It certainly wasn't a speech about the end of his Orioles career, but when asked today if he has wondered if he does have a future with the club, Brian Roberts admitted he may not. His contract ends after this season and Roberts is embracing his time remaining with the team, even if that turns out to be just six more games.
"Sure, we all think about our future and what that might hold, but I don't have any idea at this point," Roberts said. "I'm just trying to enjoy every day that I've...
I'll join the chorus of players and fans who have sent their expressions of concern and good wishes to Manny Machado. While that knee injury looked serious, here is a hope that we get better-than-expected news today.
Even if surgery is needed, here's hoping the young man has a quick and full rehab and recovery and fans see him back in the lineup come opening day 2014.
Beyond his talents on the field, which are there for all to see, Machado has been impressive from the day the Orioles took...
A bad series ended badly.
James Loney led off the last of the ninth with a homer to right off Tommy Hunter as Tampa Bay beat the Orioles 5-4 to complete a four-game sweep.
The loss in the series finale this afternoon was overshadowed by what happened in the top of the seventh inning.
The Orioles and their fans had to watch as their talented 21-year-old third baseman, Manny Machado, was taken from the field on a stretcher.
Machado hit a grounder to second that was bobbled. As he reached the...
Wei-Yin Chen, who has struggled at times late this season, does have good numbers this year and in his career against Tampa Bay. He'll try to pitch the Orioles to a win today so they can salvage a game in this series.
It's not even close to what the Orioles wanted, but all they can get now.
Tampa Bay has never had a four-game sweep against the Orioles at home but has swept a pair of four-game series from the Orioles in Baltimore. The first was May 15-18, 1998 and the second was Sept. 22-24,...
What a bad four-day run for the Orioles on offense.
On Thursday, John Lackey took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and two-hit the Orioles. On Friday, they failed to score in the last 11 innings of an 18-inning loss. On Saturday and Sunday, they were shut out until the ninth inning.
Were it not for the Tropicana Field roof, they may be looking at a 29-inning scoreless stretch. But David DeJesus lost a Chris Davis fly ball on Saturday in the ninth and it went for a triple, and Matt Wieters...
For the Orioles it was a matter of another day and another game with not much offense.
By not much, they had a single by Manny Machado to lead off the game and just two hits after that in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in a game started by a young pitcher making his major league debut.
The Orioles were shut out on one hit heading to the ninth, but scored on a two-out, RBI double by Matt Wieters that hit the catwalk on the Tropicana Field roof and landed in play.
Since the eighth inning on...
As Scott Feldman takes the mound for the Orioles this afternoon, he is certainly a pitcher on a nice roll. He is 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA over his last seven starts. He is 5-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 13 starts with the Orioles since he was acquired in a July 2 trade with the Chicago Cubs.
This year, between the Cubs and Orioles, Feldman is 12-10 with a 3.49 ERA over 28 starts. The 30-year-old right-hander has had a real solid season.
But Feldman will be a free agent after this season. Will he be an...
One theory for the Orioles' lack of offense late this season is that several players are tiring and that they've simply been asked to play too much this year.
That theory makes some sense when you see a team struggling to score runs like the 2013 Orioles have been late this season.
But as a counter point to that, I took a look at five key players that are basically playing about as much as they played last year, when the team was thriving late in the year.
The 2012 Orioles went 19-9 in...
The Orioles' flickering playoff hopes took another hit today and the issue, once again, was the club's inability to hit.
Alex Cobb took a three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts to the ninth before the O's pushed across a run in a 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay this afternoon. Cobb gave up just five hits over 8 1/3 to improve to 10-3 with a 2.90 ERA.
The Orioles got a break when Chris Davis hit a fly to left in the ninth; David DeJesus lost track of the ball, and it went for a triple. An Adam Jones...
Those of you who watched that entire game last night and awoke this morning were probably not any less frustrated about the O's lack of offense in the 5-4, 18-loss to Tampa Bay.
In going 2-for-35 after the seventh inning, the offense came up short again at a time when the O's bullpen was picking up big out after big out. In what was the equivalent of two full games, the Orioles scored just four runs on 12 hits.
It was a huge swing game, one where the O's went from being one game out of...
It was the longest game in Orioles history, but it didn't end well for the O's.
David DeJesus came up with an RBI single with one out in the last of the 18th as Tampa Bay beat the Orioles 5-4 at Tropicana Field.
It was a bitter loss for the Orioles, who would have been one game back of both Tampa Bay and Texas for the AL's second wild card berth with a win. But they didn't get it.
The Orioles bullpen kept the Rays off the board from the eighth through the 17th, but the O's offense came...
Here is a stat the Orioles would like to, and probably need to change tonight: In the the first four innings of the Boston series, O's batters were 1-for-37 and the one hit was an infield hit.
Talk about getting off to a slow start.
I like the new-look lineup Buck Showalter broke out tonight with Manny Machado batting first and Adam Jones second. With this offense struggling, he needed to try something.
The Orioles face David Price tonight, the 2012 American League Cy Young Award winner....
The Orioles have been getting some solid pitching lately. We can't say the same about the hitting.
What has happened to the Orioles on offense?
The Orioles managed to win series' at Toronto and Boston even though they scored just 11 runs in three games at the Rogers Centre and nine in three games at Fenway Park.
The Orioles have now gone 16 consecutive games scoring five or fewer runs, easily their longest stretch of the year. They have scored four or less in 12 of those games. Before this...
It is something that has happened just 15 times in Major League Baseball history and has been achieved by just 12 players.
It is the nice round figure of 100 extra-base hits in a single season.
That is a massive number, but a number within reach for Chris Davis with just 10 games to play. Davis has 41 doubles and 51 homers totaling 92 extra-base hits. He is currently tied with Brady Anderson for the O's club record. Anderson had 92 in 1996.
Davis is on a pace to finish just short of 100,...
Boston right-hander John Lackey entered his start tonight with both modest stats in his recent starts this year and modest numbers on the season against the Orioles. But Lackey took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in pitching Boston past the Orioles 3-1 at Fenway Park.
The Orioles come up a win short in their attempt to become the first team to sweep three in Boston this year. They are now 4-2 on this trip and will take an 81-71 record into their four-game series against Tampa Bay.
The...
The Orioles will try to do something tonight that no team has done this year: Sweep a three-game series from the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
In fact, Boston has only been swept twice this year and that counts a one-game series. They got swept May 3-5 at Texas and their loss July 29 at home against Tampa Bay officially counts as a series sweep.
Boston entered this series with a home record of 50-25 and was 8-1 in its previous nine home games before losing back-to-back nights to the...
When Kevin Gausman fanned five Boston batters in a dominating two-inning outing last night, it was the latest chapter in what has been a busy and interesting season for the Orioles' 22-year-old pitching prospect.
The club's top draft pick last season began 2013 in Double-A Bowie's rotation. He was called up to pitch as a starter for the Orioles in late May, then sent back to the minors at Triple-A Norfolk and returned to Baltimore to pitch out of the bullpen.
Three teams and two different...
So anyone have any nails left after the last two nights?
This playoff race got serious in a hurry. After last night's game, I found myself remembering a quote from Nate McLouth. It came in the extreme quiet of the Orioles clubhouse after they had lost for the third night in a row to the Yankees last week. It felt like the lowest point of the O's season and McLouth's comments then didn't seem so significant.
"We still have the full schedule to play out and a lot can change in two or three...
Chris Davis to the rescue.
The struggling Orioles offense needed its top homer and RBI man to come through in the 12th inning tonight and he did.
Davis delivered a two-out single to score a pair of runs with the bases loaded as the Orioles beat Boston 5-3 in 12 innings. The Orioles improved to 9-6 against Boston this season and ended the Red Sox's eight-series winning streak.
With one out in the 12th, J.J. Hardy and Brian Roberts singled against lefty Franklin Morales. After a wild pitch...
It was about three weeks ago and it was at Fenway Park. Wei-Yin Chen had the worst start of the 52 he has made in his two seasons with the Orioles.
To say the least, he needs to avoid a repeat tonight. On Aug. 27 in a 13-2 loss to the Red Sox, Chen went just 3 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits, eight runs and two homers.
A fair question to ask is why Chen has struggled recently. At the end of July, he was 6-3 with a 2.87 ERA. In eight starts since, he is 1-4 with a 5.83 ERA.
I don't think it...
