BALTIMORE, Maryland May 3, 2014 - Mark down May 2, especially if you are an Oriole fan. That is the day the Orioles took over first place in the American League East. Whether it will be for good or only a fading aperition remains to be seen; suffice it to say Friday night was a very good night for Oriole fans. Prized off-season free agent acquisition Ubaldo Jimenez struck out ten Twins in seven and one-third shut-out innings, leading the Orioles to a 3-0 victory and a place atop the American League Eastern Division Standings.
While the Orioles were winning their third straight game, the New York Yankees were losing their third straight, 10-5, to the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa, like the Orioles, has won three straight. In other AL East games, the Boston Red Sox clobbered the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 in Fenway Park, while the Pittsburgh Pirates rebounded from a doubleheader loss to the Orioles on Thursday to defeat Toronto Friday night, 6-5, in Pittsburgh. The up-to-the-minute AL East Standings are printed below.
In beating Minnesota in the Twin Cities on Friday Night, Jimenez earned his first win of 2014 against four losses. More importantly for Oriole fans were the ten Minnesota hitters he struck out. Baltimore signed Jimenez last winter to a four-year, $50 million contract, easily the most the Orioles have ever paid a free agent pitcher. But through April his starts had been mostly disappointing, although his last start did show signs of a turnaround. Friday, Jimenez was in control from the outset; when the Twins managed to get a runner to third with one out in the first inning, he struck out No. 3 hitter, Trevor Plouffe, on his way to getting out of the inning unscathed. He retired the Twins in order in the second inning, and struck out the meddlesome Kurt Suzuki in the process. In the third inning, Minnesota got two men on with nobody out, only to see Jimenez mow down the heart of the order on strikes: leadoff hitter Brian Dozier and no. 2 hitter Joe Mauer went down swinging. Then Plouffe, who went down swinging in the first, watched a third strike go by to end the third. Clean-up hitter Chris Colabello went down swinging to start the fourth. Jimenez started him with an 89-mile-an-hour four seam fastball, whihch Colabello took for a called strike. Colabello took the next pitch, a slider, for ball one. But Colabello took the third pitch, the difficult to control split finger fast ball, for strike two. The no. 4 hitter went down swinging on the next pitch, a standard four-seamer. With one out in the fourth, Jimenez already had six strikeouts. Brian Dozier struck out again to end the fifth. Plouffe struck out again in the sixth, and two more Twins went down on strikes in the seventh, giving Jimenez the ninth and tenth punch-outs on the night. He lasted into the eighth, getting leadoff hitter Sam Fuld on a fly out, and surrendering a double to Eduardo Escobar, before Oriole Manager Buck Showalter pulled him in favor of Zach Britton.
The Birds scored on Matt Wieters' RBI double in the fourth, and a two-run homer by Nelson Cruz in the sixth, which scored Manny Machado in front of him and gave the Birds a 3=0 lead that would also be the final score. Machado had singled to lead off the Oriole sixth, and it was his first hit since returning to the Baltimore line-up in the second game of the doubleheader the previous night against the Pirates. Between Jimenez, Britton and Tommy Hunter, who pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his eighth save, the Orioles' hurlers allowed the Minnesota batters only four hits. Jimenez gave up just three of them in pitching into the eighth.
American League East Standings Up-to-the-Minute
1. Baltimore Orioles: 15 wins, 12 losses, .556 pct
2. New York Yankees: 15 wins, 13 losses, .536 pct, 0.5 game behind
3. Tampa Bay Rays: 14 wins, 16 losses, .467 pct, 2.5 games behind
3. Boston Red Sox: 14 wins, 16 losses, .467 pct, 2.5 games behind
5. Toronto Blue Jays: 13 wins, 16 losses, .448 pct, 3 games behind
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