Happy Monday! How's everybody doing? Ready for tonight's game at Wrigley Field? Have you checked the NL East standings lately? Here's this week's Where at Nats Park contest: Do you know where it is? Leave your guesses in the comment section below (and try not to look at other answers). With our new auto approved comments, it's hard to hide correct answers until Wednesday. Good luck! Answer: It's the baseball in Red Porch sign! Good try, folks!

I just got off the phone with Brad Bergesen, who had boarded the team bus after Triple-A Norfolk's game in Charlotte. Bergesen is hopeful that yesterday's start will be his last with the Tides. Nothing against the club, of course, but he'd like another turn in the Orioles' rotation. It would be a major surprise if the Orioles bypassed Bergesen on Saturday. He did enough yesterday to leave team officials encouraged, allowing only two runs over seven innings, walking none and getting 14...

Checking in with the team some around here know as the "Evil Empire" as the start of another O's-Yankees series is now a day away. The Yankees began the season with back-to-back series wins at Boston and Tampa. They are now 12-6 on the year. They own a 7-5 road record, including 3-3 on their current road trip. They won their first five series to tie a franchise record. But Sunday's loss to the Angels gave LA that series win, two games to one. Overall, New York has lost 3 of 4 since...

Josh Bell has homered twice today and driven in three runs for Triple-A Norfolk, which trails Charlotte, 9-7, in the eighth inning. Update: Both homers came off Charlotte right-hander Matt Zaleski, who entered the game with a 2-0 record and 3.50 ERA in three starts. Bell's bat is heating up. He's collected three more hits to raise his average to .254. He's belted three homers in his last two games and has hit safely in seven of his last eight, going 11-for-32 with seven RBIs. Troy Patton...

Double- A Bowie infielder Paco Figueroa has been named the Eastern League's Player of the Week after batting .481 from the leadoff spot. He also homered, collected seven RBIs and scored eight runs. Figueroa, the twin brother of Bowie's Danny Figueroa, has a six-game hitting streak. He's also the Baysox's first Player of the Week since Nolan Reimold accomplished the feat on Sept. 1, 2008. To keep the good vibe going, Figueroa has vowed to injure his Achilles. Left-hander Troy Patton is...

Another off-day brings another 24 hours on the Dave Trembley Watch. I'll say this much: If the Orioles were ready to make a change, yesterday's game didn't influence the decision. Andy MacPhail doesn't wake up Sunday morning and think, "OK, one more loss today and he's gone." A series finale in Boston doesn't hold that much significance. I've seen managers and coaches fired during small winning streaks. Cla Meredith didn't save Trembley's job by getting the last two outs. If...

Of all the players off to good starts in the O's minors, perhaps the one creating the most buzz is Xavier Avery. Some in the organization feel he has a real chance to be a future Major League leadoff hitter and right now Avery is doing nothing to hurt that projection. He is one of the youngest players in the Carolina League, but the 20-year-old outfielder is batting .375-0-9 with a .898 OPS and his name peppers the list of league leaders. Avery hit .262 last season at Delmarva, his first...

Not made of clay: Cla Meredith picked up his first career save after 271 Major League appearances as the O's beat Boston 7-6 Sunday in ten innings. Meredith got the final two outs to strand runners at first and second. The O's trailed 4-1 after six but scored three in the 7th to tie it and three in the top of the tenth for the lead. The O's improve to 3-16 with the win and end the road trip at 2-8. They also snapped a ten-game losing streak with Boston posting their first win over the...

The O's hung on for a 7-6 win Sunday at Boston. Cla Meredith got the final two outs to record the save after 271 career appearances without a save. Cla Meredith talks with Mark Viviano about his first career save I would use him in a save situation on Tuesday. Not kidding, he did the job for one day and with this bullpen right now that qualifies him to get a second day. On the upside, the O's offense has started to hit. The offense produced 13 runs on 31 hits the past two games. The...