Orioles Take Two Of Three From The White Sox, 5-3.

The Orioles and White Sox played a day game Thursday to close out the four game set in Chicago.  After a tough loss on Wednesday, the Orioles were looking to regain their winning ways and stay atop the AL East division.  Those wishes came true as the O's ended a brief one game slide, winning 5-3.

The home run ball came again, this time from center fielder, Adam Jones.  The three-run homer was Jones' 5th homerun of the 2012 campaign.  Nick Johnson and J. J. Hardy also added RBIs in the victory.  Buck Showalter decided to give Matt Wieters some rest, having Ronny Paulino make the start at catcher.  No one expects Wieters to start EVERY game, so the day off was welcomed.

On the pitching side of the ballgame, Jason Hammel got the victory, improving to 2-0 on the year.  It was an impressive performance for Hammel, striking out 10 over six innings of work.  Early returns on the Jeremy Guthrie trade suggest the Orioles got the better of the deal.  Hammel has been very good so far in the rotation and Matt Lindstrom has an ERA of 0.00 out of the bullpen.  Meanwhile, if we go out to Colorado, former Oriole Jeremy Guthrie has been quite disappointing.  His stats show that the move to the NL has been horrible so far for him.

Out of the bullpen, Jim Johnson notched his 6th save of the young season.  He had two strikeouts, for a pretty calm 9th inning.  Pedro Strop and Lindstrom also made performances in the game, each pitching a scoreless inning.  The Orioles improved to 8-5 so far in 2012.

The team now takes to the road to face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Brian Matusz will be making the start for the Orioles today, opposing Jerome Williams of LA.  The game starts at 10:05 pm so don't fall asleep too early.  Let's see if these winning ways continue for the Birds!