Baltimore Orioles edge Washington Nationals 2-1 at Oriole Park – MLB Update
Baltimore Orioles edged Washington Nationals 2-1 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, June 24 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter will be very pleased with his team’s performance in all three games of the series. The bullpen, in particular, took the responsibility and produced outstanding results. Ryan Zimmerman gave an excellent start to the Nationals with an RBI single to left centre in the third inning that made the score 1-0.
Matt Wieters, once again, played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash as he homered to centre in the eighth inning to help Baltimore come back from behind to register an emphatic victory. Starting pitcher Jake Arrieta allowed one run and five hits in six solid innings before leaving the Orioles trailing 0-1.
"It felt great," Wieters said. "Everyone was battling up there, trying to grind through at-bats to get a run, and to finally get one was great."
"You win games with pitching," Wieters said. "And then it takes one big swing, or a couple of guys to get on and find some holes, and then you're right back in the lead."
"Clutch," team-mate J.J. Hardy said. "I mean, to win a ballgame like that the way we've been swinging was something we needed. It just didn't seem like we were going to piece together a bunch of hits."
With their win against the Nationals on Sunday, the Orioles have no narrowed down the gap between themselves and AL East leaders New York Yankees to just two games. Credit should also be given to the Nationals for putting up a solid fight throughout the series.
After the Orioles won 2-1 in series opener, the Nationals bounced back strongly in the following game, beating their opponents 3-1 to level series. Right now, Washington are at the top of National League East Division standings with a mighty 41-29 record and it will be interesting to see if they can continue their superb form throughout the season to make it to the playoffs.
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