I asked Kevin Gausman for a good performance last night, and he was equal to the challenge. With a sellout crowd of 44,202 in attendance (including your intrepid blogger), the 23-year-old finally got his first big league win as a starter in his seventh try by pitching seven strong innings. Gausman held the high-octane Oakland offense to one run on a solo homer by Coco Crisp, who magically becomes Rickey Henderson whenever he faces the Orioles. The O's young starter allowed four hits total along with one walk, and struck out six. When he needed to bear down, he did it in a big way. After run-scoring hits by Caleb Joseph, Nick Markakis, and Adam Jones handed him a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth, Kevin allowed a pair of singles and a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position with one out and the heart of the A's order due up. He responded by whiffing Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss back-to-back. The strikeout of Moss was particularly impressive; the powerful right fielder was dispatched on three pitches, the last of them hitting 99 on the radar gun. David Lough provided some insurance with a two-run homer off of Jim Johnson (welcome back, Dirty Jim), which proved crucial when Brian Matusz put a couple of runners on base in the eighth inning and Darren O'Day allowed them to score on a single by pinch hitter Kyle Blanks. O'Day snapped back and finished out the game by retiring five of the next six batters, notching three strikeouts of his own. I had a fine night at the Yard; it's just a shame that the Orioles didn't play today.
No, there was no game today. Certainly not an 11-1 blowout loss. Nope. You dig?
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