I'm sure I wasn't the only Orioles fan with the Birds' 30-3 loss to Texas on my mind when the Yankees scored a dozen first-inning runs Saturday night. I was fairly certain New York wouldn't stay on pace for 108 runs, but 30 runs certainly seemed in the realm of possibility. Thankfully, the Yankees fell far short of the Rangers' record-breaking effort in 2007. Saturday's 17-3 loss therefore doesn't compare to the Texas baseball massacre on the whole. However, it was actually worse in...

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail spoke by conference call with reporters about the trade deadline yesterday evening. He indicated he got plenty of calls about Jeremy Guthrie, but needed pitching back to part with the right-hander. He also revealed that a player like Adam Jones could have brought a good haul in return, but he was not willing to part with Jones right now. Here is a transcript of some of his comments. What was Sunday and the deadline like for you, was...

With the major league trade deadline at 4 p.m. Sunday, fans and media were already on the edges of their seats even before Sunday's game with the New York Mets started. So of course it would turn out to be a tense, nerve-wracking affair - scoreless until the fifth inning - adding to what was an already drama-filled day. When the dust settled, the Washington Nationals had earned their 51st victory of the season and everyone that started the game on the roster remained there. The Nats might be...

Right-handed pitcher Bobby Bundy, who has been one of the best starters in the Orioles minor leagues this year, will be promoted to Bowie soon and make his next start for the Double-A Baysox. The 21-year-old Bundy, the Orioles' eighth-round pick in 2008, is 11-5 with a 2.75 ERA over 20 starts at Single-A Frederick. In 121 innings, he allowed 102 hits with 31 walks, 100 strikeouts and a .230 batting average against. Over his last three starts for Frederick, Bundy has allowed just one earned...

The Orioles optioned left-handers Pedro Viola and

For the second time in a row on this road trip, the Orioles won the first game of a series, but then lost the rest. The Orioles went 1-2 at Toronto and won Friday at New York behind Jeremy Guthrie. But they lost the final three games at Yankee Stadium with the series ending today as New York beat the Orioles 4-2. The Orioles were out-scored 29-8 in the last three games. Today, Jake Arrieta gave up four runs in the fourth after blanking New York for three innings. That inning started with a...

Jake Arrieta faced two batters in the sixth inning, walked them both and was removed from the game. And so it begins. Manager Buck Showalter took his new bullpen for a test drive at Yankee Stadium. It won't always look this way, unless you expect Pedro Viola and Mike Ballard to stick around for a while, but it never will be the same without Koji Uehara. Jim Johnson, normally seen in the seventh or eighth inning, took the ball with no outs in the sixth and escaped the jam on nine pitches. He...

If Jake Arrieta is going to keep loading the bases, bad things are going to happen. A three-run triple by Brett Gardner qualifies as a bad thing. A walk, error and single filled the bases with no outs in the fourth inning, and Gardner emptied them with a shot down the right field line. Gardner scored with one out on Curtis Granderson's grounder to first. Yankees 4, Orioles 1. J.J. Hardy's miscue on a potential double play ball was critical. Now Hardy's in a fielding slump. What's...

The Orioles' ever-changing roster changed again today. As for the pitching staff, as Jason Berken got optioned out, Mike Ballard joined the team and Pedro Viola rejoined the team. I recently wrote about how Ballard's pitching had been a big part of Bowie's recent winning ways and talked with Baysox pitching coach Kennie Steenstra about his. Ballard, a 27-year-old lefty, began the season with Triple-A Norfolk and moved to Bowie in early June. Ballard was 6-1 with a 2.88 ERA for the Baysox....

New Orioles first baseman Chris Davis led off the top of the second inning today by chasing a 2-2 changeup from Yankees starter Freddy Garcia and swinging through it. Get used to it. Davis strikes out a lot. He also hits tape-measure home runs. You could say he's a left-handed version of Mark Reynolds, who followed Davis to the plate and also struck out. Davis has struck out 303 times in 954 plate appearances over parts of four major league seasons. He also will bounce a few baseballs on...