Luke Scott is feeling better today after suffering a right knee contusion when he made a great catch in the top of the ninth last night. But, he is not in the starting lineup against St. Louis.
"Yeah (still sore)," Scott said. "I feel better today than when I left the field. I iced my knee a bunch of times at home. I've got a little stem machine of my own at the house and I did what I could.
"Woke up this morning and still have some swelling. It's still a little tight and sore, but I...
Luke Scott's right knee remains sore after he slammed into the left field fence last night, so it's doubtful that he'll be in tonight's lineup.
Scott will continue to ice the knee. Meanwhile, you can list him as day-to-day, like the rest of us.
Scott bruised his knee while making a leaping catch to rob the Cardinals' Matt Holliday of a home run in the top of the ninth inning. He wanted to bat in the bottom half of the inning, but manager Buck Showalter sent up rookie Blake...
Right-handed reliever Alfredo Simon returns to the Orioles active roster for tonight's game with St. Louis.
He was out since June 13 with a right hamstring strain. Simon said he feels great. He pitched two scoreless innings for Double-A Bowie on Sunday after spending some time rehabbing the hamstring in Florida.
"I just was working in Sarasota and now I'm ready to go," Simon said. "I just pitched two innings in Bowie and feel ready to go."
Simon last pitched for the Orioles on June 12...
The Orioles will activate Alfredo Simon from the disabled list this afternoon and designate left-hander Clay Rapada for assignment.
The club has 10 days to trade Rapada, pass him through waivers and outright him to Triple-A Norfolk or release him.
The Sun's Jeff Zrebiec tweeted the roster move, and a team official just confirmed it.
Rapada was effective against left-handers, as advertised. They went 4-for-35 against him, with one home run, three walks and 13 strikeouts. However,...
The Orioles public relations staff put out some interesting notes on J.J Hardy today.
Did you know his nine homers in June is one off the major league lead for the month. Prince Fielder, Paul Konerko and Carlos Pena have hit 10 to lead MLB in June homers.
If Hardy hits one more this month, he will tie Miguel Tejada's team record for most homers in a month by an Orioles' shortstop. Tejada hit 10 in August of 2007.
Hardy, who has hit five homers over his last 11 games, has now homered in...
Clay Rapada wasn't available to reporters once the clubhouse opened for us at 3:35 p.m. He might have already packed up and left the ballpark.
Rapada posted a 7.30 ERA in 22 appearances. Left-handers were 4-for-35 with three walks and 13 strikeouts against him, but right-handers were 9-for-13 with two doubles, a triple, two homers, three walks and no strikeouts.
In 12 1/3 innings this season, Rapada allowed 10 runs and 13 hits, walked six and struck out 13.
Yes, he was good against...
The Orioles have failed to follow up their series victory over Cincinnati with more momentum as they have now lost the first two games of the series with St. Louis.
Chris Carpenter pitched a complete-game, seven-hitter on 132 pitches as the Cardinals beat the Orioles 5-1. He is now 3-7 with an ERA of 4.00.
The Orioles fell behind in the second inning for the second night in a row and they failed to get clutch hits for the second straight night. After going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring...
That was a nice eight-pitch top of the first inning for Orioles right-hander Chris Jakubauskas.
Pop up, strikeout. fly ball.
It can be a pretty simple game. Throw strikes and work quickly. Command your fastball and good things usually will happen.
Lance Berkman stepped to the plate in the top of the second, which must have brought disturbing flashbacks for both men. Jakubauskas' only major league start in 2010 ended after a Berkman line drive slammed off his head. Jakubauskas was pitching...
Nick Markakis' hitting streak has reached a career-high 18 games.
Markakis doubled off Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter with two outs in the bottom of the third inning to reduce their deficit to 4-1.
The run is unearned because Carpenter was charged with an error on a sharp ground ball by J.J. Hardy that deflected off the pitcher's foot and bounced to third base.
It sure looked like a hit to the rest of us, but so far it hasn't been changed.
Update: It's been changed. Credit Hardy...
It hasn't become as rare as, say, seeing a pitcher throw a complete game anymore, but it still seems pretty rare in baseball these days.
That is, seeing a relief pitcher pitch not one, but two innings, in an outing. It doesn't seem like that would be asking too much, but managers are always thinking ahead and know that a two-inning outing for a top reliever today could mean he can't be used tomorrow.
In the last week or so, we have seen Buck Showalter use both Jim Johnson and Koji Uehara,...
One more note on the starters: They're 3-8 with a 5.99 ERA and have failed to complete seven innings in the last 16 games since Jake Arrieta did it on June 10.
Chris Jakubauskas fell to 2-1 with a 5.68 ERA after allowing five runs and seven hits in five innings. He noted that the Cardinals were "a little bit more aggressive."
They also were four runs better.
Chris Jakubauskas meets with the media about picking up his first loss as an O's starter
"I noticed it in the first inning," he...
Sometimes talking about the 2011 Orioles gets tiresome, especially when they're losing. So instead of rehashing another failure, let's go back in time.
It was on June 30, 2009 that the Orioles completed the greatest comeback in franchise history, and it was one of the most fun games I can remember watching. After falling behind 10-1 to the Boston Red Sox, the Orioles scored five runs each in the seventh and eighth innings to come all the way back and defeat the hated divisional rivals...
Each time Brad Bergesen begins to warm in the Orioles' bullpen, Chris Jakubauskas makes a big pitch to end an inning and stay in the game.
He's not especially sharp tonight, but he's stubborn.
The Orioles had a chance to wipe out a four-run deficit, or at least take a big chunk out of it, after loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth. Felix Pie and Blake Davis singled, and J.J. Hardy reached on an infield hit.
Chris Carpenter was teetering.
The Orioles couldn't topple...
You can't talk about tonight's 5-1 loss to the Cardinals without focusing on the bases-loaded, no-out situation in the fifth inning that yielded no runs, and another non-quality start from the rotation.
"We had a shot at them there in the fifth," manager Buck Showalter said. "That was a big momentum swing."
Was it quality pitching from Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter or the Orioles' hitters pressing at the plate? Maybe a little of both?
Buck Showalter meets with the media to...
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...