Cla Meredith entered tonight's Triple-A game in the eighth inning with Norfolk leading Rochester, 3-1, and proceeded to give up two runs on three hits. This might take a while. Meredith threw 30 pitches, 19 for strikes. Fortunately for the Tides, Matt Angle singled in the ninth to score Joey Gathright and give Norfolk a 4-3 lead. Left-hander Chris George limited Rochester to an unearned run and five hits over 6 2/3 innings. Is he a specialist in the making? Dennis Sarfate picked up his...

USA Baseball announced Tuesday the names of the 30 semifinalists for the 2010 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award (GSA). This year will mark the 33rd consecutive year that the award has been presented to the nation's top amateur baseball player. College of Southern Nevada catcher Bryce Harper was the lone freshman semifinalist, joining 29 other Division I nominees. Harper has hit 29 homers and 89 RBI in his first season with the Coyotes, both school records. College of Southern Nevada...

Orioles manager Dave Trembley could have let Brian Matusz pitch to Alex Rodriguez with runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Trembley could have ordered an intentional walk with first base open and let Matusz pitch to Robinson Cano. Those are the choices that the Yankees' lineup gives you. It's like asking if you want to drink drain cleaner or gasoline. Trembley went with "C," which was bringing in David Hernandez to face Rodriguez. Rodriguez appeared...

If you're watching the game, you see Adam Jones flexing his left hand and grimacing after diving for Alex Rodriguez's liner in right-center field that reached the fence for a double in the sixth inning. Jones' glove hand slammed into the ground and it's clearly bothering him. He keeps removing the glove and making a fist. At one point, he was grabbing his pant leg as if testing the strength in his hand. Well, what's one more injury? Closers, outfielders. The Orioles don't discriminate....

Left-hander Brian Matusz surrendered a leadoff home run to Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the fifth inning. That's the only run for the Yankees tonight. It's fair to wonder if that's all they will need. Granderson's homer was his first against a lefty and his first at the new Yankee Stadium. It represented the third hit for New York tonight. Matusz was on a roll, but the Orioles' offense is on ice again. They've managed one hit against Javier Vazquez, who allowed five runs and...

He got off to a great start this year for the Frederick Keys. At the age of just 20, second baseman L.J. Hoes was living up to his prospect status and playing maybe even better than the Orioles had a right to expect in his first season in the Carolina League. But Hoes has been out of the lineup since May 15 as he deals with a mysterious illness that doctors seem to have struggled to get a handle on. There has been talk that it's not anything serious and Hoes should be back soon. But right...

I predicted over the winter that Miguel Tejada would bat second for the Orioles. I meant June 1. The Orioles couldn't take batting practice on the field today because of the rain. That's four straight days, if you count yesterday. Adam Jones collected the Orioles' first hit tonight with a leadoff single in the third inning. Now we'll wait for that first extra-base hit. They've totaled once since Garrett Atkins' third-inning homer on Wednesday. MASN play-by-play man Gary Thorne noted...

Potomac Nationals catcher Derek Norris back behind the plate tonight for the P-Nats. Norris was hit in the head by a 95 mile per hour fastball 11 days ago and was cleared to play tonight. Norris told me last week that the helmet saved him from serious injury. Similar to Norris, teammate and catcher Brian Peacock is recovering from also getting hit in the batting helmet two days ago by a pitch. According to pitching coach Paul Menhart, Peacock is doing much better today. The P-Nats...

Outfielder Felix Pie will begin some baseball-related activities this weekend after being restricted to exercises as he recovers from a torn muscle in his back. The word out of Sarasota is he might be ready to take batting practice by Monday. Reliever Michael Gonzalez did some long-tossing again today, but he still isn't pitching in extended spring training games. Here's a little something from Gary Kendall regarding reliever Bob McCrory, the subject of an earlier blog entry: "He's...

It's not exactly drama like the 1971 or 1979 World Series, but the Orioles are linked again with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have the second pick in the first round of next Monday's First-Year Player Draft. Most figure they will select between high school shortstop Manny Machado and prep pitcher Jameson Taillon, with the remaining player left for the O's to take. (That's after Bryce Harper goes first to the Nats). So what will Pittsburgh do with that second pick? I spoke via...