Tuesday May 24 at the Athletics

Opponent: Oakland Athletics
Outcome: L
Score: 0-6
Streak: L1
Record: 9-35
Rank: 7th
GB: 20.5

And just like that the Orioles winning streak came to an end.  Jay Tibbs started this evening and he didn't have it (which was somewhat surprising as Tibbs had probably been the O's best starter so far this season - he came into this game with a 2-0 record and the team was 3-1 in his four starts).  Carney Lansford set the tone of the game when he led off the bottom of the first with a double but Tibbs managed to get out of the inning without giving up a run.  He got the first two outs in the bottom of the second as well before the wheels fell off.  A walk to Dave Henderson, a Mike Gallego single and a Walt Weiss double brought in the first run of the game.  Lansford hit a single that brought both Gallego and Weiss in and he moved to second when right fielder Keith Hughes overthrew the plate attempting to get Weiss.  When Stan Javier singled for the fifth consecutive Athletic to reach base, manager Frank Robinson had seen enough - especially since the meat of Oakland's lineup (Jose Canseco, Dave Parker and Mark McGwire) was coming up next.  He went to the bullpen and Doug Sisk came in and Canseco to ground out to end the damage at only three runs.

Those three runs would be enough though as the Orioles could get nothing going against Oakland starter Steve Ontiveros.  He went seven innings and held the Birds to only four singles and two walks.  Greg Caderet came in for the last two innings and held the Orioles offense to only a single walk.  Meanwhile the A's scored three more runs on RBI singles by Henderson (bottom of the third), Parker (bottom of the eighth) and Ron Hassey (bottom of the eighth) to extend their lead to 6-0.

One positive for the Orioles pitching staff was that despite giving up 16 hits to the powerful Oakland lineup, 14 of those hits were singles.  The only extra base hits tonight were the two doubles by Lansford.  This was not a trend that would continue.