Birds sweep A's in 3 one run games

Game 1 – Memorial Stadium
Byrd vs McDonald
Baltimore 6 Oakland 5

As has been the case for every game in Memorial Stadium so far, the home team immediately fell behind by a run in the top of the first.  This time Yeonis Cespedes scored on the combination of a single, a groundout, a Clint Courtney passed ball and an RBI single by Mark McGwire.  Baltimore broke through for three against Oakland starter Harry Byrd in the bottom of the third with the big hit being a two RBI triple by noted “speedster” Brooks Robinson.  Baltimore added one run in each of the next three innings to stake Ben McDonald to a 6 to 1 lead after six innings.  Oakland rallied with one in the seventh on a Jose Canseco home run to left and three runs in the eighth including a run scoring single from Jim Finigan and  a Dick Howser walk that forced in Reggie Jackson against reliever Tim Stoddard.  Baltimore escaped when Billy O’Dell came in to strike out Dick Green with the bases loaded.  Greg Olson closed out the game for Baltimore by striking out Mitchell Page and getting McGwire to ground out to second to end the game with the tying run on second base in the top of the ninth.

Game 2 – Memorial Stadium
Keough vs Bunker
Baltimore 3 Oakland 2

Baltimore, for the first time this season, jumped out to an early lead at home when Nick Markakis scored from third on a Clint Courtney groundout to short after singling, advancing to second on an outfield error and advancing to third on a Matt Keough wild pitch.  Baltimore plated two more in the third on an error, three walks and a single.  Oakland once again rallied against Bunker on a two run homer by Reggie Jackson which closed out the scoring in this game.  Eddie Watt came on in the ninth for Baltimore to close it out, but not before Oakland made one more charge on a Dan Johnson single, a Rickey Henderson stolen base (running for Johnson).  An intentional walk to Jim Finigan by Watt set up the game ending double play.    
 

Game 3 – Oakland Coliseum
Estrada vs Archer
Baltimore 6 Oakland 5

A third consecutive one run game stated with Baltimore scoring 4 in the top of the 1st inning against Oakland starter Jim Archer.  Highlights of the 1st inning included 2 RBI doubles by Gus Triandos and Hal Smith.  Oakland chipped away at the Baltimore lead over the next three innings in the bottom of the 4th stringing together two doubles (Dan Johnson and Dick Green) along with two singles (Dick Howser and Yeonis Cespedes ) to kno the game at 4. The game was decided in the 5th when Baltimore responded with 2 runs on a Nick Markakis 2 RBI double.  Oakland countered with 1 in the bottom half of the frame as a Reggie Jackson double scored Mark McGwire all the way from first base.  At this point, both bullpens took over control as 7 innings of combined relief pitching resulted in only one more hit.

Game 4 – Oakland Coliseum
Garver vs Blanton
Baltimore 3 Oakland 0

Baltimore completed the sweep of the four game series on the strength of six strong innings from starter Ned Garver who yielded only 2 hits and no runs.  Effectively countering Garner was Oakland starter Joe Blanton who held the Birds to only 4 hits over 6 2/3 innings, but yielded three runs which came on a Roy Sievers solo shot in the top of the 6th another Brooks Robinson triple (most likely a career high :0)) that plated both Bobby Grich and Cal Ripken in the 7th.  Just as the night before, once the bullpens took the field, the hitters called it a night. Combined both bullpens yielded only three hits over 5 1/3 innings of work 

--submitted by Mark Nixon-- 

Editors Note:  Mark Nixon did a great job handling his pen and winning those close games.  He is turning out to be a fine strategic manager and a gr8 edition to KOD in this his inaugral season