Friday August 5 vs the Brewers (2)

Opponent: Milwaukee Brewers
Game 1
Outcome: W
Score: 4-1
Streak: W3
Record: 36-71
Rank: 7th
GB: 29
Game 2
Outcome: L
Score: 1-3
Streak: L1
Record: 36-72
Rank: 7th
GB: 29

As you might expect, baseball did not rate very highly to me today.  The news about my grandfather was devastating and I didn't sleep much overnight.  Unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to take any time off from work.  Today I had to travel down to the DC suburbs for some sort of orientation class for the company I had started working for in June - in addition to the orientation that I did on my first day with them.  I also was going to be leaving on Monday to go to Massachusetts for training for a week and a half - I was going to learn to be a System Administrator on Masscomp computers.  If you've never heard of Masscomp it's because they were acquired by Concurrent computers later in 1988.  Because of this I wasn't going to be able to go to Kansas for my grandfather's funeral, something I regret to this day.

The Orioles were playing a double header tonight against the Brewers.  They were making up the game that had been rained out back on April 7th, almost four months earlier.   The Brewers had Ted Higuera on the mound for the opener - last time the Birds had faced him was their 12-0 Opening Day shellacking.  The outcome was a bit better for the O's tonight.  They took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an Eddie Murray sacrifice fly.  The Brewers tied it in the top of the fifth - the Brewers loaded the bases with none out on a single and two errors.  Orioles starter Jose Bautista almost got out of it - he struck out BJ Surhoff and Dale Sveum - but Paul Molitor singled to tie the game up although the runner on second (Rob Deer) was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. 

The Orioles would go ahead for good in the sixth inning when they scored two runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Jim Traber and Ken Gerhart.  A Pete Stanicek home run in the seventh made the score 4-1 which was how it ended.  Baltimore had now won four straight which would end up being their longest winning streak of the season.

That streak ended with the night cap.  Both teams scored a run in the first inning on an RBI double (Greg Brock for the Brewers and Larry Sheets for the Birds) but the Brew Crew followed up with two more in the third on an RBI groundout by Robin Yount and an RBI single by Brock.  The O's on the other hand only got four more hits after the first.

One thing that happened tonight I didn't find out for a few weeks.  My friend Steve drove down from Delaware for the second straight night and made it out to the Stadium in time for Game Two.  He got seats in the lower deck on the first base side.  During the first inning, Eddie Murray hit a screaming liner into the stands.  Everyone in his section ducked except Steve.  He stood up and raised his hands to catch the ball, only to have it pass right through his hands.  It bounced off a nearby fan and rolled away.  The best part of this story is that the cable systems in Delaware were carrying the game so when Steve got to work on Monday, one of his co-workers gave him a hard time about him missing the ball.