Monday August 15 at the Brewers

Opponent: Milwaukee Brewers
Outcome: L
Score: 1-4
Streak: L1
Record: 39-78
Rank: 7th
GB: 30

This was one of those frustrating games that given a couple of breaks the Orioles could have won but breaks for the Birds were hard to come by in 1988.

Early on it looked like things might be going the Birds' way this evening despite them not scoring in the first inning for the first time in the four game series in Milwaukee.  Paul Molitor lead off the bottom of the first with a triple but the Orioles managed to keep the Brewers from scoring in the inning.  With one out Molitor tried to score on a ground ball from Robin Yount to Rene Gonzales at third but Gonzales threw him out at the plate.  Orioles starter Jose Bautista struck out Greg Brock to end the inning.

The bottom of the fourth however showed that it would not be the O's night.  Jeffrey Leonard and Yount hit back-to-back singles to start the frame.  Greg Brock hit a ground ball to Bill Ripken at second that he couldn't field properly - once the dust settled Leonard had scored and Yount and Brock were safe at second and first respectively.  Bautista got Rob Deer and BJ Surhoff to fly out for the first two outs of the inning but Jim Adduci hit a double that knocked in Yount and Brock before Jim Gantner grounded out to end the inning.  3-0 Brewers.

Meanwhile Ted Higuera had been pitching an outstanding game through the first six innings, giving up just one hit (a single to Joe Orsulak in the third) while striking out six.  Since Orsulak had been thrown out attempting to steal, Higuera had only faced the minimum number of batters in the first six innings.  He ran into some issues in the seventh however.  Pete Stanicek led off with a single and Bill Ripken got some redemption for his earlier error when he hit a ground ball that Milwaukee first baseman Brock misplayed, allowing Ripken to reach and Stanicek to make it to third.  Cal Ripken followed with a single, scoring Stanicek and putting runners on first and second with no one out for Eddie Murray.  But Higuera got Murray to ground into a double play and then struck out Mickey Tettleton to end the inning.  3-1 Brewers.

The Orioles mounted another threat in the eighth.  With one out Orsulak and Gonzales hit back-to-back singles which put the tying runs on base.  But Higuera got Ken Gerhart and Stanicek to fly out to end threat.

The Brewers would pick up another run in the bottom of the eighth.  Molitor reached on a throwing error by Cal Ripken to lead off the inning and two batters later he moved to second on a fly out by Yount.  Brock was intentionally walked to set up a force but a wild pitch to Deer allowed both runners to move up.  Deer then singled to score Molitor with Milwaukee's fourth and final run.  Mark Thurmond came on in relief of Bautista to get Surhoff to ground out to end the inning.  The Orioles went quietly in the ninth against Brewers reliever Dan Plesac and Milwaukee wrapped up the 4-1 victory.

I passed the evening in an interesting manner.  I was still in Massachusetts for training and I had discovered that Ellis Burks and Kevin Romine of the Red Sox would be signing autographs at a car dealership just over the state line in Nashua, New Hampshire that evening.  I went over, stood in line for about an hour talking to other Red Sox fans and got a baseball autographed by the two players.  I still have it: