Game 24: Orioles 12, Red Sox 9

The Good: * Adam Jones still chased a few balls, but he looked better at the plate - working the count pretty well. He finished the day 2-4 with a pair of singles - one of the infield variety and one of the line-drive variety - and a walk. * Nick Markakis hit 4 line-drives - one was caught; two went for RBI singles; and one cleared the scoreboard in right for a two-run homer. If he's going to hit the ball to left a lot and walk, but turn on one occasionally and drive it out of the yard, he's going to be a pretty darn good #2 hitter in this line-up. Nick is now hitting .304/.398/.500 on the season. If he can end the year at .300/.400/.500 I will be so very, very happy. * Matt Wieters showed some easy power, flicking his bat at an outside fastball and sending it out to the opposite field for a three-run homer (#2 of the year). * Ty Wigginton drew a walk and hit his team leading 7th homer of the year. And then he hit his 8th of the year, demolishing a Tim Wakefield knuckleball. * Luke Scott struck out twice, but he also took a knuckleball high and deep to right-field for his third home run of the year. * Rhyne Hughes picked up a couple of hits as well, but by this game's standards that might qualify for the bad category. The Bad: * The results weren't good for Brad Bergesen in his first start after being called up from Triple-A. The line is bad - 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 2 HR - and so was the Pitch/FX. He got about the same amount of sink on his fastball that he had before being sent down - not a ton, and not enough for him to be successful. Slider looked pretty good though, and he did get 9 groundouts to 4 flyouts. * Mark Hendrickson had a great first inning of work, striking out a pair. In inning two he recorded just two outs while giving up 4 runs on 4 hits (including a long home run). The Final: So this is what having an offense is like. I definitely approve. The O's set a season high for runs scored, hold off the Sox attack, and pick up the 12-9 victory. That improves the team's record to 6-18, and gives them their first series win of the year. The Birds look for the sweep tomorrow, which would be awesome.