Birds Start the Year 0-2

Last night Daniel Cabrera was pretty dominant. Striking out 9, walking 4 but only one was a "bad walk." He surrendered 6 hits, only one that was hit with any power, a liner single up the middle. And he held the Twins lineup to only 3 runs.

Yet, the Orioles only got 2. The Birds dropped to 0-2 on the young season, the first time they have started 0-2 since 1995. Not the way one wanted to start the season, but there have been things to be happy about these first two games.


Game One:
"The Orioles can't hit lefties"

Got 4 runs and 7 hits off the best pitcher, not just LH pitcher, in baseball.


Game Two:
Daniel Needs to take the next step."

7IP 9K 4BB, 6H but NONE were hit hard and a sawed off broken flaire is what did him in.

The bullpen has been as good as advertised over the last two games pitching 5.1 innings of 1 run ball. All of them, especially Parrish, have looked strong. The defense has been stellar so far as well. Tejada has already pulled off some damn good DPs. Markakis has been flashing the glove and the arm in RF and Huff has been more than solid at first.

Gibbons and Patterson hitting the ball well. Their outs have been pretty loud. Gibbons' two doubles in game one were very encouraging.



Things to be concerned about:
Roberts and Mora have 2 hits between them to start the season (2-17.) Last night they left 3 men on base. Millar is still struggling with his current 0'fer. He also left 3 men on base himself last night.

The bottom half of the lineup will be a lot better once Hernandez and Payton return. And I will give Roberts and Mora the rest of the week before I start getting real nervous. So even with two losses, I'm still encouraged. Hernandez' bat is a huge hole right now, but that will take care of itself.

There has been a lot to be happy about in the past two games, now if we could just get the desired outcome.