A night after channeling Earl Weaver and completely blowing his gasket on home plate umpire Bill Hohn, interim manager Juan Samuel sat calmly in front of a group of reporters and described his team's play with words that haven't been used in relation to the Orioles this season.
"Flawless game by our club," said Samuel. "Everything was good."
In their 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins in front of announced 19,013 at steamy Camden Yards, the Orioles got a strong seven innings out of Jeremy Guthrie and six clutch outs by the back end of the bullpen with closer Alfredo Simon securing the final three for his 14th save.
The defense was sound with right fielder Corey Patterson making a diving catch with a man on in the second inning and center fielder Adam Jones making two catches with his back up against the wall. They were opportunitistc offensively with Jones getting a two-out RBI hit in the first inning and designated hitter Luke Scott slamming a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth.
Thankfully, the Orioles' second win in eight games since the All-Star break also didn't include any hat-throwing, and chest-bumpings blowups with umpires or idiot fans running onto the field, and it lasted a crisp 2 hours, 26minutes.
Whether the Orioles' solid all-around effort had anything to do with the long-awaited return of Brian Roberts is debatable. However, the club certainly enjoyed having their leadoff man and sure-handed second baseman back even though Roberts went 0-for-4 in his first game since April 9. Heading a lineup that has been one of the least patient in the majors all season, Roberts saw 24 pitches and worked the count full in three of his four at-bats, grounding out twice, flying out and striking out.
"I don't think it was a Rudy situation or anything, but yeah, it does seem that they are at least happy to see me back on the field, which is good," said Roberts who missed 91 games with a herniated disk in his back. "There's a lot of guys that I really love playing with here, especially my infielders. ÃÂÃÂ We have a great time out there. It was just good to be one of those guys again."
While his activation from the disabled list didn't attract the fanfare that Roberts' did, Scott's return has paid immediate dividends for the Orioles (31-65). He singled ahead of Jones' RBI basehit in the first inning and then he drove reliever Anthony Slama's 1-1 pitch into the right-field seats in the sixth.
Scott's two-run shot, this 15th homer of the season, answered Joe Mauer's two-run homer off Guthrie that had given the Twins a 2-1 lead in the top half of the inning. Scott, who teammate Kevin Millwood said "hits the happiest home runs" in the big leagues, hugged Jones after crossing the plates and then aggressively slapped his teammates hands in the dugout. Samuel joked that he was worried Scott was going to break someone's hand, forcing the club to put another player on the disabled list.
"They all feel good under any circumstances, but those do feel a little bit better," said Scott, who missed 14 games with a strained left hamstring. "It's good for Jeremy. He did a great job for us, pitched his heart out. It was really satisfying to get him a win."
Since coming off the disabled list on July 19, Scott is 9-for-21 (.429) with a double, three homers and six RBIs.
"When he left he was swinging a hot bat and we missed him there for a while but he picked up right where he was," said Samuel. "We love having Luke in that spot in the lineup and he's come up with some big, big hits for us."
The Orioles are also glad that Guthrie, who won for the first time since May 29, a span of 10 starts, appears to have located his early-season form. After allowing four earned runs or more in six of his final eight starts before the All-Star break, Guthrie has held the opposition to three runs over 13 1/3 innings in his past two starts, performances that could help his trade value if the team decides to move the pitcher before July 31.
Throwing all his pitches for strikes, Guthrie allowed six hits and walked no one, and made very few mistakes besides a 1-2 hanging slider that Mauer knocked over the center-field wall in the sixth.
"I have broken the season down into two different seasons, so for me, my season began, whatever six days ago, seven days ago. And I'm trying to throw the ball best I can and make the adjustments that I was able to think about over the all-star break," said Guthrie, declining to identify those adjustments.
Asked what has been working, Guthrie said, "Getting people out and I think the crispness of some of the pitches has been better."
There were some anxious moments after Guthrie left the game in the seventh with the Orioles leading 3-2. The Twins had men on the corners and two outs in the eighth as Will Ohman got a big second out by retiring Mauer and then walked Jason Kubel. Samuel brought in David Hernandez to match up against the right-handed hitting Michael Cuddyer and the Twins' first baseman drove a fastball to the wall in right center field.
Samuel said that he thought the ball was gone, as did Hernandez. But it died in the glove of Jones right in front of the wall.
"My first reaction was, 'Oh, shoot.' Then I saw Jonsey along the wall going after it, and when he came down with it, I was like, 'Whew,'" said Hernandez. "I didn't want to be that guy in the clubhouse that cost the team the game. I was fortunate enough that it did stay in the park."
jeff.zrebiec@baltsun.com
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