Wei-Yin Chen became the first Orioles starter to go seven innings this season and took it one step beyond that, pitching them to a 3-0 win over the Oakland A's tonight in game two of the series.
After going 3-16 the last five years at Oakland, the Birds are 2-0 there in 2013.
Chen went eight superb innings, a career high, allowing just two hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 106 pitches in improving to 2-2 with an ERA of 2.53 after his fourth straight quality start.
It was...
BOWIE, Md. - Nice home debut for Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia.
Playing in front of the Double-A Bowie Baysox fans for the first time here tonight, the 26-year-old Urrutia smoked a solo homer over the center field fence on the first pitch he saw in this game.
Urrutia, batting .316 with one homer and five RBIs in his first five Baysox games since joining the team a week ago, led off the last of the second against Harrisburg right-hander Brian Broderick and hit it out to give Bowie a 1-0 lead....
BOWIE, Md. - It has been an interesting first few weeks of the season for Double-A Bowie's Caleb Joseph. He has been hitting the ball very well for the Baysox, but has had just two starts as a catcher, which was his regular position until this year with the O's organization.
But now, after starting 11 times as a designated hitter, three at first base, once in left and twice behind the plate, Joseph is moving back to more catching duty and he got that word recently from Orioles minor league...
BOWIE, Md. - The Double-A Bowie Baysox are back at Prince George's Stadium, where tonight they begin a seven-game homestand hosting the Harrisburg Senators.
Tonight Baysox and Orioles fans have a chance to get their first in-person look at Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia, who was activated by the team a week ago today. Over five games, the 26-year-old Urrutia is batting .316 with one double, a homer and five RBIs. He is 6-for-19 so far for Bowie with a .526 slugging percentage and .907...
Nate McLouth stole two more bases for the Orioles in the series-opening game at Oakland on Thursday night. He now has seven steals on the year in eight attempts.
McLouth is tied for second in the AL right now with those seven steals with Oakland's Coco Crisp, trailing only Jacoby Ellsbury of Boston with 10.
At that pace, he would steal 51 bases this season. The club record is 57 by Luis Aparicio in 1964.
While McLouth may not keep up this pace or threaten Aparicio's single-season record,...
Jason Hammel picked up his third win. Chris Davis hit his eighth homer with two RBIs, while Nick Markakis and Nate McLouth drove in two runs each tonight as the Orioles beat Oakland 10-2 in the opener of a four-game series.
The win was impressive for a few reasons:
* It started badly for the Orioles, who allowed two unearned runs to fall behind 2-0 in the second inning. That inning saw J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado both commit errors and Adam Jones misplay a fly ball into a double.
The...
Will this be the night that the Orioles see one of their starting pitchers go seven innings or more? Will Jason Hammel become the first in 2013 to do that?
Hammel may be the most likely of the O's starters to get that done. The longest outing by an O's starter is 6 2/3 innings, with Hammel doing that on April 7 against Minnesota. Chris Tillman equaled that on Monday against Toronto.
The Orioles remain the only team in Major League Baseball yet to have a starter go seven or more.
Hammel is...
The Orioles begin a four-game series tonight and 11-game road trip against the Oakland A's. The A's have a 13-9 record while the Orioles are 12-9.
But while Oakland has lost five of its last six games in series against Tampa Bay and Boston, Oakland has gone 6-0 against the Houston Astros who are in their first season in the American League.
Later this year it could be that the Orioles will be battling with Oakland for a wild-card berth. This season the A's will play Houston 19 times and...
When I looked at a particular Manny Machado stat, I had to do a double take. But there it was staring back at me on my computer screen.
When he is hitting with runners in scoring position and two outs this year, Machado is batting .750. He is 6-for-8. But he doesn't just deliver clutch singles in those spots. He has a double, a triple and two homers along with 11 RBIs. That is good for an OPS of 2.653.
Turns out this kid is pretty good. Wonder how good he'll be after he turns 21?
In the...
Jim Johnson was pitching for the third day in a row. He got a win here Monday, throwing 14 pitches against Toronto and a save last night, throwing 13.
Today, after getting the last out of the 10th, he quickly got the first two outs of the 11th. But two singles and a hit batter followed. Then a bases-loaded walk on four pitches to Maicer Izturis put Toronto ahead and the Blue Jays won 6-5 over the Orioles.
Buck Showalter was hoping he didn't have to use him today. But he did. Johnson said...
An impressive Orioles comeback attempt came up short today when the Toronto Blue Jays pushed across a run against closer Jim Johnson in the top of the 11th this afternoon, to beat the Orioles 6-5 and avoid a sweep.
The result snapped the Orioles' 17-game winning streak in regular season extra-inning games.
After the potential winning run for the Orioles was thrown out at the plate in the last of the 10th, Toronto went ahead against Johnson. With two outs and none on, two straight singles and...
With last night's win, the Orioles have now won 100 straight regular season games when leading after seven innings. Their last loss was on Aug. 8, 2011. It is the second-longest streak for any club during the expansion era (since 1961), trailing just the 1998-99 Yankees at 116 games.
No doubt it is impressive for the entire team, but especially for the bullpen to have held those leads.
Buck Showalter said the streak was impressive, but figured most of his players didn't even know about it....
So what happens when a pitcher and catcher have to work together for the first time and have to do it in a major league game?
We'll find out shortly when Taylor Teagarden catches Josh Stinson as he makes his first appearance for the Orioles. The 25-year-old right-hander went 1-0 with an ERA of 0.77 in two starts at Triple-A Norfolk. He is 0-2 with a 4.43 ERA over 22 1/3 major league innings the last two seasons with the Mets and Brewers.
"It is a challenge, but it is also a challenge for...
Is there any team in baseball that has played three games already this season against 2012 Cy Young Award winners? The Orioles have and they are a very impressive 3-0 in those games, scoring 21 combined runs.
On opening night, April 2, they faced David Price and beat the Rays 7-4. On April 18, they faced Price again and beat the Rays 10-6 in 10 innings. Last night they faced R.A. Dickey and beat the Blue Jays 4-3.
Even though they didn't pin a loss on Price's record, they did hand Dickey a...
When it was over, reporters wanted to talk to Jim Johnson. He has been a big part of the Orioles now winning 100 consecutive regular season games when leading after seven innings, even if he was not even aware of the streak that is now at triple digits.
"I didn't know honestly," Johnson said after recording his eighth save in eight tries. "But obviously it means guys are throwing the ball well in the bullpen and getting put in good opportunities and doing what they are supposed to...
The last time the Orioles faced R.A. Dickey he pitched a one-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts against them. Tonight they used a big inning to beat the knuckleballer and the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 in front of 13,272 at Camden Yards.
The win was the Orioles' 100th consecutive in the regular season when leading after seven innings. The last loss came on Aug. 8, 2011.
Jim Johnson pitched the ninth to record his eighth save in eight chances this year and his 29th consecutive save dating to last July...
The last time the Orioles faced R.A. Dickey, it didn't go well for them. He pitched a one-hit shutout against them last June 18 for the Mets with just two walks and 13 strikeouts.
He was on a real roll then. After that start, he improved to 6-0 with an ERA of 0.18 over his previous six starts. That is right, 0.18 as he had allowed just one earned run over 48 2/3 innings on his way to the National League Cy Young Award.
Dickey is 2-2 with a 4.30 ERA through four starts in 2013 with Toronto....
Josh Stinson is back in Baltimore and this time, he gets to stay and pitch in a game.
The 25-year-old right-hander, who has only been part of the Orioles organization for just over two weeks, will start Wednesday afternoon's game here against Toronto.
Stinson flew into Baltimore today after being told last night in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at 11 p.m. that he was headed back to Baltimore.
In recent days, Stinson has been claimed off waivers by the Orioles, spent time with Triple-A Norfolk, came...
It's a good thing the Orioles are playing well early on in games against the AL East because they sure seem to play a lot of games against AL East opponents right now.
In fact, this series with Toronto will end a stretch where the Orioles have opened the season playing 15 of their first 21 games against teams from the division.
Their 2-1, walk-off win over Toronto Monday night improved the O's record to 8-5 in the East. They have back-to-back walk off wins in division games after Matt...
After pitching a total of 14 innings over his first three starts, Chris Tillman needed to start getting deeper into games and he did that tonight in the Orioles' 2-1 win over Toronto.
Tillman didn't get a decision, but gave his team a strong start, allowing just four hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings to lower his ERA from 7.07 to 5.23.
"He had all of his pitches working," catcher Matt Wieters said. "He had four pitches he could throw for strikes. We really didn't even break out the...