With Win, O's Avoid Ignominious Milestone
Orioles 6, Blue Jays 3
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
BALTIMORE, Oct. 3 -- Regardless of what the Orioles do in today's season finale, it still will go down as a bad baseball season in Baltimore. It just won't be remembered as a historically bad one.
The 2009 Orioles ensured that they will not be the third 100-loss team in franchise history. They beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3, before an announced 23,254 Saturday night at Camden Yards, to improve to 63-98 with just one game to play. They also secured their first three-game winning streak since June 19-21 when they swept the Philadelphia Phillies in one of the highlights of their season.
With losses Saturday night and in Sunday afternoon's series finale, the Orioles would have been the franchise's first team to drop 100 games since the 1988 team lost its first 21 games on the way to a 54-107 finish. The Orioles' only other 100-loss team came in 1954, their first year in Baltimore.
But the Orioles avoided that fate, riding a four-run fourth inning and one more quality outing by Mark Hendrickson. The big left-hander allowed three runs in 6 1/3 innings, and one of them came after he was out of the game. In four starts since joining the rotation, Hendrickson went 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA and finished with three straight quality starts. He easily could have been 3-1, but he lost two victories when the Orioles' bullpen couldn't hold a lead.
Jeff Fiorentino drove in two runs, and Brian Roberts, Ty Wigginton, César Izturis and Guillermo Rodríguez each had an RBI for the home team. Nick Markakis went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk, but remained on 99 RBI for the season.
Toronto got on the board in the second inning, starting the frame with three consecutive singles off Hendrickson to load the bases.
After a scoreless third, the Orioles broke the game open in the fourth, scoring three times. Markakis led off with a double and scored on Wigginton's single back up the middle. Richmond walked Michael Aubrey and then allowed a line single to Montañez, loading the bases with one out.
Fiorentino notched his second RBI on the night by grounding into a fielder's choice. Then with first and third and still one out, Rodríguez hit an RBI groundout to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
