BALTIMORE, April 27, 2013 - Said Jim Palmer, the Hall-of-Famer turned broadcaster: "trying to sneak a fastball by Steve Pearce is like trying to sneak dawn by a rooster." And the Oakland Athletics did not have a rooster on the mound Friday night. Pearce, who started out terribly for the Orioles, has suddenly caught fire. In a scoreless pitchers' duel, he had a long double that didn't result in a run in the fifth, but a clutch two-out single in the seventh to score J.J. Hardy and propel the Birds to a 3-0 win. The real story was Wei-Yin Chen, who spun eight shutout innings, surrendering only two hits. He improved to 2-2, but has pitched so much better than that. Jim Johnson came on in the ninth to earn his ninth save. The Orioles scored two essential insurance runs in the ninth. The first scored on Nate McLouth's ground ball that A's second baseman Jed Lowry booted. That error also put pinch runner Chris Dickerson at third base, where he scored on Nick Markakis' sacrifice fly.
The Orioles, who beat Oakland 10-2 on Thursday night after taking two out of three earlier in the week from Toronto, are back at it today at 1 pm when Chris Tillman takes the mound. The Friday win improved the Orioles record to 14-9 and kept them in second place, two games behind Boston and one-half game ahead of the Yankees. The Birds are a solid 7-4 on the road.
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