After a Markakis groundout advanced Melvin to second, Kevin Millar squirted a ball up the middle that shortstop Jason Bartlett knocked down but couldn’t handle, resulting in an infield single.
The tying and go-ahead runs were aboard for Mr. Hometown Hero, Aubrey Huff. This time, he was received with more cheers but still a smattering of boos, and was anxious to pull that ratio a little further in his favor. So how does a huge clutch hit strike you?? Huff blistered a drive to deep center field that banged off the wall and skittered to and fro. Mora scores! Millar lumbers home with the go-ahead run! And Huff ended up at third base with the hit of the night. The Orioles were in front, 7-6, and all is officially forgiven with Aubrey Huff in Baltimore. Heck, I think they’re giving him the key to the city now. Huff continues to torch his longtime team, the Rays. Last year, he hit .365 with seven homeruns against Tampa Bay (nearly half of his season total of 15), and it looks like he’s at it again. “It’s just one of those things. It’s a coincidence,” Huff said.
The Orioles weren’t done piling on Reyes. Ramon Hernandez plated Huff with a sac fly, and Jones delivered his first Oriole RBI with a run-scoring single to make it 9-6.
They handed that run to their new closer, George Sherrill, who made his O’s debut in the ninth. It’s good that Sherrill, who has never been a full-time closer before, was able to get his feet wet with a three-run cushion, but he still made things a little dicey. He displayed some excellent stuff-- blowing away Crawford and Pena on strikeouts-- but also struggled with his command, walking two batters to bring the possible tying run to the plate.
Happily, pinch-hitter Jonny Gomes flied out to center on the first pitch he saw, and Sherrill’s first save as the Birds’ closer was in the books. “It felt real good,” Sherrill said. “It was just good to get the first one out of the way.” His scoreless frame capped five innings of shutout ball from the Birds’ bullpen, in addition to 3 2/3 scoreless on Opening Day. After two games, that’s been one impressive ’pen.
All in all, it was a feel-good performance for the Orioles. “It was a very good team effort tonight,” said Trembley. “[We got] contributions from a lot of people. It feels good for the club that we got so much out of so many guys.” Said Jones: “It shows that we didn’t give up. We just kept fighting back.” I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing that kind of effort all year.
Walker picked up the victory in relief, his fourth as an Oriole…tying him for 149th place on the all-time O’s win list with fellow southpaw studs like Matt Riley, Chuck McElroy, and Omar Daal! Reyes took the loss. And Sherrill’s first save ties him for 65th place on the all-time O’s list with famous S’s like Paul Shuey and Jeff Schneider! Orioles win, 9-6.
ESPN Box Score
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