So far, the St. Louis Cardinals are enjoying their first-ever trip to Baltimore. They won 6-2 last night by taking a 3-0 lead in the second inning and they took a 2-0 lead tonight in inning two.
Colby Rasmus hit a two-run homer off Chris Jakubauskas to start the St. Louis scoring. It was his second homer of the series, his third in four games and his eighth on the year.
Skip Schumaker's RBI single in the third extended their lead to 3-0 and a sac fly by Lance Berkman made it 4-0. It could...
The Orioles announced today that they have reinstated right-hander Alfredo Simon from the 15-day disabled list, where he was placed retroactive to June 13 with a right hamstring strain. To open up a spot for him on the 25-man roster, left-hander Clay Rapada has been designated for assignment.
Simon has appeared in five games for the Orioles this season, going 1-1 with a 3.14 ERA (14.1IP, 5ER). He pitched 3.0 innings or more in each of his last three outings.
Rapada appeared in 22 games for...
Balloting for the All-Star Game continues through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, and it's not too late to help Orioles outfielder Adam Jones - a MASNsports.com blogger, in case you didn't know - in his push to Phoenix for the July 12 Midsummer Classic.
The latest results for the American League's outfield should be particularly troubling to O's fans. It's not that there isn't an Oriole in the top five in any position. It's not even that Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista, an ex-Oriole,...
Two words: Don't panic.
Manny Machado homered in his second at-bat in the Carolina League, but he is hitting just .158 at 3-for-19 in six games with Single-A Frederick. I don't think anyone in the O's organization is worried in the least about a player who is playing in that league at the age of 18.
Machado doesn't turn 19 until July 6.
Before Machado was promoted to Frederick, he had been struggling some this month with Single-A Delmarva. In fact he is batting just .176 (13-for-74) this...
J.J. Hardy has now homered in nine consecutive series and reached base in 31 of 34 games since May 21.
Does missing a month with an oblique injury deny him an All-Star berth? He sure looks like a deserving candidate.
Not much information came out of yesterday's pregame session with manager Buck Showalter. It wasn't his fault. It was just a slow day.
I did find it interesting that Showalter admitted to having some concerns about the lack of production from the cleanup spot. And those...
There are two days left in June, and for the entire month, there has been exactly one game when the starting pitcher for the Orioles pitched at least seven innings. That game was June 10, when Jake Arrieta pitched seven innings against the Tampa Bay Rays. That's it.
Since his disappointing return from the disabled list, Brian Matusz is averaging less than 4.5 innings per game. Since joining the rotation, Chris Jakubauskas has pitched 20 1/3 innings in four starts. Rookie Zach Britton is...
As All-Star roster selection time approaches, the Nationals' Tyler Clippard and the Orioles' Jim Johnson are in the usual predicament for pitchers that act as the bridge between starter and closer: They have dazzling statistics, but not much hope of making an All-Star roster for the July 12 game in Arizona.
"Setup pitchers don't always get the credit they are due,'' Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty said. "It would be hard to imagine where a team would be without good middle...
The St. Louis Cardinals had lost five of six games and 12 of their last 15 before tonight's series opener at Camden Yards. Plus, they had the highest ERA in the majors during the month of June.
Despite that, the Cardinals beat the Orioles 6-2 in tonight's series opener. Kyle Lohse, who entered with a career interleague ERA of 5.93, pitched five shutout innings before a rain delay.
Lohse, who gave up four hits with one walk and two strikeouts, improved to 8-4 with an ERA of 2.78.
The...
With the selection of reserves for the All-Star teams coming up on Sunday, we'll know soon which Oriole or Orioles will make the American League squad.
Most seem to be predicting that just one player from this team will make it, but there are several deserving candidates.
They include Adam Jones, batting .294 with 14 doubles, 13 homers and 45 RBIs.
"Personally, it's out of my hands," Jones said. "You know, we've got guys in here having helluva years. I'm just trying to do my part. We...
I knew this game was moving too fast.
The tarp is coming on the field after umpires halted play at 8:35 p.m.
Too bad the grounds crew didn't take action a few minutes earlier. Colby Rasmus hit a 400-foot home run to extend the Cardinals' lead to 4-0 in the top of the sixth.
Zach Britton retired Yadier Molina on a ground ball for the second out before the Orioles bolted for the dugout.
Britton had retired eight of nine batters before Rasmus launched his seventh home run.
I'll take this...
Checking in with some notes on both teams as the Orioles get set to host the St. Louis Cardinals for the first time tonight.
* The Orioles lead the American League with 32 homers in June. They hit nine in the Cincinnati series, and the Orioles have homered 13 times in the last seven games and 27 times in the past 17 contests.
* Orioles starting pitchers have just one quality start over the last 10 games and an ERA of 5.43 in that stretch. The ERA of the O's starters was 7.63 over the weekend...
Chad Myers' dream was hatched watching the excitement of Orioles opening day in April reach a fever pitch on social media platforms.
"I was looking at my social media stuff and seeing people leaving work early and getting tickets to the sold-out opener and I wondered, 'Why can't we recreate the atmosphere of opening day?' The sellout crowd, the hype, the people getting to their seats early instead of in the second inning - those shouldn't only happen on opening day," Myers said.
At...
For the Orioles:
J.J. Hardy SS
Nick Markakis RF
Adam Jones CF
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Matt Wieters C
Derrek Lee 1B
Luke Scott LF
Mark Reynolds 3B
Robert Andino 2B
Zach Britton LHP
Lee is two hits shy of 1,900 for his career. He'll become the 315th player in major league history to reach the milestone.
The Orioles are the only team in baseball to have 10 or more home runs from their shortstop and third baseman. Reynolds leads all third basemen with 14 homers. Hardy ranks fourth among...
He has been a lightning rod for criticism this year by fans on talk shows and message boards, but in the end, will Nick Markakis prove his critics wrong?
Will the 27-year-old Orioles outfielder have a big finish to this season and make up for lost time with his stats after a slow start?
Right now, it may be heading that way. Markakis' bat is finally hot and he is hitting .405 during a 16-game hitting streak with four doubles, two homers and 12 RBIs during the streak. He is 9-for-19 over the...
Nick Markakis came up with three hits in five at bats in Sunday's win over Cincinnati. His average is at its highest point since April 9 and he now has a 16-game hitting streak.
Markakis is batting .405 (30-for-74) during the streak, which is one off his career best. The batting streak has raised his average from .236 to .277.
"I feel like I'm getting there," he said. "Just gotta take it day-by-day and try to continue what I'm doing. Get on base and get big hits when you need...
The Morrill family of Yarmouth, Maine, took the usual assortment of souvenirs with them when they headed out of Baltimore on a nine-hour drive home Monday morning.
There were t-shirts, Buck Showalter bobbleheads, miniature baseball bats, O's drawstring backpacks, caps - all memories of another fun weekend at Camden Yards, a trip that's become an annual summer excursion for Melissa Morrill and her five kids.
But one unexpected package forced a little shuffling of luggage and passengers: the...
After a good rookie year in 2009, Nolan Reimold just couldn't get his act together in 2010. There's no way to know exactly what happened to Reimold last year, but between his documented personal issues, the fact that he was recovering from surgery on his Achilles tendon and his impressive minor league numbers since being drafted, not many people were writing off Reimold's 2009 as a fluke.
Reimold was the odd man out after Vladimir Guerrero was signed, but found his way back to Baltimore on...
The short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds have gotten their new season off to a terrible start. Since beating Hudson Valley at home on opening night, Aberdeen has lost nine in a row.
If Aberdeen loses at home tonight versus Brooklyn, the 10-game losing streak would tie a team record. It took two seasons to do that before, as the 2004 squad lost its last four and the 2005 team began 0-6.
Aberdeen has struggled to score with just 29 runs and a .221 team average.
Six of the IronBirds nine...
Mark Reynolds has been on fire over the last four weeks, hitting .296/.446/.648. He leads the Orioles in home runs, doubles and walks. He trails only J.J. Hardy in on-base percentage and is arguably the best hitter on the team. Despite all of that, Reynolds remains at the bottom of the lineup, hitting ahead of only Robert Andino or Blake Davis and sometimes Felix Pie (who really shouldn't be in the starting lineup, ever, but that's another story).
I spent last week in Pittsburgh watching...
When Orioles president Andy MacPhail and manager Buck Showalter met with season ticket holders at Camden Yards on Saturday afternoon, they were asked a few interesting questions.
Among them, one fan asked if the O's brass uses sabermetrics in sizing up player acquisitions and in their daily preparations.
A simple definition of sabermetrics calls it simply "the statistical analysis of baseball data."
Another defines sabermetrics as the analysis of baseball through objective, empirical...