Orioles pull a White Sox

Bruce Chen and now Wei-Yin Chen.

There's something with the Sox and lefty pitchers with the last name Chen. Generally something frustrating.

Chen's reaction to hearing he would be facing the White Sox tonight.

Tonight, the Sox began the first of four in Baltimore and seven on the road.

Coming into tonight the Sox have a 5-6 record in "the town of the big house" since 2009. Which is kind of surprising to me because I generally feel a sense of doom whenever the Sox play in Camden Yards.

Anyway, Lew Ford and Nate McLouth provided the big blasts tonight in the Orioles 4-3 win. Ford got the O's off to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd with his first home run of the year. Figures.

McLouth came up big for the A.L. Wild Card leading Orioles in the 8th. He blasted a 2-run home run over the right field scoreboard to give the O's a 4-3 lead which they didn't surrender.

Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen threw what seemed like an effortless game going six innings only giving up two runs (one earned) and surrendering four hits while striking out eight Sox hitters. 

Francisco Liriano threw a lot of pitches in his five innings of work. 104 to be exact. Brett Myers was the loser tonight serving up the eventual game winning bomb to McLouth.

The loss puts the Sox at 71-56 on the season and now 2 games up on the Detroit Tigers who were off tonight. There's no use feeling bad about this one as tomorrow Chris Sale (15-4, 2.65ERA) will start against the O's Chris Tillman (6-2, 3.71ERA) who has been solid this year.

In other news, it has been reveled that Gavin Floyd has an elbow strain. Right now he isn't heading to the D.L. but his Friday start against the Tigers is going to now be Jake Peavy's start. The Sox are undecided who to start on Wednesday in place of Peavy.