Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Birds' Bats Back Jakubauskas

Making his first start in over a year, Chris Jakubauskas led the O's to a thrilling 4-0 victory over the Oakland A's on Tuesday night at Camden Yards.

Jakubauskas, acquired as a free-agent in the offseason, last started for the Pittsburgh Pirates in April 2010, and was pulled from that game after being struck in the head with a batted ball. Jakubauskas had been used out of the bullpen this season before making the spot-start on Tuesday night, and used the opportunity to his advantage. Jakubauskas went five scoreless innings, striking out five and walking one while allowing just three hits. He was actually struck in the ankle by a line drive in the top of the fifth, but stayed in the game to record the final out of the inning and should be fine...

The Birds smacked three homers in the game to hand a struggling Oakland squad their eighth straight loss. J.J. Hardy, in the lead-off spot for the first time this season, stroked the second pitch he saw over the left field wall to give the O's an early lead. Luke Scott went Yard for the first time since early May in the fifth inning, and Adam Jones slapped a solo shot in the sixth. Mark Reynolds capped-off the scoring with an RBI-double in the seventh...

The bullpen shut the door over the final four frames, as Clay Rapada, Jeremy Accardo and Koji Uehara combined to allow just two hits while fanning two and walking none to preserve the shutout.

Zach Britton takes the mound on Wednesday night, as the Orioles attempt to complete the three-game sweep of Oakland.

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