masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgManager Dave Trembley praised the Orioles’ situational hitting and bullpen after tonight’s 5-1 victory.

How many times has that happened?

The sixth inning was huge, scoring twice on two walks, a wild pitch and two fly balls. And Mark Hendrickson pitched his best game of the season, according to Trembley, before Will Ohman retired the side in order in the ninth.

“Productive outs. We turned the tables on them and worked the count,” Trembley said.

“I thought there were four at-bats in…Manager Dave Trembley praised the Orioles’ situational hitting and bullpen after tonight’s 5-1 victory.

How many times has that happened?

The sixth inning was huge, scoring twice on two walks, a wild pitch and two fly balls. And Mark Hendrickson pitched his best game of the season, according to Trembley, before Will Ohman retired the side in order in the ninth.

“Productive outs. We turned the tables on them and worked the count,” Trembley said.

“I thought there were four at-bats in the game that were key for me – the two guys that walked, and after the wild pitch, the two productive outs. Those were the four key at-bats for us that proved to be the difference in the game. Oakland’s forte is work the count, get the guy’s pitch count up, and we certainly did that. We turned it around and did a little bit of that ourselves, which proved to be the difference in the game.”

Dave Trembley meets with the media after the O’s 5-1 win over the A’s

Maybe his pre-game talk was just as productive.

“Well, I told the team before the game that the first 45 games that we played, there’s not a whole lot we can do about it except learn from it, and there’s certainly an awful lot to learn. So, let’s see about playing a little bit better fundamental baseball and see where that takes us. And tonight was the first game with that approach,” Trembley said.

“The thing that was noticeable for me tonight was, when the game got tight and it was 1-1, it didn’t seem like anybody was out of control. We didn’t chase bad pitches ourselves and we didn’t try to overthrow. (Jeremy) Guthrie didn’t try to overthrow. In fact, in the fifth and sixth I thought that he backed off because early in the game he was 94, 95, 96, and he backed off, got some more sink and got some ground balls.”

Luke Scott told Trembley that he couldn’t swing the bat today because he jammed his shoulder while diving for the ground ball Sunday in D.C. that also led to Alfredo Simon’s hamstring injury. Two guys go down on one play.

“I don’t know how he’ll be tomorrow,” Trembley said, “but he said he really couldn’t swing.”