Baltimore -They represent the middle of the road, a median marked more often by a pylon than a green sign.
The Rockies and Baltimore Orioles entered Saturday’s game sharing identical 29-32 records. So much for the inequities of interleague play? They are not good enough to scare, not bad enough to ignore.
If an expression, they’d be shrugged shoulders. The benefit of existing somewhere between happiness and glum is that a fragile season can always swell importance with a gutsy win.
Such is the case for the Rockies, whose 3-2 victory spoiled a postcard-perfect night at Camden Yards for raucous fans.
Most figure to return today as many as 40,000 to get their Cal Ripken bobbleheads. On Saturday night, they settled for a collective headache after Kazuo Matsui’s RBI double in the 10th inning. Matsui, one of baseball’s best offseason signings at $1.5 million, has almost single-handedly authored three wins against Cincinnati a week ago and at San Francisco on May 25.
As with any star who doesn’t hit for power, he needs his teammates to bring the game to him. Chris Iannetta served as the unlikely conduit. Starting despite carrying a .198 average – Yorvit Torrealba will face the left-handed Erik Bedard in the series finale – Iannetta delivered a one-out single up the middle. Willy Taveras advanced him to second on a sacrifice bunt – he was thrown out by half a step – ushering Matsui to the plate.
Since he returned from the disabled list on May 21, the Rockies are 12-6. That’s not a coincidence. He’s batted .303 (20-for-65) during that time, though few hits were bigger than his last rip. Matsui kept his weight back on Todd Williams’ off-sped pitch, slicing it into left field to score Iannetta.
Brian Fuentes recorded his 18th save by striking out Miguel Tejada on a wicked changeup.
