More Learning To Win, Or Not

Below is an entry from Peter Schmuck's Blog in The Baltimore Sun from today that echoes my sentiment from weeks ago about the O's and learning to win. While I saw very little of the Angels v O's series, and missed the utter meltdown in Friday night's debacle, I think Jim palmer makes a very good point. It's exceedingly frustrating to watch pitchers get 2 strikes on batters yet not be able to put them away; hitters not taking advantage with big hits and two outs or simply making productive outs early in an inning.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/

July 5, 2009
Lost weekend
The Orioles should have won three of the four games in Anaheim, but they don't know how to win. Jim Palmer told me that a month or so ago, pointing out their penchant for stalling after an early scoring rally as proof of a lack of "killer instinct." Never has that been more true than the last five days, during which they have lost three games in which they held a four-run lead at some point.
I don't have the numbers at my fingertips, but I'm guessing the percentage of games major league teams win when they take a four-run lead is pretty high. The Orioles have held a four-run lead in four of their last five games and won just one of them.
Obviously, that's because they have some real pitching issues, one of which is an uncanny ability to give runs right back after the offense explodes. In each of the past two games, the Orioles have taken a four-run lead in the top of an inning only to allow three in the bottom of the same inning. That meshes not-so-nicely with the nasty habit of scoring a handful of runs early and then letting the pedal off the metal.
Now that I'm through with today's rant, I have a confession to make. When the Orioles got ahead 4-0 today, I headed out to the cinema.
Why? Because I've already seen this movie too many times.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back to me
Almost a dozen years of losing makes it difficult to learn "how to win", but I believe the talent level is approaching the point where we should be expecting this team to win, certainly more than it has been. I've also previously noted that the O's record in one run games isn't bad (and follower Alan has given me a hard time for this), but the last two games against the Angels, losing 11-4 and 9-6, were 1 run games when the team melted down. In fact, we had 4-0 leads in each of them, and pitchers couldn't throw strikes and fielders couldn't catch the ball.

I was pleased to read that Trembley called the entire team out, and specifically called out some of the older veterans, including BR, and I hope the message was clear. It will be three tough nights in Seattle, but here's hoping Bergesen throws well again, and Trembley stays in the dugout come the ninth inning and a 4 run lead. Go O's