Juan Rivera felt some tightness in his rib cage during batting practice and got pulled from the lineup. Angel starter Jeff Weaver then gave up two runs in the first and second innings. To make things worse, Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera found the control that had eluded him in his first two starts.
All of these things combined to help the Angels lose for the fourth time in five games. The Orioles used the four early runs and Cabrera's strong seven innings to pull out a 4-2 victory over the Angels in the series finale before 15,691 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Angels dropped three of four to the Orioles and head to Minnesota trying to straighten things out, never an easy task on the road.
Weaver shut down the Orioles for the last five innings he threw Monday night. But it's what the Orioles did in his first two innings that helped them beat the Angels. Weaver (0-2) gave up just two hits in the final five innings and retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.
The Orioles got a two-run homer from Miguel Tejada in the first and a two-run double from Brian Roberts in the second to give them a lead they never lost. Weaver settled down after that, allowing just four runs (two earned) on five hits in seven innings.
"The only thing was the slider I threw to Tejada -- garbage," Weaver said. "I left it over the middle of the plate, and he blasted it. If I located that slider where it's supposed to be, it's a fly ball to right."
Angels manager Mike Scioscia said the early deficit was too much to overcome, especially with Cabrera on his game.
"We [were] swimming upstream a little from the beginning," Scioscia said. "Jeff pitched a terrific game."
But Cabrera was the story in this game. The Angels weren't able to do much against Cabrera (1-1), who suddenly found his control after walking 16 batters in his first 6 1/3 innings this season. He struck out five and walked one while holding the Angels to one run on five hits in seven innings.
"He came in and got in the zone early and got in a groove," Scioscia said. "He made some pitches when he had to. I think we made him work for it. He found his release point. He's got great stuff."
Cabrera retired the first eight batters he faced and threw 106 pitches, 70 for strikes. He made a number of good pitches after falling behind in the count, showing the poise he hadn't in his first two starts.
"It was working today and everything was perfect," Cabrera said.
The Angels wanted to try to get into hitter's counts that would force Cabrera to make pitches easier for them to handle. But if he fell behind 2-0 or 3-1, the right-hander would make a good pitch that put him back in a better position.
More often than not, Cabrera got ahead early in the count. That's why patience was hard for the Angels batters to find.
"It's tough to ... stand up there and try to be patient [when] you get behind against a guy with that kind of stuff," said Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy. "The history of guys like that is they [have] games where they figure it all out."
Another Angels defensive miscue helped the Orioles. After Tejada's homer gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the first, shortstop Orlando Cabrera booted a Corey Patterson grounder. Then, with two outs, Roberts blasted a two-run double to left for a 4-0 lead. "I tried to throw it to third base before I got it," Cabrera said. He's now made four errors already this year after committing just seven miscues last season.
The Angels' best threat against Daniel Cabrera came when they used two hits and his only walk to load the bases with two out in the seventh. Garret Anderson scored on catcher Ramon Hernandez's passed ball with Maicer Izturis up. But Cabrera then got Izturis to fly out to end the threat.
Anderson got an RBI single off Orioles reliever LaTroy Hawkins in the eighth. But Hawkins got out of further trouble, and closer Chris Ray finished the job in the ninth.
Rivera said he hopes to be back in two days, and reliever Francisco Rodriguez (hamstring) and designated hitter Tim Salmon (groin) are day-to-day. The Orioles had their own bad luck when outfielder David Newhan suffered a fractured fibula sliding into second base in the first inning. He's scheduled for surgery Thursday and said he expects to be out six to eight weeks.
