The Baltimore Orioles took two of three from the Los Angeles Angels and remain in first place in the hotly contested AL East much to the delight of the home crowd at the All-Star break.
After suffering through a 4-5 West Coast trip the O’s came home, where they have an MLB-best 33-14 record and got back to their winning ways.
Baltimore closed the first half of the season at (51-36) giving them a slim two game lead over Boston (49-38) and Toronto (51-40).
After splitting the first two games of the series the Birds turned to their ace and he delivered a 4-2 victory.
Chris Tillman struck out five, walked five and allowed one run in seven innings of work. He improved to (12-2) with a 3.41 ERA.
All-Stars Brad Brach and Zach Britton came in to close out the game. Brach, who will going to his first All-Star game earned his (15th Hold). Britton is now 27 of 27 in save chances.
Slugger Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy each finished with two RBIs. Davis hit his 22nd homer and now has 58 RBIs at the break. Hardy went 2 for 3 with a home run.
The first game of the series the Orioles honored their 1966 World Series champs. Unfortunately for the fans that was the highlight of the evening.
Starter Ubaldo Jimenez really struggled and could not make it out of the second inning. He left the Birds in an early 5-1 hole and they never recovered, losing 9-5.
The middle game of the series saw some late game heroics from Oriole’s second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
With the score tied at 2-2, his eighth inning single, after he scored the tying run on a rare balk where the Angel’s pitcher simply dropped the ball, proved to be the difference as it gave the Bird’s a 3-2 victory.
Mark Trumbo added his ML-best 28th home run of the season. He now has a team-high 68 RBIs.
Starter Yovani Gallardo surrendered six hits, walked four, struck out two while allowing two runs in five innings of work. The bullpen shut out the Angels and Britton recorded his 26th save of the year.
