Steve Webb
BALTIMORE, MD — The Orioles are a good young team. Correction: the Orioles are a good YOUNG team. And to be honest, it’s starting to show. In Game 2, the Dodgers showed the fledging Birds just what an experienced winner looks like. Taking full advantage of walks and fielding miscues, the Dodgers piled up ten runs on Tuesday night, getting ahead early and pouring it on late to cruise to an easy 10-3 win over Baltimore.
The turning point of the game came very early in this one. The Dodgers batted around in the top of the second inning, scoring five times to take an early lead. Jason Heyward walloped a three-run homer to dead center to get the Dodgers on the board, and Freddie Freeman and Will Smith both delivered RBI singles in the inning to give the Dodger pitchers a nice advantage to work with for the rest of the night.
“It’s nice to cash in because it’s hard to come up big in those situations,” Heyward said of his dinger. “But when you get people in front of you, work good at-bats to get on base, you want to capitalize as much as possible, give your pitcher some breathing room.”
Michael Grove got the start in the this one, and he looked sharp in his outing, going five solid innings. Grove was a little shaky in the bottom of the second, surrendering one run on a four-pitch walk and a double, but other than that, it was a strong effort. His final line for the night: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.
But as the game wore on, the Orioles started to show that they are not so far removed from the team that won just 47 games a few years ago. They booted double play balls, dropped routine plays at first, and generally just sort of sucked in the field. This allowed the Dodgers to tack on in a big way in the later innings. They scored four times in the seventh and once more in the eighth to hit the ten-run plateau for the third time in the last ten games.
Other than the Heyward homer, the hitting stars of the game were old reliables Freddie Freeman and Will Smith, who went a combined 7-for-10 with a couple of extra base hits and 2 RBI. We also need to give a little love to James Outman, who reached base all four times he came to the plate, getting a couple of walks and going 2-for2. But a solid night up and down the lineup.
“I think we believe we can beat anybody when we’re playing the way we’re capable of,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve shown that when we’re not playing good baseball, it goes the other way. But playing well at the right time is important.”
