Maurer gets birdbashed

Brandon Maurer entered last night's game on a great roll posting a 2-1 record with a 1.89 ERA in his last 3 starts so you know he felt great going into the game. Well, Nate McLouth decided to say hi in the rudest way possible, a lead off solo homer to right and the Orioles took the early 1-0. In the last 3 starts Maurer would've brushed off that lead off homerun, but unfortunately Maurer didn't brush it off, instead Maurer gave up a double to Manny Machado on the next pitch and following that Maurer threw two wild pitches that enabled Machado to move to 3rd and then score. After giving up a single to Nick Markakis and walking Chris Davis, Matt Wieters doubled home both Markakis and Davis and the O-birds took a 4-0 lead, Maurer finally got out of the inning but after one inning his ERA jumped from 5.61 to 6.75. The Mariners hitters had some work to do now as they faced Jason Hammel. The M's hitters would only muster two hits from Kendrys Morales and Mike Morse but couldn't get anyone in. Maurer was able to get over his rough first inning and threw three shutout innings. After the 4th inning manager Eric Wedge brought in Blake Beaven to relieve Maurer. 

Beaven was able to keep the Orioles at bay until the top half of the 6th, the inning began with J.J. Hardy singling and Ryan Flaherty doubling, Chris Dickerson then singled home both runners and the Orioles now took a commanding 6-2 lead of the Mariners. The bottom half of the 6th was where the M's tacked on their first runs. Mike Morse got ahold of one and took Hammel deep for his 8th homerun of the year. Jason Bay continued his hot streak by singling off of Hammel along with Justin Smoak. After a pitching change Dustin Ackley put his hitting streak to 10 games with a single and loaded the bases for Kelly Shoppach. Shoppach grounded out and was able to leg out to first and on the play Bay was able to score the Mariners trailed by 4 runs. Brendan Ryan continued his reliability by grounding into an inning ending double play. The Orioles added an extra run in the top of the 7th inning and extended the lead to 7-2. After that the M's would not get another run and the O's bullpen shutdown the Mariners to close out the game.

NOTES: Brandon Maurer took the loss in the game and put his record to 2-4. The Mariners go for the series win today in the rubber match. Aaron Harang will look to get his first Mariner win tonight, Dustin Ackley will look to extend his hitting streak to 11 games and Jason Bay will look to extend his hitting streak to 6 games as well.