The Orioles host the Los Angeles Angels tonight to start a three-game weekend series. This will be just their fourth game all year against a non-American League East opponent and just their second against an AL team not from the east coast. The Angels are 17-17 and have allowed just four runs total in winning their past three games. They are 6-2 since beginning the season at 11-15. The Angels went 19-14 versus AL East teams in 2014. The O's, though, won the season series, 4-2 against Los...

The Orioles' bullpen has gotten on a bit of roll and is putting up numbers that fans have come to expect from the pitchers after a slow start. Since April 29, the bullpen ranks second in the majors (behind Detroit) with a 1.41 ERA and ranks first in opponent batting average at .161. Right-hander Darren O'Day got the save Wednesday, getting the last four outs. He has not allowed an earned run over his last 11 appearances and 10 innings and has an 0.69 ERA for the year. After that slow start,...

Orioles right-hander Bud Norris is sick again and may not be able to make Saturday night's start against the Angels. Norris turned in back-to-back quality starts before becoming ill on Saturday and lasting only 3 1/3 innings the following day at Yankee Stadium. Ubaldo Jimenez would take Norris' turn while working on regular rest following yesterday's off day, and Chris Tillman would be bumped up to Sunday. Norris played golf yesterday in "The Battle of the Birds" - the Orioles improved...

Manny Machado is leading off and Alejandro De Aza is batting second tonight for the Orioles in their series opener against the Angels at Camden Yards. Jimmy Paredes remains in the third slot and Delmon Young is getting another start in right field. Rey Navarro, who hit his first major league home run on Wednesday, returns to second base. Since April 29, the Orioles' bullpen ranks second in the majors behind the Tigers with a 1.41 ERA - five earned runs allowed in 32 innings - and first in...

I have long home runs on the mind. First, there was the anniversary last Friday of Frank Robinson becoming the only batter to hit a ball out of Memorial Stadium. Then the Miami Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton put a ball out of Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. Let's talk longball in this week's guest blog. The longest Orioles home run so far this season belongs to ... Jonathan Schoop. Schoop's 432-foot home run on April 10 against the Blue Jays tops Chris Davis' 423-foot shot to center field on April...

I grew up a Montreal Expos fan. It was a completely different experience following a team from a city outside of your own at that point. No MLB.tv. No MLB Extra Innings or MLB Network. Just newspaper reports the next day, box scores and a few games a year when they played in or against New York. Living in New Jersey, surrounded by Phillies fans on one side, and Yankees and Mets fans on the another, with no team to call our own, there was no way I was cheering for any teams from Philadelphia or...

SAN DIEGO - The Nationals entered this season with the so-called most-feared rotation in all of baseball. Words like historic and legendary were thrown around to describe them. Now, as all five have made seven starts each this season, there are more questions than guarantees. Four have ERAs over 4.00 as tall righty Doug Fister was the latest to get rocked in last night's 8-3 drubbing by the Padres. Fister's evening lasted just 41 pitches as he was unable to make it past the second inning...

David McCullough is my favorite historical writer and one of my favorite writers, period. I could have picked any of his works to mention here and been positive on all, but "Truman" was a delayed read for me and I just finished it. President Harry S. Truman was unique and appears even moreso today. Plain speaking and a common touch are not exactly words we use describing most current politicians. This book covers Truman's life from first breath to end. As McCullough told the New York Times...

Bob Edwards hosted the National Public Radio morning show for years. For 12 of those years, baseball broadcaster Red Barber joined Edwards once a week for an over-the-fence conversation on subjects that ranged from the Brooklyn Dodgers to bird watching to blooming flowers. Barber was retired in Florida during this time. He had concluded one of the most storied broadcast careers in history. For more than 60 years, Barber's voice was as familiar to sports fans, especially those in Brooklyn, as...

Let's hit the books with one of this country's most influential writers on matters of race relations in the United States - James Baldwin. "If Beale Street Could Talk" was written in 1974, but it could have been written today, and we would recognize the story as one of current events. A young black man is wrongly charged with rape and the story of his fight for freedom is told through the eyes of his pregnant fiancée. The characters are painfully real without exaggeration. One feels the...