A Complete Game for Sid!!!

[Nanner]

YAAAAAY!!!!! YIPPPEEEEE!!!

I thought this deserves its own thread. :D :clap2: :clap: :Party: :hail:

What an accomplishment.

O's win it, 12-4 as the bats continued to be hot, and they gave Sid a fine cushion. I can't believe Grover actually left him in for the whole game!!! He's always so quick to remove a pitcher. I'm so happy for Sid. Can't wait to read the interviews!

Here's the line on our Sid:

BALTIMORE TODAY SEASON
IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA
S Ponson (W, 6-3) 9 8 4 4 2 7 0 134-88 4.09


Orioles 12, Angels 4

Recap

By DAVID GINSBURG, AP Sports Writer
May 27, 2003



BALTIMORE (AP) -- Sidney Ponson pitched an eight-hitter, and the Baltimore Orioles hit three homers off Aaron Sele in a 12-4 rout of the Anaheim Angels on Tuesday night.

The Angels lost after spending the morning at the White House, where President Bush honored them for winning the 2002 World Series.

Geronimo Gil, Tony Batista and torrid-hitting Melvin Mora homered for the Orioles, who reached double figures in hits (16) for an eighth straight game. Gil went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

The Orioles scored at least 10 runs in a third straight game for the third time in club history. The last time it happened was in August 1996.

Ponson (6-3) struck out seven and walked two in Baltimore's first complete game of the season. The right-hander improved to 5-0 lifetime against the Angels after beating the defending champs for the second time in six days.

Sele (1-3) allowed six runs, seven hits and three walks in 3 2-3 innings. The rocky performance left him with a 9.00 ERA.


The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the first. After a walk and two singles loaded the bases, Sele forced in a run by walking Jay Gibbons and Batista followed with a sacrifice fly.

Gil homered in the second after Deivi Cruz led off with a bunt single, and Batista made it 5-0 in the third with his eighth home run.

Mora connected in the fourth on an 0-2 pitch for a 6-0 lead. Mora, who hit .536 last week, also walked twice and scored three runs.

The Angels, meanwhile, ran themselves out of two straight innings. Troy Glaus got caught in a rundown when an attempted hit-and-run went awry in the fourth, and the same thing happened to Garret Anderson in the fifth.

Anaheim closed to 6-2 in the sixth. After three straight singles loaded the bases with no outs, Ponson let in a run on a wild pitch and Glaus hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Baltimore answered with two runs in the bottom half against Mickey Callaway on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Conine and an RBI single by Gibbons.

The Orioles made it 12-2 in the seventh. After David Segui hit a two-runsingle, Conine and Gibbons followed with RBI singles.

Notes

The three homers matched the number allowed by Sele in his previous three starts this season. ... Mora reached base in nine straight appearances before hitting a foul pop to first in the second inning. ... Anaheim has been outscored 161-132 over the first five innings. ... Every Oriole starter got atleast one hit.


Updated on Tuesday, May 27, 2003

[SlushyBOB]

:banghead :eviltongu :eviltongu :banghead :eviltongu

[Nanner]

Originally posted by SlushyBOB
:banghead :eviltongu :eviltongu :banghead :eviltongu

:itsok:



:evillol :evillol :evillol :evillol

[Nanner]

Wow. Sid pitched through a split, bloody fingernail..... what a gamer! :clap: The Chief is on a real hot streak! :clap: Mighty Mel is just hot, hot, hot! :clap:

WAY TO GO, BOYS!!! :hail:

Ponson makes O's 12-4 win a complete rout
6-3 pitcher goes distance vs. Angels to give Orioles first complete game of '03; O's: 10-plus runs for 3rd in row; Gil, Batista, Mora homer in 16-hit attack; Ponson lobbies to stay in game
By Joe Christensen
Sun Staff
Originally published May 28, 2003



Sidney Ponson finished the sixth inning with a pumped fist last night and then wiped his bloody right hand on his white uniform pants.

The first complete game by an Orioles pitcher this season had just passed its tensest moment, and Ponson seemed to sense it. Soon, the Orioles would have a 12-4 victory over the Anaheim Angels before 20,100 at Camden Yards.

For Ponson, it was but another reminder that this is a different season from any he has experienced in Baltimore. He's pitching better, the little bumps in the road haven't been as extreme, and the offense is rewarding him in the win column.

The Angels are the defending World Series champions, and Ponson (6-3) has two wins against them in the past seven days. Last night, he held Anaheim hitless for four innings, and made it through the final four after the fingernail on his right thumb split.

Things started unraveling for Ponson in the sixth, and the blood started showing up on his pants, but Orioles manager Mike Hargrove could afford to let him pitch out of trouble because the offense had been so good again.

Ponson finished with the 19th complete game of his career. He threw a season-high 133 pitches, after convincing Hargrove and pitching coach Mark Wiley he could do it.

"He wanted a complete game and he got it," Hargrove said. "I really hate to take a pitcher over 125 [pitches] unless it's a special circumstance."

Geronimo Gil, Tony Batista and Melvin Mora had home runs against Angels starter Aaron Sele (1-3), and the Orioles finished with 16 hits, including at least one by everyone in the starting lineup.

The Orioles have won three straight, scoring at least 10 runs in all three games, marking just the third time in franchise history that has happened. They also accomplished the feat in August 1996 and April 1983.

Offense has carried the Orioles through their recent resurgence. They've had at least 10 hits in their past eight games, going 5-3.

Before that, they had a 1-5 stretch that saw them get 30 hits combined in six games. So Ponson knows he better appreciate the easy ones when they come.

When the calendar turns to June this weekend, the Sidney Ponson Trade Watch figures to begin anew. He's eligible for free agency at season's end, making him a bigger trade target than ever, and scouts have liked what they've seen.

A year ago, Ponson went 7-9, but his run support was a meager 4.09 runs per game. He entered last night getting 5.37 runs per game, and this time the offense more than doubled that output.

But his own numbers are better, too. Last year, he gave up 26 home runs in 28 starts. This year, he's given up four home runs in 10 starts.

At age 26, he has finally shed the label of being a fly-ball pitcher. He entered last night ranked 11th among American League starters with a ground ball-to-fly ball ratio of 1.58. That number has improved steadily for him over the past four years from 1.03 in 1999 to 1.48 last year and up to its current level this year.

"I think I'm the same pitcher as last year," Ponson said. "Last year, I lost a lot of quality games. This year, I'm getting run support, and it shows; I'm getting the wins. I can't do nothing about it."

Last night, Mora made one catch crashing into the left-field wall and caught another one on the warning track, but beyond that, not many balls were hit hard.

With the Orioles leading 6-0 in the sixth, the bottom three hitters in Anaheim's lineup - Bengie Molina, Adam Kennedy and Jeff DaVanon- all singled to load the bases with no outs. Ponson threw a wild pitch, allowing Molina to score and then walked David Eckstein to reload the bases.

But after falling behind Troy Glaus 3-and-1, Ponson got him to ground into a double play. Tim Salmon flied out to end the inning, and Ponson had escaped his toughest jam.

"I don't think there's ever been a question about his intensity and his desire to stay on the mound," Orioles first baseman Jeff Conine said. "A couple years ago, he might have gotten frustrated and tried to overthrow, and got out of his rhythm. Tonight, he just looked at it as a minor distraction and kept throwing strikes."

After batting .352 as a team on their 4-2 road trip to Anaheim and Texas, the Orioles showed no signs of cooling down after a Memorial Day layoff.

They jumped on Sele for six runs in 3 2/3 innings, and it would have been more if DaVanon hadn't made a spectacular diving catch in the first.

Sele walked Jay Gibbons with the bases loaded, bringing home the Orioles' first run, and then Batista lofted a ball toward the right-center field gap.

DaVanon, who is filling in for the injured center fielder Darin Erstad, did a pretty good impersonation of the Angels' fallen team leader on the play, catching the ball with his body horizontal to the ground.

David Segui scored from third on the play, but DaVanon saved at least two runs.

Gil got those back with a two-run homer in the second. Batista hit his eighth homer of the season in the third, and Mora added another bases-empty shot in the fourth, to make it 6-0 before Angels manager Mike Scioscia yanked Sele.


Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun

[PopTop]

A complete game! :clap2:


:hail: All bow before Sir Sidney!


I can see it now, maybe 10 years down the road, a parent and a child are talking:

Kid --- Daddy, what's the "CG" mean in this oldtimer's stats line?

Dad --- That means a complete game, little Timmy.

Kid --- Complete game? :umm

Dad --- Yes, a long time ago starting pitchers actually pitched the entire game.

Kid --- WOW! For real?

Dad --- Yes Timmy, for real.

Kid --- And I thought Spanky Ledbetter pitching 4 innings the other night was the best ever!

[Nanner]

Originally posted by PopTop
A complete game! :clap2:


:hail: All bow before Sir Sidney!


I can see it now, maybe 10 years down the road, a parent and a child are talking:

Kid --- Daddy, what's the "CG" mean in this oldtimer's stats line?

Dad --- That means a complete game, little Timmy.

Kid --- Complete game? :umm

Dad --- Yes, a long time ago starting pitchers actually pitched the entire game.

Kid --- WOW! For real?

Dad --- Yes Timmy, for real.

Kid --- And I thought Spanky Ledbetter pitching 4 innings the other night was the best ever!

:laughing :laughing :laughing :laughing

Ohmigod. That was good. :D