A stunning power display at the plate and a strikeout display on the mound combined to provide the Orioles with a 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox this afternoon at Camden Yards, as the Orioles won three of four in this series and completed a 5-1 homestand. The Orioles improved to 72-58 and head to New York for a big three-game series, trailing the first-place Yankees by three games. Chicago starter Jose Quintana retired the first eight batters today before the Orioles struck for five...

If they could just play a day game and have it decided by a single run, the Orioles would probably have a great chance for a win. The Birds are 24-12 in day games this year and a major league best 24-6 in one-run games. But now that they have a 5-1 lead on Chicago, they probably aren't interested in a one-run game. The Orioles put together a stunning power display with two outs and no one on in the last of the third today. They went solo homer by Taylor Teagarden, double by Nick Markakis,...

Not many people showed up for it today, but what did you expect? The Orioles may have their smallest crowd of the season, but it's not expected to be a record-low. The fans who maneuvered around all the road closures to get here today just saw Taylor Teagarden hit his second home run, a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the third inning that tied the score, 1-1. Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy followed with back-to-back doubles and Adam Jones hit his career-high 26th homer for a 4-1...

It's probably never that easy for Buck Showalter to write out a lineup that doesn't include Matt Wieters catching. But Buck knows, of course, that you have to give a catcher some breaks, and Wieters is not starting today's 12:35 p.m. game. Wieters said he's holding up just fine physically at this point with 33 regular season games left. "At the end of August, you're not feeling as good as you did in April, but everyone is ready for the grind when the season starts," Wieters said....

The Orioles are 20-14 against left-handed starters this season. They were 19-28 last year and 18-33 in 2010. Their last winning record vs. left-handed starters was 33-19 in 2007. The Orioles will try to improve to 22-19 in series finales. They've won five of their last six finales at home. Randy Wolf played catch today, but he wasn't scheduled to throw in the bullpen because he had a side session two days ago. The Orioles will sign him and add him to the roster on Friday, which will require...

A lot has been made of the poor attendance over this current four-game series against the White Sox. Despite being in the heart of a playoff race and playing another first-place team, the Orioles managed to draw fewer than 15,000 fans on all three nights. Today's game, with the 12:35 p.m. start time, promises to be even more sparsely attended. Why? Bloggers and fans have said for years that if the Orioles were winning, the fans would return. The swaths of green seats seen on television...

The Orioles are going with an unusual lineup for an unusual 12:35 p.m. starting time for today's game against the White Sox at Camden Yards. Mark Reynolds is batting cleanup for the first time this season. He's hit fifth in eight games, the highest he's risen in the lineup before today. Manny Machado moves up to seventh despite a 5-for-33 slump. Taylor Teagarden is catching a day game after a night game, which puts Matt Wieters on the bench. The Orioles are facing another left-hander,...

On Sept. 1, 2011 the Boston Red Sox had the best record in the American League, a 1 1/2-game lead over the Yankees for the AL East and a nine-game lead over the Rays for the wild card. On that same date, the Atlanta Braves had a nine-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL wild card. Both teams ended 2011 by missing the playoffs. One year earlier, the Braves entered September with a three-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. That season, the Braves fell into the wild card,...

I'm preparing to leave the house and fight the traffic to Camden Yards, where I hope to make it before the seventh inning stretch. Rush hour mixed with road closures for the Grand Prix figure to complicate my morning. I'm packing a snack in case it takes longer than expected. And a lunch. Anyway, I wanted to pass along an update on Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia, since I've been asked about him frequently on this blog and Twitter. Urrutia is back in Haiti, where he established residency...

It wasn't easy. It also wasn't easy on the blood pressure. Regardless, the Nationals found a way to end their five-game losing streak last night. Let's tuck the panic meter back into the garage for a while. Toss away the stress balls. Pick up the shredded box scores from the last few games that were flung all over the living room floor. The Nationals' 8-4 win over the Marlins (the score makes it seem a whole lot more lopsided than it actually was, doesn't it?) coupled with Atlanta's...