Sticking out like a sore thumb on the youthful Washington Nationals is 43-year-old Matt Stairs, a former All-Star turned pinch-hitting specialist who gets woken up once every 18 innings to attempt to hit a home run. It's a role he has come to embrace over the course of an incredible and arguably underappreciated 19-year-career. One of the greatest minds in baseball history, Bill James, once wrote of Stairs: "Look at it. Somebody decided he was a second baseman, he tears through the minor...

As the Orioles begin another series versus the New York Yankees tonight, O's fans are probably quite aware of the Birds' struggles against this club. The Orioles are 0-2 this year and went 5-13 last season versus New York. They have lost 26 of the last 33 in this series and the Yankees are 16-6 in their last 22 games against the O's at Camden Yards. The Yankees' winning percentage all-time at Camden Yards of .644 is the best by any visiting team. If the Orioles are indeed improved this...

So we are now 18 games into the season and Nick Markakis is batting .203 with two homers and six RBIs. He has a slugging percentage of .319 and OPS of .592. Last night he went 0-for-4 and twice failed to come up with the clutch hit when batting with two men on base. He has just three hits over his last 28 at-bats for an average of .107 and just eight hits over his last 55 at-bats for a mark of .145 since April 6. Last night, reader Gerry O. left this comment about Markakis and his struggles...

The offense is back. Or it isn't. Pick a night. The Orioles scored 16 runs in their last two games before last night, but Scott Baker shut them out for seven innings, and they managed only one run on Vladimir Guerrero's infield hit off Jim Hoey. It's especially disturbing when you consider that they didn't score after the third inning in Wednesday night's 5-4 victory. That's one run in 14 innings. The No. 2 hitter, Nick Markakis is batting .203. No. 3 hitter Derrek Lee is batting...

Jeremy Guthrie turned in yet another good performance last night against the Minnesota Twins, even though he was handed the defeat. He went seven innings, gave up two runs, walked no one and struck out four. This is Guthrie's fifth season with the Orioles. Is it time to start considering him among the great Oriole hurlers of all time? It sounds like an odd question. He's not a strikeout king. His career record is 39-51. Even though he has been the staff ace by default, nobody really...

Jeremy Guthrie turned in another quality start, but he wasn't satisfied, saying he was "outpitched" by Minnesota's Scott Baker and took the loss. "I didn't make the big pitches where I needed to," he said. "It's a reoccurring thing and it's not good enough, not good enough tonight, not good enough last time, not good enough the time before. So we'll work on it, try to get better, make better pitches." At least Guthrie has his health. "I felt much stronger today than I felt the...

Manager Buck Showalter spent about five minutes taking questions from reporters after tonight's 3-1 loss to the Twins. On Jeremy Guthrie: "His health, he's turned the corner. He's in good shape. He gave us a real chance to win. Deserves a better fate. Just ran up against a guy who was as good as he was tonight, and maybe a little better. Got a changeup out over the plate to (Jim) Thome. And we just didn't put much together offensively. We didn't square up many balls at all. We knew...

The 2011 season has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Orioles manager Buck Showalter, whose team started off 6-1, then lost eight in a row before snapping the lengthy losing streak at home. With the O's in the middle of a 10-game homestand, Showalter took some time out of his busy schedule and welcomed me into his office for his inaugural MASNsports.com video blog. The O's manager talked about the continued efforts to get a winning culture established in Baltimore, and how he uses the...

Jeremy Guthrie deserved better than leaving tonight's game with a 2-0 deficit. Guthrie allowed two runs and seven hits, walked none and struck out four. He also hit two batters. He threw 104 pitches, 68 for strikes. His only clean inning was the first, but he kept batting. Unfortunately for the Orioles, Scott Baker has suffocated the Orioles' offense with seven shutout innings and only four hits allowed. He's struck out nine batters. Speaking of being stingy, Guthrie has surrendered two...

The Orioles continue to trail the Twins, 1-0, as we head to the top of the sixth. Matt Wieters doubled to right field with one out in the bottom of the fifth, and Brian Roberts walked to keep the rally alive after Robert Andino struck out. Nick Markakis battled Scott Baker through a nine-pitch at-bat before striking out on a slider. Markakis fouled off five pitches while running the count full. Markakis snapped out of a 1-for-21 slump by going 2-for-4 last night. However, he's 0-for-3...