Valaika Rings The Bell Twice
The “Battle of the Beltways” continued on Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the Orioles defeated the Washington Nationals by a score of 6-1. It was the Orioles first win in the “series” this year; the Nationals swept the Birds back in May in Washington, DC.
Jorge Lopez started the game and lasted 4.2 innings; manager Brandon Hyde removed him after throwing 82 pitches (45 strikes) and denied him the chance to pitch 5 complete innings. He left the game with a runner in scoring position; Andrew Stevenson had doubled to start the inning. Lopez allowed 1 run on 4 hits, walked 2 and struck out 3. The run was a result of a Josh Bell homerun leading off the 4th inning. The only other time the Nationals got a runner in scoring position on Lopez was in the second inning when a walk to Ryan Zimmerman followed by a Josh Harrison single put a runner on second.
The Baltimore bullpen did the rest as four relievers combined to allow 1 hit, 1 walk and 8 strikeouts over 4.1 innings.
As it turned out, all the Orioles needed was Pat Valaika’s two homeruns to defeat the Nationals. The second baseman homered in the 5th and the 7th innings. He finished the game by going 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI.
Ramon Urias continued with his solid contributions with a 1 for 4, 1 run scored, 2 RBI, 1 SB effort and is batting .286 with a .619 OPS over his last 7 games.
Cedric Mullins (1 for 4), Austin Hays (1 for 4, 1 run scored, 1 RBI) and Trey Mancini (1 for 4) all doubled in the game with Pedro Severino’s (0 for 1, 1 RBI, 1 BB) 6th inning sacrifice plating a run as well.
2021 Record: 32-64
Next Game: Sat. July 24 @ 6:35pm
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