Put That In Your Straw and Suck It, Ya Bandwagon-Hopping Bastards!: Orioles 7, Red Sox 3

So there.

After dropping five straight games to the likes of Texas and Toronto, the Orioles walked right into Boston, right into "The Fens" (if I have to hear anyone call Fenway Park that again, I... I just can't be held responsible for my actions), and smacked the Red Sox around. Seriously... the Orioles looked like a completely different team against Boston last night than they had in any of the Toronto games.

The best part (for me) of that game? Brian Burres outduled Clay Buchholz, the same guy that pitched a no-hitter against the Orioles in September of last year. Brian Burres. I'm not joking here. The same Brian Burres that leads the team in wins, to show you how useless of a stat wins are when judging a pitcher's value.

Anyhow, things got off to a great start in the first, when Brian Roberts led off the game with a double to left field. He then promptly stole third because, well, Jason Varitek doesn't exactly have a cannon back there anymore. Adam Jones, who was finally moved up in the line-up to the second spot (where I think he belongs, especially with how he's been hitting lately) drove in the run with a sacrifice fly, making it 1-0 Birds. Then Buchholz started getting all wild and crazy-like, walking Kakes and Huff to put runners on first and second with an out. That was Melvin Mora's cue (the runner in scoring position thing) to smack a single to left field to drive in Kakes, making it 2-0 Birds. Why was it a single, though? Because Mora was gunned down at second trying to stretch it into a double. Because Melvin Mora, God help him, isn't a good base-runner. I don't understand why more people don't mention this when discussing the merits of Melvin Mora. Anyhow, I digress. Millar walked, Scott grounded out (he's been frigid lately), and the inning was over.

Things looked alright until the bottom of the second, when Boston decided to put some runs on the scoreboard. Lowell reached on an infield single to Fahey (who really didn't have a banner defensive game last night), and easily advanced to third when Sean Casey doubled to right. And the O's caught a break on this because of how short that wall is in right field. It hit off of the wall. That's pretty difficult to do. Anyhow, the O's got an out when Varitek, the All-Star that's hitting just a touch over .220, flied out weakly to center field. Brandon Moss would do what Varitek couldn't, however. He singled to right to score Lowell, making it 2-1. Lugo would drive Casey in with a ground-out (again with the ground-out RBIs?!?!?!?) to make the game 2-2. Ellsbury ended the threat by grounding out to the pitcher.

Two innings later, the ground-out RBI would strike again. Burres got Casey to fly out to right, but Varitek followed with a single. Moss (who had a really solid game) doubled to deep right to put runners on second and third with an out. Lugo, again, grounded out to the shortstop to drive in the run. And again, Ellsbury ended the inning, this time with a strikeout. But the ground-out damage was done, and the Red Sox carried a 3-2 lead. With the way that the Orioles had been playing lately... you kinda got the feeling that the game might be done at that point.

Oh, but it wasn't! Brandon The Razor Fahey started things off with a slap single to center. Roberts? He followed it with a triple to right to plate Fahey. So Roberts, to this point, had a double (1st inning), a single (2nd inning), a triple (5th inning), an RBI, and two steals. Just needing a homer for the cycle. Anyhow, that tied the game at 3-3. Jones tried to do the ground-out RBI thing, but it was hit too sharply to the shortstop, so Roberts couldn't score. Kakes drew yet another walk (he ended up with three for the game), and Huff finally pushed the go-ahead run across with a sacrifice fly. Orioles 4, Red Sox 3 after 5 innings.

Brian Burres would cruise after that. He faced four batters in the 5th, three in the 6th, and two in the 7th before giving way to the Yellow Submarine. When you can get 6.1 innings out of Brian Burres, you take that as a victory regardless of how many runs he allowed. Still, you can't complain about this line from him: 6.1 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, 3 BBs, 2 Ks. Especially against Boston.

Still though, you got the distinct impression, especially after the last 10 games or so, that the O's needed insurance runs if they were going to pull this game off. So what did they do? Well, for a change, they got those runs. They started touching up Manny Delcarmen in the 8th after Huff flew out and Mora leaned into a pitch to put a runner at first with an out. Millar grounded out to short, advancing Mora who was off on contact (for a change). For some reason, Delcarmen didn't want to face an ice-cold Luke Scottwalker, so Scott received the free pass. Payton, in typical form, pinch ran for Scott. Then Ramon drew the UNintentional pass to load up the bases for... Brandon Fahey. With two outs. But in a complete script reversal, Fahey slapped a single to right. And due to Mora and Payton being reasonably fast and off on contact, they both scored to make it 6-3 O's. Roberts ended the inning by striking out, ending any further discussion about a possible cycle.

Believe it or not, Jim Johnson worked the 8th and looked good. He gave up a single to Manny, but quickly got Lowell to ground into a double play, and induced the grounder from Sean Casey. The Birds would tack on one last insurance run in the 9th off of Mike Timlin, after Jones led off the inning with a single. Jonesy stole second, which didn't matter a whole lot because Kakes walked (again). Huff flew out to right, but deeply enough that Jones could move over to third. What? Runner in scoring position? Mora's up?! Well... Mora flew out, but deep enough to score Jones. Ladies and gentlemen, your insurance run... on your insurance runs... um... yeah. 7-3 O's going to the bottom of the 9th.

But hell, it wouldn't be the Orioles if they couldn't make that last inning interesting. With it not being a save situation, Johnson started the inning. He got the Worst All-Star Ever to ground out to third, and struck out Brandon Moss to keep that guy off of the basepaths for a change. Two quick outs for the Orioles with a 4-run lead in the 9th. Everything's going fine. Except Julio Lugo reached on an infield single. But that's okay. One base runner. No biggie. And when Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to Fahey, all that Fahey had to do was glove the ball and flip to Roberts for the out. Or throw it to first and get Ellsbury. Or let the ball go through his legs. Wait... no, that's not right. That's not right at all! OH DAMN IT, FAHEY!!!

So with runners on first and second, Johnson had to get ready to face another semi-deserving All-Star in Dustin Pedroia and... wait! THAT'S GEORGE SHERRILL'S MUSIC!!!! IT'S FLAT BREEZY!!!! WHAT'S HE DOING HERE?!?!?! OH MY GOD!!!! HE'S GOT A CHAIR!!!! (okay, enough with the wrestling announcer voice).

Runners on first and second, 2 outs, and Breezy on the mound? Well... um... at least it's already interesting enough for him, right? I mean, we know he does a lot better when he has runners on. ... Except that wasn't fucking interesting enough for Breezy. He walked Pedroia to load the bases. Which meant that if Kevin Youkilis, yet another semi-deserving All-Star, decided to hit a pitch over the Monster, we were fucked.

The first pitch, a called strike. The second? Fouled off. And finally, FINALLY, Breezy worked a "save" by blowing a heater past Youkilis' swing for strike three. Inning over, ball game over, losing streak over. Orioles 7 - Red Sox 3.

No, I have no confidence in them being able to close games out right now. Hopefully that's the start of a turn-around... because I can't fucking take this tension at the end of games anymore.