With each good outing, Brian Matusz, who can pitch the Orioles to another sweep at Fenway Park tonight, continues to distance himself from his terrible 2011 season when he had an ERA of 10.69. It wasn't that long ago - from last June 12 to this April 20 - that Matusz went 0-12 with an ERA of 11.64 and an opponent batting average against of .387 during a 13-start stretch. Yeah, that is a run of bad pitching. Contrast that with Matusz now, when he is 4-1 with an ERA of 2.87 over his last five...

With their win last night in Boston, the Orioles moved back into sole possession of first place in the American League East. But while the Orioles own the AL's second-best record at 32-24, they rank just eighth in run differential at a plus-three. Run differential is the amount that a team outscores its opponents by on the year. While Texas is an impressive plus-70 and the Yankees are a plus-33, the Orioles are plus-three. Texas looks much more impressive than the Orioles in that stat, yet...

The Orioles selected University of Virginia right-handed pitcher Branden Kline in round two of the draft, making him the 65th pick overall. His head coach for the past three years believes the Orioles got a good player and person. Kline went 7-3 with a 3.56 ERA this season with 94 strikeouts in 93 2/3 innings and a .241 batting average against. He was rated by Baseball Ameria as the draft's 87th-best prospect. At UVa he was a top closer last season and was moved to the rotation this year....

For the first time in Baltimore Orioles history, the club has a seven-game winning streak at Boston's Fenway Park. The Orioles won a tense pitchers' duel 2-1 over Boston tonight, as Wei-Yin Chen got the win and the O's came up with a two-run rally against Josh Beckett in the top of the sixth after they were shut out on one hit through five innings. The Orioles had won six in a row at Fenway Park four times previously, with the most recent being July 31, 1992-June 12, 1993. Chen gave up...

So the Orioles enter tonight's game with a six-game win streak at Fenway Park. They last won seven in a row there - well, actually never. Here is note tonight via Twitter from Stats LLC: The #Orioles haven't won 7 straight in Boston since the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Americans at Huntington Ave. Grounds in 1906. #MLB Neither Roch or I covered that Huntington Avenue game. Here is a note tonight from the Orioles media notes: The Orioles have won six straight games at Fenway Park...

At a time when the Orioles are adding some promising pitchers during the First-Year Player Draft, today they put a hurler taken early in last year's draft on the disabled list. Pitcher Mike Wright, the Orioles' 2011 third-round pick who was just recently promoted to Double-A Bowie, today was placed on the DL, retroactive to Monday, due to a hamstring injury. The severity of the injury is not yet known, but Wright is expected to see Dr. John Wilckens, the Orioles' orthopedist. His last...

You've certainly heard the saying, "The friendly confines of Fenway Park." Well, the Orioles are sure finding the place friendly this year. They are now 4-0 this season at the Fens and that is more wins at that ballpark than they have had in five of the last six entire seasons and keep in mind they play nine games a year there. The Orioles at Fenway Park the past six seasons: 2006: 1-8 2007: 3-6 2008: 2-7 2009: 1-8 2010: 4-5 2011: 3-6 The Orioles have won their last six games and seven of...

After drafting 15 players over the first 15 rounds of the First-Year Player Draft the last two days, Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich said he is quite pleased with the club's haul of talent so far. "I feel really good," Rajsich said. "You know, this draft was considered a very shallow draft and I couldn't be happier with what we were able to come up with." Rajsich was a guest last night on my radio show, "Baltimore Baseball Tonight," on 105.7 FM The Fan in Baltimore. I asked...

In the fifth round of the First-Year Player Draft, the Orioles selected a left-handed pitcher from a Texas high school. They selected Colin Poche with the 162nd overall pick. Poche is a 6-foot-3, 190-lb. hurler from Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas. He has a college commitment to the University of Arkansas. He was rated as the 99th-best prospect in the state of Texas by Baseball America. He becomes the second high school player and third pitcher the Orioles have taken in this...

Now that he has selected a pitcher - LSU's Kevin Gausman - with his first-round draft pick, does that make Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich more likely to take a position player today in the draft's second round? "No. I'm not inclined either way (pitcher or position player). I don't think the pick before will influence the next one. In the early rounds, I still want to get the best player," Rajsich said last night. Rajsich said he was surprised that three position players were...

Kevin Gausman, the LSU pitcher drafted fourth overall by the Orioles tonight, has heard scouting reports that call him quirky. He doesn't dispute that notion."My quirkiness, well, I've always been a little weird, really," the 20-year-old right-hander said. "You know I like sci-fi movies. I eat four donuts in between every inning. So you know, that's a little weird. It is something I started back in middle school, so I've been doing that for a while now. The way I live my life, I like to be a little different than other people,"On a more serious matter, Gausman has heard criticism of his breaking pitches also in those scouting reports on him."I think I definitely have it in there. I really just started throwing a true curveball this season. So, I haven't had much time to develop it," he said. "My slider has been a good pitch for me lately. That is another breaking pitch I have in my arsenal. Some days I really feel comfortable with it and other days I have to work to find it."I think my development as a pitcher and going forward is going to kind of depend on that. I'll be a fastball-changeup guy my entire career, but what is going to make the biggest difference is which breaking pitch I will decide to throw and which will be my bread and butter, and which one I may do away with."The guy at LSU working with him on all his pitches has been Tigers pitching coach Alan Dunn, a former Orioles bullpen coach and minor league pitching coordinator."A.D., he really came in here and hit the ground running with all the guys on our pitching staff. I have a great relationship with him and he definitely had something to do with this. His background with the Orioles is good and no one has a bad word to say about him," Gausman said."It has been huge for me coming here (to LSU) and I couldn't imagine being in the minor leagues at 19. I was pretty immature and didn't know anything about pitching and didn't have a pitching coach. Coming here and playing two years in the SEC, I think the best conference in all of baseball, has been huge for me. Every Friday night, we get about 9,000 here and it's pretty crazy. I've matured leaps and bounds since high school, not just on the mound, but as a person and in every aspect of my life."Gausman has heard his name linked to the Orioles for a while now but he said he still wasn't sure which team would call his name tonight when the draft began."This day has kind of been a roller coaster. I didn't sleep very much last night and woke up this morning and didn't know what to think. I really didn't know what was going to happen. It was a little weird to sit back and watch. I was kind of shocked that I was taken by Baltimore. Obviously I'm very honored," he said."The last (LSU) pitcher taken this high was Ben McDonald and he was an Oriole, so that is something I am excited about. I've met Ben before and he has great things to say about Baltimore. I keep hearing about the crabs, so I'm excited about that."With (Stanford pitcher Mark) Appel falling and everyone saying that he was the best pitcher, I obviously expected him to go before me. I'm just really honored they decided to pick me and see where this goes."Gausman was asked about signing with the Orioles and if he feels he will pitch in the minors for the club this summer at some point. Gausman has thrown 115 2/3 innings so far and LSU is in the NCAA Super Regionals this weekend. If the Tigers win that best-of-three series, they will advance to the College World Series."It kind of depends on how I feel and how many (more) innings I throw. I could end up throwing another 25, maybe even 30 innings. It kind of depends on that. I've been going at it for about two years straight and that has something to do with it. We'll sit down and figure that out in the later months," Gausman said."I feel confident (about signing). They feel strongly about me or they would not have picked me. I think they will get a deal done and I feel confident about it. I'm truly honored to be selected by Baltimore, an organization that is so well known and has been around baseball so long."Note about the minors: As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Norfolk catcher Luis Exposito, who was with the Orioles less than two weeks ago, suffered a broken hamate bone today and will be out four or more weeks for the Tides.I have learned that the Orioles will send catcher Caleb Joseph from Double-A Bowie to Norfolk to take his roster spot there and that Brian Ward, whose 50-game suspension ended over the weekend, will be going to Bowie.

Orioles scouting director Gary Rajsich was asked tonight on a conference call with Baltimore reporters about his decision to select LSU right-hander Mark Appel fell down the board and was available at four. What was the deciding factor between the two pitchers for Rajsich? "There were appealing things about both pitchers, although we feel we got the one we really wanted," Rajsich said. Rajsich told MASNsports.com tonight that Gausman was the highest-rated player on his draft board when it...

The Orioles tonight selected LSU right-handed pitcher Kevin Gausman with the fourth pick in round one of the First-Year Player Draft. Gausman pitched LSU to a 7-1 win Sunday over Oregon State in the NCAA regionals, going eight innings and allowing seven hits and one run, throwing 129 pitches. In 16 starts this year with the Tigers, he is 11-1 with an ERA of 2.72 along with 128 strikeouts and 27 walks in 115 2/3 innings. Opponents have batted .231 against him this season, his sophomore year for...

As of about 3:30 this afternoon, it appears that Orioles officials are still not certain who the top three selections in tonight's First-Year Player Draft will be and they are hoping to learn that before the draft starts so they can determine their best move with the fourth pick. In some past drafts, those top few picks were known among scouting directors with hours to go before the draft but not this year. No one seems certain even which player Houston will take with the draft's top pick....

As I wrote last night, if the top three picks in the First-Year Player Draft tonight are Mark Appel, Byron Buxton and Mike Zunino, the Orioles appear to have zoned in on a group of four from which to make the fourth overall selection. In alphabetical order they are: Puerto Rican high school shortstop Carlos Correa, high school lefty pitcher Max Fried, LSU right-handed pitcher Kevin Gausman and University of San Francisco right-handed pitcher Kyle Zimmer. In their latest mock draft out today,...

With less than 24 hours to go now until the first round of the First-Year Player Draft, the Orioles appear to be centering on a list of four players to choose from with their No. 4 overall selection pending, of course, what the three teams that select ahead of them do with their picks. In the latest mock draft published on its Web site Friday, Baseball America projected that Houston, picking first, would take Stanford pitcher Mark Appel. Minnesota, at two, would take high school outfielder...

Jake Arrieta continued to frustrate and baffle Orioles fans and likely Baltimore coaches as well again today. In his last start against Toronto, he retired the first six batters but then allowed runs in three straight innings. Today, he retired the first nine batters against Tampa Bay, but then allowed runs over the next two innings as the Orioles lost 8-4 to the Rays at Tropicana Field. Arrieta was not solely to blame for this loss as the Orioles made three more errors this afternoon and the...

The Orioles have officially added Steve Johnson to the 40-man roster today and that obviously comes as good news to the Baltimore native who is having a solid year at Triple-A. Johnson had been on the disabled list since May 19 with a groin strain, but he came off the DL this weekend and is pitching right now for Norfolk in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Johnson is 1-3 with an ERA of 2.62 over eight games and has a batting average against of just .191. He has given up just 30 hits over 44 2/3...

Beyond ending a losing streak on Saturday, which was pretty important, another aspect of Brian Matusz's strong start against Tampa Bay was that it brought the Orioles' late-inning relief back into play. It had been a while since the team turned to Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson to protect a late lead. But that duo, and the rest of the bullpen, has been doing that about as well as anyone in the American League this year. In fact, the Orioles are the only AL team that has yet to lose this year...

In looking back at the days leading up to last June's First-Year Player Draft, Baseball America's Jim Callis was very high on high school pitcher Steve Johnson, as of this morning, nothing has been resolved. The midnight deadline passed and now it appears that Johnson, through his agent, must declare today whether he is taking his out clause, which could lead to him leaving the organization. If he does opt to take the out, the team could still respond then by either putting him on the 40-man...