By Baltimore Sun
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. -- It's unclear whether a healthy Nolan Reimold or Félix Pie would have been able to run down Evan Longoria's liner in the left-center field gap that was the key swing in another Tampa Bay Rays one-run victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
But Orioles Manager Dave Trembley would have at least liked to have the opportunity to find out. Trembley wanted to keep Reimold and his surgically-repaired left Achilles' tendon off the turf at Tropicana Field, but those plans were scuttled when Pie aggravated a left rotator cuff strain while making a throw in Tuesday's season opener.
That loomed large when Longoria's double in the fifth inning off an otherwise sharp Jeremy Guthrie got past Reimold's outstretched glove, and scored two runs in the Rays' second consecutive, 4-3, win over the Orioles in front of an announced 15,220.
"It was placed pretty well," said Reimold, who had surgery last September and has admitted that it will be a while before he's able to run at full strength. "It was like 10 feet out of my reach or so, five or 10 feet, somewhere in there. It was just hit in one of those spots, tough to get to".
Longoria added a solo homer in the eighth off Cla Meredith, who may not have been in the game if normal eighth inning guy Jim Johnson wasn't experiencing right elbow tightness.
Down 4-2 in the top of the ninth, the Orioles trimmed the deficit to one on Garrett Atkins's RBI double. However, Rays closer Rafael Soriano retired pinch hitter Ty Wigginton on a groundout and then got Brian Roberts to fly out on the first pitch of the at-bat to preserve the victory.
Roberts, the leadoff man who makes the Orioles' offense go, went 0 for 5 for a second straight night and has now stranded eight base runners in two games. The Orioles are 3 for 21 with runners in scoring position so far this season and have stranded 17 men.
On Wednesday, they plated two first-inning runs off Matt Garza, the first scoring on Miguel Tejada's bloop single and then the second coming home when usually sure-handed Rays first baseman Carlos Peña couldn't handle Reid Brignac's low throw on what should have been an inning-ending groundout by Matt Wieters.
Garza settled down and rattled off seven consecutive scoreless innings, allowing four hits and just one other Oriole to reach scoring position while striking out nine.
"We came up a little short," said Trembley. "We played great. We wanted a couple pitches back, we wanted a couple at-bats, maybe for hits to fall in. You compete like that. You do an awful lot of things right".
Trembley was also encouraged by Guthrie's outing. Relying on well-located fastballs and a slider that was better last night than it was at any point last season, Guthrie surrendered three earned runs on eight hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings.
"That's Guthrie of 2008 right there," Trembley said. "He pitched a great game".
The Washington Post
