Washington Nationals’ lineup for the 2nd of 2 with the Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles’ right-hander Aaron Brooks had a 9.33 ERA, seven walks, 20 strikeouts, and an ugly .366/.405/.707 line against in six starts and 27 innings pitched before his six-inning outing against the Washington Nationals last night, which saw the righty hold the red-hot Nats’ hitters to just two hits in a scoreless appearance.

Davey Martinez’s club had won six of seven on their road trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago, seven of their last eight overall, 12 of 14 and 15 of 19 games going into the first of two against Baltimore, scoring 104 runs in the previous 11 games before they got shut out by Brooks and the O’s bullpen.

What did the Orioles’ starter do to keep the Nats off the board?

“Just we were off-balance all day,” Martinez said. “He used a lot of his changeup and slider in hitter’s counts, and was effective.”

“His stuff was pretty good today,” Martinez added. “His changeup was pretty good today too, and he really didn’t fall behind for the most part, if he did it was 3-2. You know what?

“Just come back tomorrow and regroup, and tomorrow — I mean — we’ve been hitting the ball really well up till today, so hey, let’s forget about today, come back tomorrow and do it again.”

As good as they’ve been in the last few weeks (and since the end of May really), Martinez said it wouldn’t be easy for him to just write this loss off, though he’d move on from it and focus on tomorrow’s game.

“All these guys have been hitting the ball, so like I said, it’s one of those days,” he told reporters.

“That’s why they call it baseballs, it’s just one of those days today where we didn’t hit, we couldn’t score any runs, they scored two, the first inning, and that’s the way it ended up.

“So we’ve just got to come back tomorrow and try to score first, and try to score more than them.”

Good plan.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE 2ND OF 2 WITH THE ORIOLES: