Zach Britton was dominant, the bullpen was spectacular and the offense did just enough as the Birds completed a three-game sweep over Oakland with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.
Britton (6-4) picked up his first win since May 1 with a strong performance in front of a sparse crowd of 11,760 at Camden Yards. Britton went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just one run on four hits and two walks while striking out six.
Britton was locked in a scoreless pitching duel before the Birds finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning. Vladimir Guerrero led off with a single, but after two quick strikeouts, it looked as if the O's would squander another scoring opportunity...with J.J. Hardy at the plate, Vlad advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home on a long single off Hardy's bat. The next man up, Mark Reynolds, crushed the first pitch he saw over the left field fence to plate Hardy and give the Birds a 3-0 lead...it was Reynolds' team-leading tenth homer and his third in the past five games.
The bullpen, one of the strong points over the past few weeks, kept up their end of the bargain...Jim Johnson allowed an unearned run in the eighth before Kevin Gregg slammed the door with yet another 1-2-3 ninth, picking up his 12th save in the process.
The O's have now won four of the last five games and have inched closer to .500 with a 29-31 record. The club has Thursday off before taking on the Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game weekend series starting Friday night. Jake Arrieta is slated to take the mound for the Birds...
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