The Phillies and Baltimore Orioles played a Day/Dight Twin Bill in Baltimore on Wednesday, the first game being a makeup of Tuesday’s rain postponement.  The results were what has become predictable to the Phils of late, a doubleheader sweep — for the other team.

In game 1, Baltimore got off to a 7-0 lead touching up rookie lefthander  Cole Hamels (1-4) for all of their runs over 5 innings as Orioles lefthander  Erik Bedard (8-6) breezed through 7 shutout innings gaining credit for the win. 

Baltimore scored 1 run in the 2nd inning, 3 runs in the 3rd featuring a 2 run homer by catcher Ramon Hernandez (14 HRs, 56 RBIs, .287 BA), 2 runs in the 4th on a 2 run shot by 2nd baseman and leadoff hitter Brian Roberts (1 HR, .314 BA) and 1 run in the 5th off of losing pitcher Hamels. 

In the 8th inning, the Phils tried to rally scoring 4 runs on Pat Burrell’s (19 HRs, 54 RBIs) 2 run homer and Shane Victorino’s (4 HRs, .308 BA) 2 run shot off of Oriole reliever Kurt Birkins (2-0, 2.78 ERA), but it fell 3 runs short.  The homers were the first off of Birkins in 2006.  The Phils bullpen shut down the Orioles over the final 3 innings as the final score was 7-4 Orioles.

In the 2nd game, the Orioles jumped on the other Phils rookie starting and losing pitcher Scott Mathieson (0-3) for 5 runs in the first 2 2/3 innings of the game and another 4 runs featuring a 3 run homer in the 4th inning for Ramon Hernandez (15 HRs, 59 RBIs, .287 BA), his 2nd homer of the doubleheader and carried a 9-3 lead after 4 innings.  

The Phils opened by stringing 2 hits into a run in the 1st inning.  Baltimore countered with 1 in their half of the 1st.  Baltimore followed with 1 in the 2nd and 3 in the 3rd inning.  2nd baseman Chase Utley (15 HRs, 45 RBIs, .291 BA)  and 1st baseman Ryan Howard (27 HRs, 68 RBIs, .286 BA) solo homered in the 4th off of Oriole starter and winning pitcher Kris Benson (9-5).

In the 6th inning, leftfielder David Dellucci (4 HRs, .302 BA) solo homered off of Benson, but the Orioles came back in their 6th inning to score 3 to make the score 12-4.  The Phils bullpen came on to shut down the Orioles the rest of the way and Ryan Howard hit his 2nd homer of the game in the 8th inning ending the scoring in the 12-5 Orioles win.

For the full recap, play-by-play and box scores on both games, click here and here.

Today, Phils starter Ryan Madison (7-5) tries to end the losing streak when he goes against Rodrigo Lopez (5-8) for the Orioles in the rubber game of the series.

For the scores, recaps and box scores of all of today’s games in both leagues, click here.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.