pittsburgh pirates Orioles extend streak to four

Associated Press

BALTIMORE

About four hours before the Orioles faced the Pittsburgh Pirates, manager Buck Showalter walked up to struggling Jake Arrieta and told the right-hander he would be replacing Brian Matusz as Baltimore’s starting pitcher.

The element of surprise might have been a factor in Arrieta’s exceptional performance.

Unfortunately for Showalter, it’s not a ploy that can be repeated.

Arrieta struck out nine over seven steady innings, Wilson Betemit had a season-high three hits and drove in three runs, and the Orioles cruised past the Pirates 7-1 Wednesday night for their fourth straight victory.

Demoted to the bullpen after an ineffective outing Friday night against Philadelphia, Arrieta turned out to be the logical replacement for Matusz, who fouled a baseball off his nose Tuesday during bunting practice and was at less than 100 percent.

Arrieta (3-8) was dominant in ending a six-game losing streak. He gave up one run and seven hits, and the nine strikeouts matched a career high. It was the first win since May 2 for Baltimore’s opening day starter.

Chris Davis hit a broken-bat homer and had three RBIs for the Orioles, whose four-game home winning streak is a season high.

By taking two straight from the Pirates, Baltimore clinched its third successive series win.

Betemit, who went 3 for 3 and gave the Orioles a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning against Kevin Correia (2-6) with his eighth homer of the year.

Pittsburgh, which won five consecutive series before coming to Baltimore, has lost two straight games for the first time since May 22-23.

“No. 1, we need to execute better off the mound. No. 2, when we got chances to score runs, we have to perform the offensive fundamentals to go along with that,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.

“The game is pretty simple when you break it down, and they have outplayed us back-to-back nights.”