There was no perfectly placed, perfectly timed pinch-hit single last night. Last night, it was just the usual. There were no special moments and no heroics. And ultimately we lost because we didn’t play the ordinary game as well as Baltimore played it. As evenly matched as we were, we were outscored. And that’s how games are won, or rather, in this case, lost.
Neither team scored in the first, but we were the first to get on the board when Nava led off the second with a double and scored two outs later on a single by Drew. Lester, however, gave our one-run lead to Baltimore by allowing two runs in the third. He gave up a double that at least set the runner back at first on a fielder’s choice after the next at-bat. Then he issued a walk followed by a bases-clearing double. He made it worse when he gave up a walk followed by an RBI double in the fifth.
Victorino single-handedly brought Baltimore’s lead back down to one by smacking a solo shot toward the Monster to lead off the sixth. That was huge. In a low-scoring game, that run counted for a lot.
Lester’s start stopped at six innings; Thornton came on for the seventh, put two on base, and managed not to allow any runs. Workman pitched the eighth, and he and Breslow shared the ninth. As for the offense, that second run proved to be our last, and we lost, 3-2.
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