Pitcher's Duel!!!

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Right now, going on in Kansas City!

JJ pitching for the O's

Chris George pitching for the Royals.

Top of the 5th. Deivi Cruz just singled with 1 out. And the Chief drove him in with a double!!! :jump: YAY!!! So the O's are the first on the board. JJ and Chris George have been pretty even through this whole game. Jerry H hit a sac fly to left, scoring The Chief, who was now on 3rd.... and I don't know how he got there from 2nd.

Anyhoo.... THE CHIEF SCORES!!!!! SCORE IS NOW 2-0, O'S, TOP OF THE 5TH!! 2 outs.

Yay. :D

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Mel Mora singles, and Bubble-Boy steps in.

:D

GO, BUBBLE-BOY!!!

:jump:

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Oh, dang. Bubble-Boy flied out.

3rd outtie.

Okay, JJ. Do your stuff. :luvkiss:

[rockin500]

hi cutie! :wavey2:

go O's! make the royals the Mis-royals.

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Originally posted by rockin500
hi cutie! :wavey2:

go O's! make the royals the Mis-royals.

:D

:wavey: Hi, Ray!!!

Looks like they scored off JJ. Score now 2-1, O's.

But it's now the top of the 6th.

SCORE SOME MORE RUNS, BOYS!!!

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TWO RUN HOMER FROM GIBBY!!!!

Ohmigod. I love this!!!

:luvkiss: :jump: :gt:

4-1, the Amazing Orioles.

[rockin500]

no update? awwww.

doh! i see the bad guys are winning. :cry:

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Dang. :angry: I had to leave. But there I was, wondering why JJ, pitching a great game, once again only pitched into the 5th inning. And there again was that dang blister! Can't he have that thing taken care of?!? Why isn't it healing? And, then the bullpen imploded. Buddy Groom's usually Mr. Reliable and he's in the middle of a slump. And the rest of the bullpen didn't help either! :angry:

Poop.

Then there's the news that Grover's mom seems to have had a relapse. :( Hope things turn out okay for her. Once you get into the vital organs being affected, that's not good news. :(

O's 8-4 loss to Royals makes bad day worse
Hargrove again leaves to be with ailing mother

By Joe Christensen
Sun Staff
Originally published May 11, 2003



KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Another day of sadness and concern gave way to frustration and intrigue for the Orioles last night in their 8-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

Manager Mike Hargrove returned to Texas late in the afternoon after getting word that his mother, Rita Ann, had taken another turn for the worse and needed surgery on her liver.

Bench coach Sam Perlozzo, who won four of six games as interim manager last month while Hargrove was gone, took the controls again. But this time, none of the buttons seemed to work.

A recurring blister problem forced Jason Johnson from the game after five innings, so Perlozzo handed a 4-1 lead to the bullpen and watched four relievers self-destruct.

With the score tied in the eighth inning, Ken Harvey hit a two-run homer off normally reliable reliever Buddy Groom, giving Kansas City its first lead.

Harvey hopped from the batter's box, raised both arms in triumph and then took a curtain call from the crowd of 25,930.

The American Central-leading Royals dropped both ends of a doubleheader against the Orioles on Friday, but they added two more runs off Rick Bauer in the eighth and held on to stop a four-game home losing streak.

After suffering through his third consecutive rough outing, Groom suggested Harvey might have known what pitch was coming on his go-ahead home run. With a 1-2 count, Groom threw a fastball inside, and Harvey crushed it an estimated 378 feet, through a stiff breeze into the left-field seats.

"I was trying to throw it in," Groom said, "and he cheated to get to it and hit it out."

Orioles pitching coach Mark Wiley walked through a quiet clubhouse and called a rare in-series pitchers meeting for this morning. The Orioles might need to change their signs.

"To hit that pitch out from where I threw it, in like that, he's got to look for it in there," Groom said. "Mark and I were talking; maybe the guy on second [Raul Ibanez] was tipping him or something. I don't know."

So the Orioles had plenty to analyze after the game.

Jay Gibbons hit a two-run homer in the sixth to make it 4-1. Normally with a lead like that, the Orioles feel good.

But the callus on Johnson's right middle finger split open on his first pitch of the fifth inning. He got the next three outs and then left the game, having allowed just one run on five hits. It was the third time this season the callus has forced him from a game.

"It's really annoying," said Johnson, who doesn't expect to miss his next start. "I only had 71 pitches going into the sixth inning, so there's no doubt in my mind I could have gone eight. With the crack in the finger, there was no sense in trying to make it worse than it should be."

Needing 12 outs from his bullpen, Perlozzo started with B.J. Ryan, who got through the sixth unscathed but ran into trouble in the seventh. Ryan hit Dee Brown with a pitch, and then the Orioles missed a chance to turn a double play, as Jerry Hairston had Joe Randa's grounder get stuck in his glove and managed just a single out at second base.

Perlozzo stuck with the left-handed throwing Ryan, and two right-handed hitters at the bottom of Kansas City's lineup - Mendy Lopez and Mike DiFelice - delivered singles. Perlozzo turned to right-hander Kerry Ligtenberg, and the switch-hitting Desi Relaford followed with a run-scoring single to right. DiFelice went to third and scored on Randa's grounder to shortstop, tying the score at 4-4.

"We had some game left to play, and you're not trying to win it totally in the sixth and seventh inning like that," Perlozzo said. "Some of these guys have to get people out whether they're right-handed or left-handed, but we couldn't do that. Tonight, that just didn't happen."

The Orioles failed to score against reliever D.J. Carrasco (2-1) in the eighth, and Perlozzo summoned Groom (1-2).

After starting the year with 11 scoreless appearances, Groom has allowed at least one run in each of his past three games. Ibanez lifted a double into the left-field corner to start the eighth, and Harvey followed with his homer.

Amid their disappointment, the Orioles' thoughts turned to Hargrove, who was getting positive reports on Rita Ann, 73, each day until yesterday.

Last month, she had her gallbladder removed and an infection spread throughout her vital organs. Last time he was in Texas, Hargrove helped arrange for her transportation by helicopter from a small hospital in Perryton to Amarillo.

"We're just going to keep him in our prayers again," Perlozzo said, "and try to give him some wins like we did last time, to give him less to worry about."


Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun