Saturday September 17 at the Tigers

Opponent: Detroit Tigers
Outcome: L
Score: 3-7
Streak: L5
Record: 51-95
Rank: 7th
GB: 32

The Orioles scored first tonight, getting on the board with two runs in the first inning.  With one out Brady Anderson tripled and scored on Cal Ripken's ground out.  Eddie Murray then doubled and came around to score on Larry Sheets' single.

Mark Williamson had started the game for the Birds and pitched pretty well, giving up only three hits and a walk over five innings.  The problems for Baltimore started after he came out of the game before the sixth inning.  Don Aase came in and had nothing.  He walked Dave Bergman to start the inning and Dwayne Murphy followed with a single.  Bergman then scored on Alan Trammell's single.  Orioles manager Frank Robinson went back to the bullpen and brought in Gregg Olson.  Olson almost got out of the inning unscathed.  He struck out Fred Lynn for the first out of the inning, then got Matt Nokes to ground into a force out of Trammell at second while Murphy moved to third base.  But with Darrell Evans at the plate Olson got called for a balk which brought Murphy in with the tying run.  Olson got Evans to ground out to end the inning.

Olson ran into problems in the next inning.  Chet Lemon led off with a double and moved to third on Tom Brookens' ground out.  He got Pat Sheridan to ground out for the second out before walking both Bergman and Murphy to load the bases.  Trammell then lined a single to bring in Lemon and Bergman and move Murphy to third.  The Tigers were now up 4-2.  The Orioles went back to their bullpen and brought Mark Thurmond in to pitch to Lynn - a somewhat gutsy move since Lynn had hti a game winning home run against Thurmond the night before.  But the Thurmond-Lynn rematch ended up unresolved - Murphy attempted to steal home and was thrown out for the third out of the inning.

The Birds went to Doug Sisk for the eighth inning and he walked Lynn.  Nokes sacrificed Lynn to second with a bunt, bringing up Evans who was intentionally walked.  Lemon then put the game out of reach with a three run home run.  It was now 7-2 Tigers.

Eddie Murray led off the ninth inning with a home run and the Orioles managed to load the bases against Tigers reliever Willie Hernandez (who had gotten the win the night before on only one pitch) but Mike Henneman came in and got Pete Stanicek to ground out to end the game.  Olson ended up with the loss - it was the first of his major league career.