The Orioles have been held to three runs or fewer seven times in the past eight games and in 14 of their 26 games since the All-Star break. The A's three starters in the series - Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Vin Mazzaro - entered their respective outings with ERAs over 5.00. They combined to pitch 18 1/3 innings in the series, allowing five earned runs.
Shut out for the first five innings by Mazzaro, who had allowed six runs or more in four of his previous five starts and had won just one of his previous nine decisions, the Orioles finally got on the board in the sixth. Markakis hit a leadoff single and then jogged home on Aubrey Huff's two-run homer.
Luke Scott connected for a one-out double and scored to cut Oakland's lead to 4-3 when center fielder Rajai Davis played Wieters' single into a triple. However, the Orioles couldn't bring in Wieters from third with the tying run as reliever Craig Breslow got Wigginton to fly out to shallow right and struck out Cesar Izturis. When he returned to the dugout, Wigginton kicked over the water cooler, sending ice flying onto the field.
"I wouldn't say I'm pressing," Wigginton said. "I felt like I had a good pitch to hit and any time you get a guy in scoring position with one out, especially a guy on third with less than [two] outs, that's got to find a way to be automatic. In my opinion, there is no excuse for not driving that guy in."
Still trailing by a run in the seventh, the Orioles had Brian Roberts on second and Markakis on first with one out, and Huff at the plate. Roberts, who has the green light, broke for third and Markakis, having the choice to either run behind Roberts or stay at first, decided to try to steal second. Markakis got a late break and was thrown out at second by a wide margin. Huff then struck out to end the Orioles' last threat.
"I should have known better," Markakis said.
"I should have known that they were going to throw to second. The way Brian steals bags, it's tough to read. That's why he's one of the better base stealers in the game. I should have stayed put and given Aubrey a chance to get a sac fly or drive in a run there. I took a gamble and came up on the short end."
As the A's tacked on two more runs against an overworked bullpen, the Orioles didn't get a base runner during the final two innings.
Inside
O's pull offer to draft pick Givens PG 5
Box score
for Wednesday's game PG 4
ANGELS @ORIOLES
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 105.7 FM
