After their best and worst road trip of the season the Orioles returned home to wrap up interleague baseball with the Washington Nationals in round two of the Battle of the Beltways.

The O’s looked to get the bats going after being outscored 23-11 with a team batting average of .239 in Florida.

Baltimore took two out of three against the Natinals in DC last month and have won three of their four interleague series.

Tonight’s the Birds sent their most consistent starter, Brad Bergesen, to the hill to face off against the Nat’s young talent Ross Detwiler.

Aubrey Huff got things started in the 1st inning with a sacrifice fly to center that drove in Adam Jones. It was good to see Jones start the day with a double after a bad road trip at the plate.

After Bergy gave up one in the 2nd inning the Orioles added two of their own in the 4th. Nolan Reimold, hitting in the five hole, doubled down the third base line and Aubrey Huff scored when Josh Willingham bobbled the ball in right field. Then Melvin Mora, hitting in the seven hole, drove in Reimold with a single.

Manager Dave Trembley replaced Mora with Reimold in the five spot of the line up tonight and it payed off, not just in the 4th but also the 6th. After Nolan Reimold doubled and Luke Scott singled, Mora brought them around with a double to left that gave the O’s a 5-1 lead.

Trembley said that he will continue to start Nolan in that spot. Good idea.

Turns out the best way to get over a sweep is to face the gNats. Including Mora’s RBI double, the Orioles put eight more runs on the board and sent twelve men to the plate in the 6th.

One win like that and you forgot about the south Florida woes. 45,000 in the stands tonight as opposed to 4,500.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
WAS 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
BAL 1 0 0 2 0 8 0 0 0 0 0