Braves, Lowe pounded by Orioles
Baltimore — The Braves picked a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Baltimore to come completely unraveled. No phase of the game went unscathed.
On the mound, Derek Lowe had his worst outing as a Brave, lasting only 2-1/3 innings in a 11-2 shellacking by the Orioles.
Defensively, Yunel Escobar made a pair of miscues to open the door to four runs by the Orioles and got benched by manager Bobby Cox. He failed to complete a double play in the first inning and hesitated on a rundown in the second inning, which allowed Robert Andino to steal home.
At the plate, the Braves were limited to five hits in a complete game by rookie Brad Bergesen, who gave up his only runs on a pair of David Ross solo home runs.
Overall, the Braves dropped behind the Marlins into fourth place in the NL East.
It was bad from the start after Lowe walked the first two batters of the game.
"I was terrible from pitch No. 1 to pitch No. 80," said Lowe, who gave up a season-high seven runs. "Just disappointing. In no way did I see this game coming. It was a struggle from the beginning. Any time you put your team in a touchdown deficit, it's going to be hard to come back."
After what figured to be a long charter flight to Cincinnati, at least figuratively, the Braves were off Monday before resuming this nine-game road trip Tuesday against the Reds.
Before the Braves got to Baltimore on Friday, the Orioles had lost nine of 11 games. After scoring 19 runs in their first 10 games of June, the Orioles scored 19 runs in the last two games against Atlanta.
Coming into Sunday, Lowe had put up six consecutive quality starts. On Sunday, he had a hard time making a quality pitch. He walked the first two batters on the game, allowed the leadoff man aboard in each of the first three innings, and gave up eight hits, including a Ty Wigginton home run.
The 2-1/3 innings were good for Lowe's shortest outing in five years, since a two-inning playoff tune-up against the Orioles in 2004 when he was with the Red Sox.
"Just way too many pitches over the zone," Lowe said. "What can you say? When you stink, you stink, you can't make excuses. You tell it like it is and move on."
Cox turned to Kris Medlen after Lowe gave up two more runs in the third inning, including one on a bases-loaded walk to Andino. Medlen proceeded to give up five walks of his own, allowed four runs and gave up Wigginton's second home run of the game.
