Orioles players have long since moved on from the 2012 season. They know it was the year that put the Orioles back into the playoffs and ended a long run of losing seasons. They also know it won't do them any good this year and they have to play well again to have two successful seasons in a row. But while they have moved on to the new season, there is one aspect of the team that has carried over and Adam Jones talked about it before yesterday's game. "To my calculations, I think it is...

File this in the "things you don't see every day" department: Braves closer Craig Kimbrel allowed back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning last night against the Reds, leading to a 5-4 Atlanta loss. Kimbrel allowed just three home runs all of last season, surrendered just seven total earned runs and blew three saves in 45 chances. This season, the flame-throwing right-hander has already allowed three homers, five earned runs and has blown three saves in 13 chances. After their ridiculous...

Stay within yourself, don't try and do too much, and let the game come to you are all baseball clichés Nationals fans have become accustomed to over the early part of the 2013 season. They aren't easy concepts to understand until you see players not doing it. Up until the recent 7-4 run, the Nats weren't doing any of these things and were quite a frustrating team to watch. In baseball, approach is much more important than results and many Nats players had poor approaches at the...

The last two seasons, right-hander Matt Hobgood, the Orioles' 2009 first-round pick (fifth overall), went 0-6 with an 8.76 ERA over 37 innings. This season with Single-A Delmarva, the 22-year-old Hobgood is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.90 over 20 innings, allowing just nine hits on two runs with 10 walks and 13 strikeouts. South Atlantic League hitters are batting just .136 against him. Hobgood underwent season-ending shoulder surgery last April 2 and now, just over a year later, he may be in the...

J.J. Hardy's home run streak ended at two games last night. So did his streak of two-hit games. Hardy went 1-for-4 to leave his average at .211. He has six hits in his last four games and eight in his last seven. It's not good enough for Hardy, of course. He batted .238 last season and he expects to do better. Hardy has a mild case of tennis elbow, and he received a cortisone injection from Dr. Lewis Yocum Sunday in Anaheim. It's his left elbow, so it doesn't impact his throwing, and...

Before tonight, Brian Matusz had stranded all 26 inherited runners when coming out of the bullpen. The streak ended tonight when Alex Gordon homered off him with a man on in the seventh to tie the game 3-3. But the Orioles untied it on Matt Wieters' RBI double in the eighth to win 4-3 over Kansas City and improve to 20-13. Adam Jones, who drew his sixth walk of the year to lead off the winning rally, said it was another night where the Orioles won as a team. On a rare night when Matusz saw...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter spoke to the media for almost eight minutes following tonight's 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals. He naturally spent some time on starter Wei-Yin Chen, who was charged with two runs in 6 1/3 innings, and the 48-minute rain delay that forced the left-hander out of the game in the seventh. "They were hitting some balls," Showalter said. "I think we got one or two strikeouts. We didn't walk anybody, I believe, which was key. As good an offensive team as...

The at-bat lasted through seven pitches. Brian Matusz vs. Alex Gordon, with a runner on first base, two outs and the Orioles holding a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning. Matusz usually wins these battles, but not tonight. Gordon sent a 2-2 pitch, a 91-mph fastball, over the out-of-town scoreboard in right field to tie the game. Gordon fouled off a nasty slider right before hitting his fourth home run of the season. "The last one I wanted to be away," Matusz said. "I wanted it to...

The Orioles have done this before this season - give up the lead, but still win the game. And they did it tonight at soggy Camden Yards as Matt Wieters knocked in three runs in the Orioles' 4-3 win over Kansas City. Wieters began the evening batting just .197 with an OPS of .572 this season against right-handed pitching, but had a two-run double in the first and a tie-breaking RBI double in the eighth off right-handers. In a 3-3 tie, Adam Jones led off the eighth with a walk and reached...

Umpires halted play in the top of the seventh inning tonight with one out and former Oriole Miguel Tejada on first base. Time was called at 8:56 p.m. The sky just opened up as Elliot Johnson stood at the plate. It went from a light rain to a downpour in the blink of an eye. The Orioles continue to lead 3-1 and it's an official game. If play doesn't resume, it will go down as the Orioles' 20th victory of the season. Wei-Yin Chen is trying to become the third Orioles starter to complete...