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Matt Wieters showed the world that, yes, the hype is probably justified. Luke Scott continued to hammer the ball like a dialed-in slugger in a beer-league softball game. Jeremy Guthrie even tied a career high with 10 strikeouts, holding his own against one of the hottest and best pitchers in baseball.
But the Orioles' five-game winning streak still came to an end Saturday night at Camden Yards. Baltimore rallied from an early three-run deficit but couldn't quite overcome a career night by normally light-hitting Detroit outfielder Clete Thomas, falling, 6-3, to the Tigers in front of an announced 34,567.
Thomas - who came into the game batting .162 in his past 12 games - hit a pair of home runs and also doubled home a run in the eighth, and the Tigers' bullpen made the lead stick, cooling the Orioles' hot bats in key moments for the first time this series.
It was hard to find too much fault with the Birds' effort, though. This was a loss with an undercurrent of optimism, an emotion that has been in short supply for this franchise at times over the past decade. Baltimore fell behind 3-0 by the fourth inning but clawed back in it against Tigers ace Justin Verlander. Verlander came into the game with a 5-0 record and a 0.85 ERA in his past six starts, and looked as if he might cruise once again, giving up just two hits through the first four innings.
But Wieters, who went 0-for-4 in his major league debut Friday, started the rally and showed Baltimore the first sign of just how good he might turn out to be.
The rookie catcher led off the fifth inning with the Orioles trailing 3-0, but Verlander fell behind him 2-1 as Wieters patiently laid off a pair of breaking balls. When Verlander tried to sneak a letter-high fastball through the strike zone, Wieters hammered it to the deepest part of the ballpark, just missing a home run.
The ball bounced off the fence, just left of the 410-foot marker, and then rattled around in center field. Wieters motored into third with a stand-up triple, and the Camden Yards crowd roared in appreciation to celebrate his first major league hit.
"I don't think I ever would have envisioned a triple would be my first hit in a major league baseball game," Wieters said. "I felt like I hit it well. It wasn't like one of those where you just know. ... I was just happy to be on base at that point."
He scored his first career run minutes later when Nolan Reimold singled to left field, putting the Orioles on the scoreboard.
In the sixth inning, Luke Scott - perhaps the hottest hitter in the American League right now - crushed a pitch from Verlander just short of Eutaw Street with Melvin Mora on first, tying the game at 3. It was Scott's sixth home run in the past four games, a stretch that began Wednesday when he came off the 15-day disabled list.
"It was probably the only mistake pitch I had all night," said Scott, who has 15 RBIs in those four games.
After the game, Tigers manager Jim Leyland vowed that if Scott came up in a scoring situation with a base open in Sunday's series finale, he would earn an immediate intentional pass.
Wieters followed Scott's homer by ripping a double into right-center off Verlander, but the Orioles couldn't bring him home.
Guthrie, who gave up six hits and three runs over six innings on 113 pitches, gave way to Matt Albers to start the seventh, and that's when Thomas struck again. After homering off Guthrie in the third, he jumped on Albers' second pitch, hitting his second bases-empty shot of the game into the left-field bleachers to make it 4-3.
The Orioles had good chance to tie the game in the seventh inning after Brian Roberts singled and Nick Markakis doubled, giving Baltimore runners on second and third with just one out, down 4-3. But Aubrey Huff popped out to third base, and Melvin Mora struck out.
"There were a lot of real positives in the ballgame tonight," said Orioles manager Dave Trembley. "Their matchups late in the game were better than ours. That's the way the game goes."
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