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It is inevitable that every season each team will have one pitcher who goes out every start and provides a quality performance, but for some unlucky reason seems to always be out there while his team forgets to bring their bats to the stadium.

In recent years, the unlucky pitcher for the Orioles has usually been Jeremy Guthrie. However, this season that distinction has fallen to the young rookie.

It didn’t start out that way as Baltimore scored 10 runs to help Bergesen defeat the White Sox in his major league debut. They scored five or more runs in nine of his first 13 starts, including 11 run outbursts against the Braves and Nationals.

Unfortunately, the tide has turned as the Orioles have scored only eight runs in his last four starts with Bergesen registering one win and three losses despite allowing a total of only 10 earned runs in those games.

His stretch of bad luck began on July 1, the day after Baltimore made an amazing 10-run rally to defeat the Boston Red Sox. Bergesen allowed only one run in eight innings and seemed poised to earn his sixth victory before Boston rallied in the ninth inning and went on to steal one away from the O’s.

Since that game, the Baltimore offense has struggled to score in games in which the rookie has taken the mound.

That was again the case Friday night against the Red Sox as Bergesen allowed three runs in six innings, but the Birds could manage only one unearned run against Brad Penney and the Boston bullpen.

It was another disappointing result for a rookie who has been a steady rock for a struggling pitching staff.

Bergesen has worked at least six innings in each of his last 11 starts while allowing more than three runs earned only once (four against Philadelphia in a game the Orioles came back to win).

For the season, Bergesen is now 6-5 with a 3.56 ERA. One reason for his success is that his strikeout total (59) is nearly double the number of walks he has allowed (30).

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

With highly touted rookie Chris Tillman expected to make his major league debut in the next few days, the Baltimore bats need to start coming to life to give the growing crop of young pitchers some support.

Little could help the confidence of a young pitcher more than having his offense provide some early runs and allow him to settle into a groove. That certainly was the case for Bergesen early in the season and would be helpful to Tillman and the other young hurlers as they look to gain experience at the major league level.

The long-term success of the Orioles is betting on these young pitchers taking the Birds back to the days when they could bank on a quality start every night.

If they are going to be successful, the Orioles also need to hearken back to another trait of the great Baltimore teams of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, consistent offensive production.

Related posts:

1. Baltimore Orioles: Keys for a Successful 2010
2. Four Burning Questions Facing The Baltimore Orioles
3. Baltimore Orioles Midseason Report: Seeing Past the Ugliness

OK, now that you’ve watched it (a few times, I’m sure), let’s see just how savvy those On the Run folks are.

Below is a table of how often the Cardinals have scored six this year, whether it was at home or on the road, and whether they won or lost, plus the gap between “serious” games.

So as of June 29, the Cards had played 78 games and reached the six level in 21 of them, a 27% rate. That was brought down significantly by the two double-digit droughts in cheap refreshment, a 13-gamer at the end of May and a 10-game one at the beginning of June. Before those, it was around 41%, meaning that almost every other day you could get a cheap drink.

The Cards are 18-3 when they put up six runs, which is what you’d expect. If a team is losing a lot of 6 run games, they’ve got some serious pitching issues to address. Interestingly, though, they are 9-3 in these games on the road compared to 6-0 in Busch Stadium. Those three losses, though, came in Arizona, Chicago and Philadelphia, which have never been confused with “pitcher’s parks. They are on a run of scoring six away from home, though, as 11 of the last 12 instances have been away from the shadow of the Arch.

I have no idea what a regular drink costs at On The Run, but I’m guessing $1.25, which means that if you’d bought a drink every time, you’d have saved yourself $21, unless, of course, you wouldn’t have bought one otherwise, in which case you’ve cost yourself $5.25.

Don’t worry, I’ll continue to keep an eye on this and I’m sure you’ll see periodic updates on this crucial part of Cardinal fandom.

Related posts:

1. For The Cardinals, It Was A Stuttering September
2. The Cardinals Are Picking Up Steam
3. The Cardinals Flip Flop in May

The Philadelphia Phillies have won the 2008 World Series 4 games to 1 over the Tampa Bay Rays, ending their (the Rays’) Cinderella season. 48 hours after the start of Game 5, they resumed it from the bottom of the 6th tied at 2. They won the series 4 games to 1, but it was a much more exciting series than those numbers evoke. There was only 1 blowout and all of the remaining games were decided.

Game 1 in Tampa Bay: Phillies 3 Rays 2
Game 2 in Tampa Bay: Rays 4 Phillies 2

Game 3 in Philly: Phillies 5 Rays 4
Game 4 in Philly: Phillies 10 Rays 2
Game 5 in Philly: Phillies 4 Rays 3

Game 5

In the bottom of the 6th, the Phillies went ahead 3-2 on a Werth (RF) single, scoring Jenkins (PH) who had doubled to lead off the inning only to have a Rocco Baldelli (RF) HR tie it back up again in the top of the 7th. Then in the bottom of the 7th, Feliz (3B) singled home Bruntlett (LF) to go ahead 4-3 and that’s how the game ended with closer Brad Lidge closing the door in the 9th to seal the Championship and end the series.

JC Romero got the win, JP Howell the loss and Lidge got the save with more detail of the importance of that last stat a little later in this post.

2008 World Series MVP

Starting pitcher Cole Hamels who went 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA and 8 K’s in his two starts (he started game 5 Monday night) won the MVP award and a 2010 Camaro on his wife’s birthday (last night, 10/29) and said that the car will be hers.

Cole had 4 victories in this post season and almost had his 5th in game 5 if it were not for Baldelli’s 7th inning HR. 5 wins would have been a single player record for the post season!

Who else would have made a good choice as series MVP?

Philly 2008 Milestones

1. The Phillies were 86-0 after leading through 8 innings this year
2. Closer Brad Lidge was 48-48 in saves this year. 41-41 in the regular season and 7-7 in the playoffs with 2 of those coming in the World Series.

Phillies Franchise Milestones

1. 126 years old
2. over 10,000 losses
3. 2 World Series Victories (1980 & 2008): Priceless!
   

Related posts:

1. Philadelphia Phillies Off Season Report
2. For the First Time in World Series History…
3. Philadelphia is One Win Away from Baseball Euphoria!

With that being said, they will attempt to get game 5 finished tonight, weather permitting.

Through 5 and a half innings, we saw Kazmir get squeezed by the home plate umpire which directly or indirectly led to his 6 walks last night. We also saw the Rays 1B and team leader Carlos Pena and super rookie 3B Evan Longoria start to break out of their World Series slumps as they combined for back to back hits that resulted in their first run in the fourth.

A double by Pena followed by a Longoria single that plated Pena. Then Pena singled home Upton who just prior to Pena’s second hit of the game, stole 2B in the mud, putting himself in scoring position. Then the game was mercifully suspended due to the increasingly poor field conditions. The fact that they got to play that much baseball is a testament to the Philly grounds crew and the players themselves. Thankfully, no one got hurt because of the conditions.

Keep your fingers crossed to the ability to resume play tonight! The original forecast showed colder wet weather tonight in Philly. We’ll all just have to wait and pray that it lets up just enough to get the rest of this one in.

Related posts:

1. Congratulations to the 2009 World Series Champion NY Yankees
2. My 2009 World Series Prediction
3. Werth the Wait in Philadelphia