When I grow up, I want to be Dr. Lewis Yocum. He's a renowned orthopedist, in case you didn't know. Yocum also has become the personal physician of the Baltimore Orioles. He's the doctor to the scars - elbow, shoulders, etc. In case you're scoring at home, Yocum has removed a bone spur from Jake Arrieta's elbow, inserted an anchor in Dan Klein's shoulder and examined Chris Davis' shoulder within the span of a week. He'll examine Jason Berken's sore right elbow this weekend. Did he...

Jo-Jo Reyes held the Tigers to one run over six innings in his last start. He gave up a run tonight after three batters, and four runs after four batters. The Angels worked Reyes for 34 pitches while taking a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Reyes surrendered a double, single, Howie Kendrick's RBI single and Torii Hunter's three-run homer. Vernon Wells singled with one out for the Angels' fifth hit of the inning. Hunter is 3-for-7 with two homers lifetime against...

Checking in with plenty of stats and notes as the Orioles begin a weekend series in Anaheim tonight against the Angels: *The Orioles have lost two in a row, five of seven, eight of 11 and 14 of their last 19 games. Since they were 30-31 on June 10, the Orioles are 17-43 over the last 60 games, a winning percentage of just .283 in that time. *The Orioles have won seven of their last nine games vs. the Angels. They went 6-0 last year against Los Angeles, sweeping the season series for the first...

J.J. Hardy is batting leadoff tonight and Vladimir Guerrero has returned to cleanup. Robert Andino is batting seventh. His name has appeared in the seventh spot once this season, but he doesn't have an official at-bat. For the Orioles: J.J. Hardy SS Nick Markakis RF Adam Jones CF Vladimir Guerrero DH Matt Wieters C Mark Reynolds 1B Robert Andino 2B Nolan Reimold LF Josh Bell 3B Jo-Jo Reyes LHP Manager Buck Showalter told reporters in Oakland that reliever Jason Berken has a sore...

Nationals' manager Davey Johnson believes Ian Desmond in the leadoff spot is a work in progress as they continue to search for the answer to the biggest question mark in the batting order for 2011. Recently, Desmond has hit leadoff the last two games against the Reds and again Friday versus the Phillies. He is 0-for-6 in those two games, the first time he has hit leadoff since a stretch from March 31 to April 14. On Thursday, Desmond induced a walk and laid down a nice 3-4 sacrifice to...

Reliever

Two Orioles' minor league teams clinched playoff berths today. The Orioles entry in the Dominican Summer League is headed to the playoffs and clinched its division with a record of 45-24. The DSL Orioles have the third best record in that 33-team league. In the DSL, six teams make the playoffs, the five division winners and a wild card team. Two teams get opening-round byes and the first two rounds are best of three series with the championship series a best of five-game set. The O's DSL...

When the Nationals sent a message to season ticket-holders earlier this week, urging prompt renewal in exchange for a 5 percent discount, I thought about my season ticket group - a collection of baseball fans who started out as the means to help me buy better seats than I might otherwise and have become a bigger part of my life. So if I might, I'd like to tip my cap to the 27 Nationals fans and one Mets fan who are or have in the past been members of my group. Yes, there are 28 of them total....

There are several players that need to step up their games and show what they can do in what is left of this Orioles season. One player I put in that category is outfielder Nolan Reimold. Reimold is finally getting to start just about every day in left field and he needs to start looking more like the player the Orioles saw in 2009 than what he has shown the past two years. In 2009 in 104 games, Reimold hit .279 with 15 homers, 45 RBIs and an .831 OPS in 358 at bats. He was the American...

Otherwise known as the Major League Baseball draft. The Orioles just completed what many are calling a very successful draft. It seems to me that the draft has only been getting serious mainstream attention over the last three, maybe four years, I don't remember the draft being televised or dissected as much when I was younger. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing and a byproduct of the wondrous age of information in which we all live. Not to mention that baseball is trying to get in on...