Game 122: Orioles 4, Rangers 0

The Good: * Other than one quick bout of shaky control in the second inning (where Wieters came out to settle him down), Brian Matusz had a great game.  Final line; 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K. More groundballs (9) than flyballs (7) is also nice. Seems like Matusz had his good change-up tonight, getting 5 whiffs on the pitch. * Brian Roberts doubled in two runs (on a play where the right-fielder dove/slid and missed the ball), and walked. * Felix Pie had a couple of hits, but he also struck out and hasn't walked in a long while. When that was part of an amusing statistical oddity I went with it. Now it's an issue. * Matt Wieters went 2-4 with a double, and looks to be driving the ball better recently. * Corey Patterson had a 2-3 night, but made a base-running blunder getting doubled off of first-base on a short flyout to the center-fielder. * Every Orioles reached base, actually. But they were shut out until the 7th inning. It was that kind of game.' * Cesar Izturis made a couple really nice plays at shortstop - that's what he's on the team for. The Bad: * Nothing really, but they only walked once and scored just 4 runners despite 12 baserunners. Well... * Nick Markakis struck out twice. His walk rate from April to June: 14%. His walk rate from July to now: 6.5%. The Final: Hard to lose when the other team doesn't score. The O's have now gotten 8 IP out of their starters for three games in a row - first time since 2005. 11-6 under Buck now.