Wednesday September 28 vs the Yankees

Opponent: New York Yankees
Outcome: W
Score: 2-0
Streak: W1
Record: 54-103
Rank: 7th
GB: 33.5

The Orioles played very poorly over their final 20 games of the 1988 season, going 3-17 in games after September 12th.  (Note - they still have four more games after tonight so I'm giving away the fact that they didn't win any of them.)  The three games that they won were all starts by rookie Bob Milacki.  Oddly enough of the three starting pitchers that debuted with the Orioles in September of 1988 (Milacki, Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch), Milacki had the most successful debut month but the least succssful career. 

At 23 Milacki was two years older than both Schilling and Harnisch which may have played into how their careers went.  Milacki was a mainstay of the Orioles rotation the next couple years, leading the AL in starts with 36 in 1989.  Injuries (possibly related to his workload) started taking their toll in the early 1990's.  In 1992 he went 6-8 with an ERA of 5.84 which led to him being called "Bob Shellac-i" among Orioles fans.  He left the Orioles as a free agent and spent the next few years bouncing around the A's, Indians, Royals, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros and Pirates organization along with a stint with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Japan in 1997.  He finished his career with the St Paul Saints of the independent Northern League in 2000.

But all of that was in the future.  Tonight Milacki pitched a gem against the Yankees, holding them to three hits and two walks while striking out ten.  He had a complete game shutout, only the second one the Orioles got all season (the other was by Jeff Ballard against the Brewers back on August 13th). 

This was yet another game in which the Orioles had baserunners but couldn't get runners in.  They had 10 hits tonight along with two walks as well as getting two runners on via Yankees errors.  But they only scored two run - one on a double play in the second by Craig Worthington and the other on an RBI single by Rick Schu in the fourth.  They left 10 men on base tonight and went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.