masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgOnce again, I give you the three moments from tonight’s game that jumped out at me, wrestled me to the ground and stole my wallet.

1. Vladimir Guerrero will swing at anything. If you roll the ball toward the visiting dugout, he’ll get a piece of it to stay alive. He kept hacking away at Brian Matusz’s pitches in the third inning, finally laid off a high fastball, then reached down and golfed a slider over the left field wall for a three-run homer. I kept waiting for him to check the tee…Once again, I give you the three moments from tonight’s game that jumped out at me, wrestled me to the ground and stole my wallet.

1. Vladimir Guerrero will swing at anything. If you roll the ball toward the visiting dugout, he’ll get a piece of it to stay alive. He kept hacking away at Brian Matusz’s pitches in the third inning, finally laid off a high fastball, then reached down and golfed a slider over the left field wall for a three-run homer. I kept waiting for him to check the tee before trotting to first base.

2. Matusz lost the strike zone in the third. Just flat-out lost it. The first hint was the four-pitch walks. Matusz spun around after missing badly to Joaquin Arias and forcing in a run. If he had turned slower, he might have seen Matt Albers warming in the bullpen.

3. Bengie Molina gets slower by the minute. The veteran catcher broke for second base on Matusz’s pitch to Nelson Cruz, who lined a double over Felix Pie’s head in left field. Molina barely made it to third, probably because he was power-walking the entire way. I’m not sure what caused the longest delay tonight – the rain or Molina.

The game started about 2 1/2 hours later than scheduled, which allowed me to watch Friday Night Lights for the first time. I’m already hooked.

If I’m lucky, Molina will run the bases again tonight and I can catch the next episode while I wait for him to cross the plate.

Update: Molina might beat Matt Wieters in a race tonight. Wieters appeared to aggravate that sore right hamstring and came out of the game in the fifth inning. He tripped over second base, reached for the back of his right leg and barely made it to third before signaling to the dugout and limping off the field.