Monday August 22 vs the Mariners

Opponent: Seattle Mariners
Outcome: L
Score: 3-7
Streak: L2
Record: 42-82
Rank: 7th
GB: 31

After seeing the Mariners the previous week in Boston I was getting a chance to see them again tonight in Baltimore - it was "Three Buck Night" of course.  And unfortunately I got to see the Mariners score seven runs against the home team for a win again.

The Mariners got on the board in the top of the second.  With one out Darnell Coles singled and then stole second.  He then scored on Scott Bradley's single.  With Jay Buhner at the plate Orioles starter Oswaldo Peraza balked to move Bradley to second.  Peraza then walked Buhner (which would have moved Bradley to second anyway) but he struck out Jim Presley for the second out.  Rey Quinones lined a single to left then to bring in Bradley with the M's second run of the inning before Bruce Fields grounded out to end the inning.

The Orioles came back in their half of the second.  With two outs they loaded the bases on a Rene Gonzales single, a Bill Ripken hit-by-pitch and a Joe Orsulak walk.  Fred Lynn unloaded the bases with a double that put the Orioles up 3-2.

Seattle regained the lead for good in the fifth.  Fields led off with a single and moved to second when Peraza balked for the second time in the game - this time with Harold Reynolds at the plate.   Reynolds then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Fields to third before Mickey Brantley lined a double to left to tie the game at 3.  Brantley moved to third when Alvin Davis singled and scored on a ground ball from Coles that forced Davis at second.  Bradley grounded out to end the inning but the Mariners now led 4-3.

The Mariners picked up single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning on RBI singles by Brantley, Presley and Coles respectively.  Meanwhile the Orioles weren't getting much in the way of timely hitting - they ended up leaving eight men on base and had only one hit (Lynn's three RBI double) out of six at bats with runners in scoring position.

Another loss by the Birds was so unremarkable that Ken Rosenthal's game story from the next day's Evening Sun was mostly about a complaint that Mariners manager Jim Snyder made about the fact that the Mariners relief pitchers were being shown warming up on the large video screen (the "Diamond Vision") while the Orioles pitchers were not.  Somehow Snyder thought the Orioles were doing some sort of high tech spying on his pitchers.  If so, it didn't do any good tonight.