CLEVELAND - -Give Jim Johnson a little credit. During the most difficult period of his brief career, the Orioles' closer of two months hasn't lost his sense of humor or his self-deprecating way.
"If there's a way to give up a run, I'll find a way," Johnson said after he served up the game-winning hit in the ninth inning of the Orioles' 9-8 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night in front of an announced 31,749 at rainy Progressive Field.
What is also now painfully true for the Orioles is if there is a way to lose, they will find it. They dropped their ninth straight game in particularly gut-wrenching fashion, erasing a four-run deficit in the fifth inning, blowing a two-run lead in the seventh, and then scoring two in the top of the ninth to tie the game before the Indians answered with one in the bottom half to win it.
After the Orioles staged their second rally and scored two in the ninth off Indians closer Kerry Wood, Luis Valbuena hit a leadoff single off Johnson, moved to second on Shin-Soo Choo's groundout and then scored the game-winning run on Jhonny Peralta's broken-bat, one-out single into center field.
The result for the reeling Orioles was another avoidable defeat, another step closer to the 100-loss plateau, and another frustrating evening for embattled manager Dave Trembley, who has to wonder whether his team will win another game.
"The hard ones are the ones that you have the opportunities to win," said Trembley, who had spoken to his players after Friday's loss and urged them to avoid feeling sorry for themselves. "Things were set up as best as they possibly could be to try to win that game. It was that simple."
The Indians, who had lost 11 straight games and 15 of 16 before the Orioles arrived in town, will go for a three-game sweep this afternoon. The Orioles (60-94) will have to go 3-5 the rest of the way to avoid the third 100-loss season in franchise history. They've already clinched their worst season since they went 67-95 in 2002.
"When you lose nine in a row, it's always hard," second baseman Brian Roberts said. "You figured at some point that the guys that we lost through the injuries were going to catch up to us a little bit. I don't think any of us thought it would catch up to us this much."
