HOUSTON - Orioles first baseman Chris Davis provided his take today on the Orioles' three-game run with 40 strikeouts. Last night, the club struck out 19 times in 13 innings. According to STATS, that is two off the club record of 21 strikeouts set on Sept. 12, 1962. That was in a 16-inning game where the Washington Senators' Tom Cheney threw all 16 innings. The current Orioles - despite this recent run of strikeouts - rank just eighth in the American League with a total of 354, which is...

Former Orioles reliever Brian Matusz is back home in Arizona waiting out the waiver process, wondering where he'll pitch next and reflecting on his years in Baltimore. Emotions are all over the place and Matusz remains in one spot. The Braves acquired Matusz and the 76th overall pick in the draft on Monday for minor league pitchers Brandon Barker and Trevor Belicek. They designated him for assignment before he could fully process a trade that removed him from the organization that brought him...

Left-hander Steven Matz was as advertised as the Mets dropped the Nationals 2-0 to win the series in D.C. Matz is now 6-0 in his career in road starts after tossing eight innings of shutout baseball. In his first ever meeting against the Nats, he dominated. The Nationals mustered only four hits off of Matz. Manager Dusty Baker said one key was Matz seemed to gain strength as the game progressed. "He was throwing as hard in the eighth as he was in the first," Baker said. "He threw a heck of a...

The Orioles have made major changes to their lineup tonight, with Manny Machado returning to the leadoff spot and Jonathan Schoop batting second. Pedro Alvarez is at third base, Hyun Soo Kim is in left field and Nolan Reimold is in right. Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard takes a seat on the bench. Schoop is batting second to start a game for only the second time in his career. For the Orioles Manny Machado SS Jonathan Schoop 2B Adam Jones CF Chris Davis 1B Mark Trumbo DH Matt Wieters C Pedro Alvarez 3B...

HOUSTON - The good news for the Orioles is they have a pretty strong middle of the order. The current bad news is that group is not hitting much right now. Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo often bat two through five in the lineup. Right now, they have just six hits over their last 78 at-bats for an .077 average. Machado is 1-for-12, Jones is 3-for-29, Davis is 2-for-24 and Trumbo is 0-for-13. That obviously can't and won't last. We'll see if the Orioles can breakout...

The Orioles have settled on two of their three starters for the weekend series in Cleveland. The third one seems obvious, but isn't official. Mike Wright (2-3, 4.97 ERA) will take the mound for the series opener Friday night against the Indians, followed by Ubaldo Jimenez (2-5, 6.04 ERA) on Saturday afternoon. The Sunday starter is listed as TBD, but Chris Tillman (6-1, 2.61 ERA) would be working on normal rest after pitching last night in Houston. Tillman has recorded a career-high seven...

The Mets put David Wright back in the lineup and he delivered quickly. In the top of the first, Wright took a Tanner Roark 0-1 offering and drove it over the left field wall. The Mets lead 1-0. Roark allowed a single and a walk in the second. Before the Mets took the field for defense in the bottom of the first, Matt Reynolds entered the game at shortstop. Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera was listed as the starter, but did not play because of back spasms. Mets left-hander Steven Matz got out of...

The biggest story from this week's series on the New York side has been the struggles of right-hander Matt Harvey which continued Tuesday in a 7-4 loss to the Nats. Harvey allowed three homers and five runs and eight hits in five innings, succumbing to his seventh loss and second against the Nats in five days. After the game, the New York media jumped on Harvey because he did not speak to them. Today during pregame, Nationals manager Dusty Baker was asked about the problems for Harvey right...

Manager Dusty Baker decided to rest slugger Bryce Harper for Wednesday's matinee series finale against the Mets. Harper went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly RBI in last night's 7-4 win. In Harper's last 15 games, he has hit .200 (8-for-40) with one homer, 4 RBIs, 24 walks and nine strikeouts. Baker said Harper was fine with the news he wouldn't start. "We got mutual respect, he was cool with it," Baker said. "He really showed no emotion with it, which is fine with me." The Nationals are...

The Orioles no longer are in first place in the American League East, dropping a season-high one game behind the Red Sox. One game. This is no time to panic. They struck out 19 times last night, creating a breeze strong enough to blow back Jim Palmer's hair. Manager Buck Showalter found it unacceptable and didn't try to hide it while being interviewed on "O's Xtra" following the game. Collin McHugh, who starts tonight for the Astros, is averaging 7.2 strikeouts per nine innings. McHugh has...