It’s August 13, 1996, and the O’s quite literally walked to a win over the Brewers. Down 3-1 late, it looked bleak for the Good Guys, but Milwaukee pitchers issued five walks in the eighth, walking in two runs before a Roberto Alomar sac fly scored what would be the winning run in a 4-3 triumph at Camden Yards.

The O’s scored all three runs in the eighth without even getting a hit. In fact, they only had two hits in the whole game. But a win is a win.

“Not hitting a home run and getting only two hits,” Davey Johnson smiled as he talked to the Sun’s Buster Olney and other reporters. “That’s the Oriole way.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1D, August 14, 1996)

The reason they were able to come back was that rookie Rocky Coppinger pitched seven strong innings, giving up just three runs.

Milwaukee lefty Scott Karl dazzled for seven innings of two-hit ball, but he struggled with control all night. His sixth walk, leading off the eighth, was his final batter. But then three relievers kept walking the O’s, and the game slowly slipped away.

“Downright terrible,” Brewers manager Phil Garner said. “It’s about as ridiculous as it gets right now. We gave a team three runs without letting them get a hit. That’s ridiculous. You’ve got to quit finding ways to lose a ballgame and start finding ways to win.”

After a skid that saw them fall below .500 two weeks ago, the O’s have done just that, they have found ways to win. They remain 3.5 games back of the White Sox in the wild card race.

Here is the box score with the lovely totals.

In promising injury news, reliever Armando Benitez made his first rehab appearance for the Gulf Coast Orioles, and he looked good. Benitez hasn’t pitched since May due to a sore elbow. If he can return, he would give the bullpen something they have been lacking: serious velocity. Fingers crossed. 

Two hits and no dingers in this game.

Brewers (55-65) at Orioles (61-56) 3:05 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
MIL – RHP Jeff D’Amico (3-5, 5.36 ERA)
BAL – LHP David Wells (9-10, 4.55 ERA)

In an example of how quickly the media has shifted its tone on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just two months after the paper portrayed him as a right-wing extremist, now the Sun has a front page article with the headline “New Hope for Israeli Settlers.”

It’s a glowing portrait of a group of West Bank settlers, some of the most violent extremists in the entire region.

Here’s the lede from Sun correspondent Ann LoLordo:

ARIEL, West Bank — Ron Nachman, mayor of this Jewish settlement, spent the past four years battling Israeli officials for the chance to fill empty apartments, pave streets, even build sidewalks in this rocky hilltop town. Now, a new government is poised to give him that chance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making good on his promise to settlers to increase their presence in the West Bank, which is also home to more than a million Palestinians.

War criminal Ariel Sharon will oversee the projects.

“A good road brings you life,” Mayor Nachman said ominously. “Big population creates a political fact.” 

The settlements are one of the biggest threats to the tenuous peace process. “There is a settlement ghoul in Jerusalem,” Palestinian president Yasser Arafat said. “The most important thing is to confront this ghoul, which swallows everything including the peace process.”

This is a reminder that from the moment he assumed power 30 years ago, Netanyahu has always had a genocidal plan for the Palestinian people. And now we can see how quickly the media started falling in line.

Welcome to a recurring segment where I find fun things in today’s (in 1996) Baltimore Sun!

Uh oh, the Astros and Expos were getting into it.