‘Battle of the Beltways’
courtesy of ‘wfyurasko’
The Battle of the Beltways Part II starts tonight up north in the streets of Baltimore where the Nationals (33-40) will face the birds in a three-game weekend series at Camden Yards.
Juan Samuel’s Orioles (20-52) are coming off a hot-hitting win over Florida scoring 11 on the Marlins 5 yesterday at home to avoid being swept. It was starting right-hander Kevin Millwood’s shortest outing since a five-inning trip to the mound on Opening Day, but after allowing two runs in the first and one in the second, his teammate’s stepped it up by raking in the runs.
Baltimore’s sizzling bats of-the-moment belong to Miguel Tejada and Adam Jones. So that’s something for Nats starter J.D. Martin to keep his eye on tonight.
The Nats took two of three when these teams met back in May and J.D. Martin (0-3, 3.55) is first up against Jake Arrieta’s (2-1, 5.06) right arm and the O’s bats to start the series. Martin’s last outing on Saturday against the Chicago White Sox resulted in a loss by giving up eight hits in six innings while only allowing one run.
Riggleman’s Nats are looking more like the Nats of yester-year with a 13-25 run in their last 38 games played. Errors also remain the root of dismal dropped contests for this Washington squad. No team in Major League Baseball has committed more than Washington. Their second to the poor playing Chicago Cubs in surrendered unearned runs in addition to being caught stealing more than any National League team in 2010.
Washington needs to strike early to score and try to focus on those fundamentals Riggleman emphasized back in Spring Training. The rest is up to Martin.
According to Quinn Roberts of MLB.com, “He [Martin] is 0-3, but he has given us a chance to win the ballgame each time,” Riggleman said.
Tonight’s game starts at 7:05 and fans in the Distrcit can catch it on MASN HD.
Note: The Orioles are boasting the worst record in all of the Major League’s. So that’s something to keep in mind.
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Saturday’s game starts at 4:05.
Sunday’s game starts 1:35.
Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.
Just remember to NOT go to Camden Yards and reward Peter Angelos by buying tickets. He voted against DC getting a team, took away the TV rights (costing many of us almost 2 seasons of televised games) and well, employs Rob Dibble.
Nationals 33-30? oh, one can dream….
…and the slight of hand of my fingers on the keyboard strikes again. 33-40 … not 33-30 … Should be quite a series this weekend. Interleague play never ceases to entertain.
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WFY, first off too bad you weren’t at the yard to watch a great series this past weekend, with the Orioles sweeping the series and winning the annual “competition” between the two teams. However keep in mind that the team itself chooses the announcers. Bob Carpenter, Rob Dibble, and Debbie Taylor might well work for MASN and so forth, but they were chosen by the Nationals (and not MASN) to do the Nationals’ games. So if you’re going to blame someone, blame the Nats and not Angelos. Furthermore, I like Dibble because he adds a lot to the broadcast.