With last night's loss at Boston, the Orioles are now 5-11 since they were a season-high 13 games over .500 on May 19. They won the series in Boston, but had lost four in a row before that. So as they begin a series with Philadelphia tonight, the Orioles are looking for some wins, and to get them, they'll likely need to start scoring some more runs. While there has been a lot of focus on the club's starting pitching lately, the Orioles' hitters did not have a great road trip. Here are...

My baseball memory begins somewhere in the 1980s on 33rd Street. I can remember the first batting practice baseball I caught (Dante Bichette, Milwaukee Brewers), the nachos I helped spill during a rare visit to Memorial Stadium's blue box seats, and the lesson I learned about appropriate ballpark decorum by violating it with an obscene heckle. At its best, the ballpark can teach a kid a lot about the game. I got to thinking recently about the game I attended when Fred Lynn stroked two home...

For whatever reason, the Nationals have no problem winning games early in series this season. Ten times this season, they've gone into the series finale with a chance to earn a sweep. Only once (not including a two-game, rain-shortened series win over Miami) have they actually brought out the brooms and finished the job. Kind of a quirky stat that is tough to explain, but as Ryan Zimmerman said last night, the fact that the Nats have had 10 shots to sweep means they're winning a good...

The Orioles have reportedly come to contract terms with their third-round draft pick, high school shortstop Adrian Marin. That word comes from the player himself. He proclaimed this via his Twitter page on Thursday night: "Officially signed a contract with Baltimore!!" Click here for the link to that Twitter announcement and picture. ‪ The speedy, 5-foot-10, 165-lb. Marin played at Gulliver Prep near Miami. He was the 99th overall pick in the draft, is a right-handed batter...

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...