April 29 at the White Sox - Hallelujah At Last

Opponent: Chicago White Sox
Outcome: W
Score: 9-0
Streak: W1
Record: 1-21
Rank: 7th
GB: 15.5

In the end it was a laugher.

It might be hard to tell from the fact that I'm writing a blog about the Orioles but my favorite team actually is the Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox famously went 86 years  between World Series Championships.  Before they won in 2004 I always assumed that when they did finally win the Series that it would be in a tight, hard fought Series that would go the full seven games.  Instead it was almost anti-climatic - they won in a four game sweep in which they never trailed in any game.  (The ALCS that year was a different story however.)

For the Orioles the first win of the 1988 season was also anti-climatic although I'm sure no one was complaining.  For the fourth consecutive game the Orioles scored in the top of the first - Eddie Murray had a two run home run - but this time they kept the other team from scoring at all.  The O's made it 3-0 in the fifth when Pete Stanicek scored on a wild pitch and then exploded for four runs in the top of the seventh when the White Sox experienced the kind of pitching and defensive lapses that the Orioles were unfortunately familiar with.  Joe Orsulak led off the inning with a walk and Stanicek doubled to knock him in and White Sox starter Jack McDowell out of the game.  Reliever John Davis hit Bill Ripken with a pitch - apparently hard enough to put Ripken out of the game as Tito Landrum came in to pinch run for him.  Cal Ripken then hit a grounder to third base which Ken Williams committed a throwing error on bring Stanicek in to score and moving Landrum to third.  Murray hit a grounder to first for a fielder's choice that resulted in Landrum being thrown out at the plate.  After Fred Lynn walked to load the bases, Larry Sheets reached on what was scored as a fielders choice but I have no idea what actually happened.  Ripken scored and no outs were recorded.  Terry Kennedy brought in Murray with a sacrifice fly before Craig Worthington grounded out to end the inning.  The Orioles scored four runs on one hit, two walks, a hit-by-pitch and an error.  The Orioles capped their scoring with two in the top of the ninth on a solo home run by Cal and an RBI single by Terry Kennedy.  Mark Williamson and Dave Schmidt combined to shut out the White Sox on four hits and no walks.

Here's the play that ended the game:



At WIYY in Baltimore, Bob Rivers, who had been on the air now for 258 hours "uncorked champagne and drank deeply from his Orioles souvenir cup, cued up “I’m Free” by The Who and screamed into the mike, 'I’m going home!'"