Series 3: Orioles take two of three from Black Caps

Orioles 4-6, Black Caps 4-4


Game One: Orioles 1, Black Caps 0
WP: Palmer (1-1)
LP: Mathis (0-1)

Game Two: Orioles 4, Black Caps 2
WP: Richert (2-0)
LP: H Smith (0-1)
Save: D Hall (1)

Game Three: Black Caps 4, Orioles 3
WP: Drake (2-0)
LP: Leonhard (0-1)
Save: Cooper (1)
HR: Palm (1), Powell  (1)

Jim Palmer threw a four-hit shutout for the visiting Orioles in the opener, retiring the final 10 batters he faced and seeing just three hitters over the minimum. Baltimore scored its run in the first inning; Don Buford led off with a single. One out later, Frank Robinson walked and Boog Powell loaded the bases with another single. Brooks Robinson plated Buford with a fly ball, and that was all the scoring for the game. Verdell Mathis allowed seven hits and one walk in the hard-luck loss.

Tom Phoebus was doing Palmer some better through the first four innings of the second game, holding Lincoln Park hitless until Dave Malarcher singled in the fifth. With the game scoreless entering the sixth, the Black Caps broke through when Buck O'Neil tripled home Bonnie Serrell. In the seventh, pinch-hitter Charles Blackwell singled home Oliver Marcelle to make it 2-0. But reliever Hilton Smith got little help from his defense in the top of the eighth; two runs scored on an error by center fielder Jerry Benjamin, and Powell brought home another pair with a base hit.

Lincoln Park salvaged the finale, with Spoony Palm driving in two runs, one with a homer, the other with a go-ahead base hit in the eighth. Bill Drake had carried a 3-1 lead into the top of the eighth for the Black Caps, but Powell's two-run, two-out homer tied it. Andy Cooper pitched around a pinch-hit triple by Curt Motton in the ninth for his first save.

Pitcher eligibility: The Black Caps should ideally give Mathis two games off, Streeter three, Drake four. Leonhard went two innings for Baltimore; if he pitches in the first game, give him a day off for each inning.

Projected rotations: Black Caps: Bill Holland-Rube Currie-??? (Williams, Mathis, McDonald, Cockrell). Oroiles: Mike Cuellar-Dave McNally-Phoebus-Palmer-Cuellar. Jim Hardin is to be skipped this time through the rotation.