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Rick VandenHurk is appearing in his third game with the Orioles. Call off the search.
VandenHurk replaced Brad Bergesen with one out in the sixth and coaxed a double-play grounder from Victor Martinez. Two pitches and he was done.
We'll see him again in the seventh.
VandenHurk tossed a scoreless inning against Texas, striking out two, in his Orioles' debut on Aug. 22. He gave up two runs (one earned) in three innings in an Aug. 26 game in Chicago.
The Orioles acquired VandenHurk from the Marlins for reliever Will Ohman, who still might be buried underneath a pile of Nats.
Bergesen actually came within two outs of a quality start, since only two of the five runs against him are earned. He allowed eight hits, walked five and threw a career-high 114 pitches.
The Orioles have clawed their way back into this game. They've scored four times in the bottom of the sixth, the last two runs crossing on Matt Wieters' double off the fence in left-center field. Wieters is 6-for-9 with five RBIs lifetime against Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Nick Markakis contributed a run-scoring single and Ty Wigginton brought home Brian Roberts with a shot up the middle that Matsuzaka knocked down and turned into a 1-3 putout.
Dice-K is out of the game after 5 2/3 innings. He was cruising heading into the sixth.
Update: Strange night for Josh Bell. His infield hit started the rally, but he's also forgotten the number of outs, struck out, tapped to the mound and made a poor throw to second on a potential double play that allowed Boston's sixth run to score. Bell threw behind Brian Roberts, who had to reach back for the ball and subsequently bounced his relay throw to Ty Wigginton. Wiggington knows he should have fielded the ball cleanly, but the failure to turn the double play starts with Bell.
Down on the farm, Michael Aubrey hit his 20th home run for Triple-A Norfolk. Chris George has held Charlotte to one run and five hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts, in eight innings.
Joel Guzman tied Walter Young's home run record at Double-A Bowie with No. 33. Check out Steve Melewski's blog. He's at Prince George's Stadium.
Billy Rowell is 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs for Single-A Frederick.
First-round pick Manny Machado is 1-for-3 with a walk. He's batting .357 for short-season Single-A Aberdeen.
None of those four pitches to Reimold looked like a strike on Gameday. The Rodney Dangerfields of MLB . . .
VandenHurk should have been out of the 7th but on what should have been a routine DP, Bell threw behind Roberts and Wigginton failed to come up with Roberts' one-hopper. Ugly particularly because another run scored, giving the Red Sox a 6-4 lead.
Hey Roch,
Nice 2-run double from Wieters tonight, but we are down 6-4. Not a good night for Wiggy today. He's been struggling for a while now. Can you ask Rick VandenHurk when you get the chance, what are the five languages he speaks? I'm a guy that has mantained great interests in learning about languages and other countries' culture. I even speak a couple languages myself. (English, Mandarin Chinese, and currently learning Spanish, and some Japanese)
I guess it is time to test Simon mentally
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Looks like he passed. - Roch
I dont get this at all. Why would you pinch hit Patterson for Reimold and let Izturis hit? Unreal. I dont get it, am I the only one that realizes that Izturis is a 250 lifetime hitter?
Wish the game had been a little better played, and that anyone but Izzy and Josh Bell had been the last two batters. Not hard to predict strikeouts from that duo. But at least the O's turned it back into a game.
Oriolesfan122--Knowing Sidney Ponson's upbringing in Aruba, a Dutch colony, I would bet strongly that Rick VandenHurk's 5 languages--something that impressed me so much about Sir Sid until other things did not impress me so much--are Dutch, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
ocj - Actually, it was hard to predict Izzy's strikeout. On the radiocast tonight as he stepped to the plate in the ninth it was brought up that he's the eighth-toughest hitter to strikeout in the American League. So Buck let him bat because he usually makes contact.
I would probably strike Portugese from the list. VandenHurk (hereby now referred to as VDH) is from the Netherlands proper, and it's possible he speaks German. On the other hand, if he spent significant time in Aruba, then I would surmise that his fifth language is Papiamento, the local language of Aruba.
Sir Sidney does speak Papiamento - I think he spoke Dutch, English, Spanish, Papiamento and I'm not sure what the fifth was.
Rick vandenHurk almost certainly speaks German - having been to Holland a couple times I can say that's usually the first language they learn in school after English. If I had to make a guess, his five are probably Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish, though it's possible he went to gymnasium and therefore learned Latin or Greek!