Friday September 2 at the Mariners

Opponent: Seattle Mariners
Outcome: W
Score: 4-3
Streak: W1
Record: 47-86
Rank: 7th
GB: 27.5

Tonight's game initially looked positive for the Orioles, then looked bleak for a while and then abruptly turned out well for them.  Joe Orsulak started the night off right for Baltimore by homering to lead off the game.  But Seattle tied it up in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Steve Balboni.  A Rey Quinones RBI double in the second inning gave the M's the lead and Harold Reynolds extended that lead with a solo home run in the seventh.

History was made in the bottom of the eighth.  Alvin Davis singled to start the inning and Orioles manager Frank Robinson went to his bullpen to replace Mark Thurmond.  His choice was Gregg Olson, the Orioles first round pick (and fourth overall) in June's amateur draft.  Olson was the first of the 1988 draft picks to make his major league debut.  He struck out the first batter he faced (Balboni) then gave up a single to Scott Bradley who was thrown out at second attempting to get an extra base.  He walked Jay Buhner but was able to strike out Jim Presley to end the inning.

The Orioles rallied in the top of the ninth.  Mariners starter Mike Moore was still on the mound at this point but he was replaced by Mike Schooler after Eddie Murray singled to start the inning.  After Mickey Tettleton struck out Larry Sheets singled to put the tying run on base (and Butch Davis came in to run for him).  But Jim Traber struck out and the Orioles were down to their final out.  A walk to pinch hitter Terry Kennedy loaded the bases though and Pete Stanicek came through with a two RBI single to tie up the game.  Seattle went back to their bullpen and brought in Bill Wilkinson but Joe Orsulak greeted him with a single that brought Rick Schu (who had pinch run for Kennedy) in with the go-ahead run.  Finally Wilkinson got Brady Anderson to fly out to end the inning.

Orioles closer Tom Niedenfuer came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth and he kept the Mariners off the board for his 16th save of the season.  Olson got the win in his big league debut.

I went up to Delaware this evening for my blind date with Sabra.  It's funny - Sabra is an unusual name and I didn't think I had ever seen it before.  But I stopped off at my parent's house before picking Sabra up and I noticed a bird watching book that my folks had had for years was sitting out - one of the author's names was "Sabra".  Also the Phillies had just picked up a pitcher named Bob Sebra from the Expos the day before and there was a copy of sports section of the Philadelphia Inquirer sitting on my parent's kitchen table with the headline "Sebra's New for The Phillies" or something like that.  I picked her up at her apartment and we went out for dinner and ice cream and hung out for a while talking.  We hit it off pretty well and made plans to meet up again.