The Comeback

Watching the Mariners and the Orioles on a lazy afternoon with the Mariners firmly in control one would be tempted to take a nap or turn to something else. After all, the O’s had squandered several golden opportunities, including loading the bases with no one out and leaving them that way. That inning ended with a strike-out and a double play and the Mariner’s 2 -0 lead in tact. Then the M’s added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.

But, folks, these are the mighty Orioles, they of the ten run come from behind win against the Red Sox recently. So I stayed tuned. And sure enough, a scratch hit here, an error there, a double, another error and presto, the O’s walk away with five runs and a W. Ah, winning sure beats losing.

Which brings me to my second topic of the day, that the Orioles are actually the Astros of the East. Yesterday’s lineup featured key hits by the following O’s, all ex-Astros: Luke Scott, Aubrey Huff, Ty Wiggington and Geoff Zaun. It sure is nice to see them all doing so well for another team.

But there is one Astro who deserves a tip of the cap this season and that is Wandy Rodriquez. I must confess that when I lived in Houston and had a chance to go to a game I’d try to pick one that didn’t involve Wandy. Except in 2007, when the Astros inexplicably signed Jason Jennings, who immediately morphed into the human losing streak, Wandy was the starter to avoid. He rarely went deep into a game and rarely won. He was, frankly, boring. That was then; the 2009 Wandy just pitched a complete game shut-out, striking out ten and lowering his ERA to 2.96. A pitcher who has never won more than ten games in a season already has eight before the All Star break. So what’s going on here? Well, if you look at the stats, you can see that he’s been improving slowly every year, lowering his ERA, raising his strikeouts, walking fewer guys, etc. It’s called learning to pitch. Sometimes, I guess, it just takes a while.