BOSTON - I left my hotel room yesterday confident that Tommy Hunter would start Saturday for the Orioles. I walked out of manager Buck Showalter's office later that afternoon thinking Miguel Gonzalez might have taken the lead. Now I'm back to believing it will be Hunter. Stick with your first instinct. Gonzalez pitched last night, relieving left-hander Brian Matusz and working four innings. It's down to Gonzalez and left-hander Dana Eveland unless Showalter veers in an unexpected...

BOSTON - The Orioles fell behind, 2-0, in the first inning, 4-0 in the second and 6-0 in the third. Going against Clay Buchholz, they had no shot. Buchholz tossed his third career shutout, all coming against the Orioles. Meanwhile, Brian Matusz went two innings plus a batter and was charged with five runs, four of them earned. "Command of the fastball," manager Buck Showalter said when asked to explain why Matusz struggled. "We sit here and talk about it a lot. You can have a couple good...

BOSTON - Manager Buck Showalter thought the biggest issue for left-hander Brian Matusz tonight was a lack of fastball command. Matusz said he couldn't command anything, fastball included. Matusz was charged with five runs (four earned) and four hits in two-plus innings in the Orioles' 7-0 loss to the Red Sox. He walked five batters. "Yeah, it was just everything today, just out of my rhythm," Matusz said after turning in his shortest outing of the year. "I couldn't find my rhythm,...

Brian Matusz's return to pitching respectability took a hit tonight at Fenway Park in Boston. Matusz lasted just one batter into the third inning tonight as Boston beat the Orioles 7-0 to avoid a three-game sweep. Matusz struggled pretty much from the first pitch tonight, walking two batters in the first inning and three in the second. After he gave up a leadoff single in the third, that was it for Matusz, who fell to 5-6 with an ERA of 4.82. He entered this outing at 4-1 with an ERA of 2.87...

The Orioles have two young outfielders struggling a bit right now at the plate at Triple-A Norfolk. It is not any cause for alarm, as they are both playing at that level for the first time. One isL.J. Hoes recently moved to Triple-A for the first time. After going 0-for-6 this afternoon, Hoes is batting .143 with no homers and three RBIs in nine Tides games. He went 3-for-6 in his first three games there, but is just 2-for-29 over his last six Norfolk games. Speaking of struggles, Brian...

BOSTON - Brian Matusz threw 97 pitches in 7 1/3 innings against Tampa Bay on Saturday, one of the keys to a 2-1 victory. He was able to go deeper in the game, and the bullpen wasn't needed until later. Tonight, Matusz threw 37 pitches in the bottom of the first and fell behind, 2-0, on Adrian Gonzalez's bases-loaded double down the right field line. Matusz walked Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks and gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis. The Red Sox kept fouling off pitches and getting...

BOSTON - Pitcher Jason Berken broke his nose during today's start with Triple-A Norfolk when he slammed into first baseman Joe Mahoney while chasing a foul ball in Rochester. Berken could make his next start. It depends on the amount of swelling around his eyes. "He's not going to do anything as far as resetting it," manager Buck Showalter said. "Right now, he's scheduled to start again. Of course, it depends on what goes on with (Jamie) Moyer. Tommy (Hunter) might be pitching Saturday...

As Davey Johnson puts it, when Chien-Ming Wang is throwing from the correct arm slot, his stuff is "almost unhittable". The problem was, Wang was rarely throwing from the proper arm slot today. As a result, he was very hittable. Wang allowed 12 baserunners (eight hits, three walks and a hit-by-pitch) during his 5 1/3 innings against the Mets today, and while he only gave up two runs, it wasn't the type of outing the Nationals were looking for. Since returning to the Nats' rotation eight...

With each good outing, Brian Matusz, who can pitch the Orioles to another sweep at Fenway Park tonight, continues to distance himself from his terrible 2011 season when he had an ERA of 10.69. It wasn't that long ago - from last June 12 to this April 20 - that Matusz went 0-12 with an ERA of 11.64 and an opponent batting average against of .387 during a 13-start stretch. Yeah, that is a run of bad pitching. Contrast that with Matusz now, when he is 4-1 with an ERA of 2.87 over his last five...

There is a reason Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey has nine wins already this season: His knuckleball is very good, and Dickey can throw more than one variation of it. His best is a hard knuckleball that caused the Nationals serious trouble in a 3-1 setback Thursday at Nationals Park. In Dickey's first meeting with Bryce Harper, he threw the young phenom seven straight knuckleballs that varied in speed from 75 mph to 81 mph. He then struck out Harper on the eighth pitch, a 63 mph,...