BOWIE, Md. - The Double-A Bowie Baysox, after completing a 3-4 road trip to Harrisburg and Richmond with back-to-back wins the past two days, open their home season here tonight at 7:05 facing Akron and Kevin Gausman will start on the mound.
This will be Gausman's first time pitching at Prince George's Stadium. He made a start for Bowie on the road in the playoffs last September pitching three scoreless with five strikeouts and made his 2013 season debut last Saturday at Harrisburg. Over...
A lot had to happen last night before Manny Machado could stun about 30,000 Red Sox fans and delight who knows how many Orioles fans looking on from the homefront and places beyond.
Chris Davis had to hit a massive center field homer. Ryan Flaherty had to get his first base hit of the year when he was down to his last strike on a 2-2 pitch. Nolan Reimold and Nate McLouth had to work walks and McLouth, especially, took a few close pitches to get on base. But after the tying run scored on a wild...
Down to their last strike, the Orioles erupted for four of their five runs in the top of the ninth to storm back and beat Boston 8-5 in front of a stunned fan base at Fenway Park tonight.
Joel Hanrahan came on in the ninth to protect a 5-3 Red Sox lead, but Chris Davis greeted him with a leadoff homer, his fifth, to pull the Orioles within one.
After two outs were recorded, Ryan Flaherty singled to left for his first hit of the year, ending an 0-for-17 drought and Alexi Casilla came on to...
The Orioles are moving Single-A Frederick's opening night starting pitcher, right-hander Devin Jones, to Double-A Bowie where he will enter the Baysox rotation on Friday night.
Jones will take the rotation spot of Julio Rodriguez, who went on the Baysox disabled list this week after allowing six runs and six hits with seven walks in just 2 2/3 innings on Monday at Richmond.
The 22-year-old Jones, drafted by the club in the ninth round out of Mississippi State in 2011, pitched well in his...
Here is a surprising stat: At this early point, the Boston Red Sox lead the American League with eight stolen bases in 10 attempts. Jacoby Ellsbury is 4-for-4. No other team has more than six steals.
But can the Sox steal on the Orioles and Matt Wieters? Shane Victorino tried, but was gunned down by Wieters in the fourth inning on Monday.
Right now, the Orioles lead the AL in caught stealing percentage and lead by a huge margin:
.833 - Orioles (5-for-6)
.400 - Boston (2-for-5)
.400 - Chicago...
Back in August of 2010, I reported the Orioles signing of a player from Baltimore who had gone undrafted earlier that year in June. He was a rarity in that the Orioles felt they got a player with top 10 round talent that wasn't drafted by anyone. You don't see that very often.
Here is the behind the scenes story I wrote that August on how the Orioles knew about Glynn Davis well ahead of just about any other organization in baseball and how they acquired this young man who was a 2009 grad of...
How do the Orioles do as individual hitters and as a team when batting with runners in scoring position?
It is a stat worth tracking and one that can have some meaning.
How are the Orioles doing cashing in on scoring chances when they present themselves?
First of all, be cautioned that reading anything into seven games' worth of stats is foolish, but nonetheless, here are some of the numbers.
As team the Orioles are batting .254 (16-for-63) with RISP. They are just 1-for-9 over the last...
Orioles 2011 first-round pick Dylan Bundy is still in Florida in rehab mode dealing with mild tightness in his right elbow. I've heard there have been no setbacks, but he has yet to throw any bullpen sessions. The club is just being cautious with a young prospect. He is now pain-free and is on a strengthening program.
We are likely looking at a timetable of a few weeks or more before he could pitch in any games, since he'll have to build arm strength back up and likely pitch in a simulated...
We already know that Manny Machado is a very talented young player. But a conversation I had with him in the clubhouse Sunday morning provided further proof that the kid is a very smart and savvy player also.
Machado never batted second in the minors for the Orioles. But he's batting second now for the big club.
I wanted to know if batting second means he goes into games with a certain approach or outlook to his at-bats in mind. Does he go in with a specific game plan?
"It just all depends...
Last season, the Orioles never once fell under the .500 mark on their way to 93 wins and the playoffs. They won't be able to say that about this year.
The Orioles are now 3-4 and lost their third straight game today as Boston won its home opener 3-1 over the Orioles at Fenway Park. It's the first three-game losing streak for the O's since last July 23-25.
The Orioles, who scored 29 runs in their first four games, had gone 15 consecutive innings without a run until Adam Jones' solo homer...
The Orioles will try to put an end to a two-game losing streak today and a Red Sox streak as well.
The Red Sox have won their last eight home openers since 2005, the longest streak in club history and the longest active streak among major league teams. Boston is 16-4 in home openers since 1993.
By the way, with Boston at 4-2 and in first place, yes it's very early, but it's fair to ask this: Are the Red Sox in for a big turnaround season after going 69-93 and finishing in last place in...
You say you want some stats on the Orioles? OK, here you go. Even if you don't, take a look. Something may be of interest to you.
* Adam Jones is the American League leader today or tied for the league lead in batting average (.538), hits (14), runs (nine) and multi-hit games (five). He is second in OBP at .556 and tied for sixth in RBIs with seven.
* Jones has four straight multi-hit games, batting .588 (10-for-17) in that stretch with two doubles and five RBIs. He is currently batting .571...
Players have done it before. They hit a grounder that looks to be a sure out and they don't run hard to first base. That never looks good, but it does happen almost every day in the majors. Not the best example for the kids.
But we haven't seen it happen often with Adam Jones. It did yesterday, when he hit a ball toward the mound in the eighth, put his head down in frustration and didn't run hard through the bag.
When asked about it after the game, Jones said:
"You know me, I always...
Nolan Reimold doesn't feel he will have to miss any games after leaving today's game because of tightness in his right hamstring suffered when he grounded into a double play in the sixth.
"I just had a little cramp, spasm whatever you want to call it that kept getting tighter and tighter," Reimold said. "Sprinted out to first to try and beat out that double play. Think (Wayne) Kirby could tell it was bothering me. Probably a smart idea to come in and evaluate it."
Could it turn into a...
Adam Jones was involved in some key plays in the Orioles' 4-3 loss to the Twins today and after the game, with a crowd of reporters at his locker, he called himself out for a few things.
First was for not running hard on a grounder back toward the mound in the last of the eighth.
"You know me, I always give an effort," he said. "I was kind of frustrated that, I guess, the last one, a checked swing I hit it back to the pitcher. I put my head down when I saw it going back to him. I hear...
Some miscommunication in the Orioles outfield was among the factors leading to a 4-3 loss this afternoon to Minnesota.
Also, don't look now, but the Orioles have started the year 0-3 in one-run games after going 29-9 last year. They didn't lose their third one-run game last season until May 13, in the 35th game.
The Orioles are 3-3 as they head to Boston and New York for a six-game road trip.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the Twins' third, Justin Morneau lifted a fly ball toward...
There seem to have been a few times this season, and even in spring training, where I've noticed an Orioles starting pitcher praising catcher Taylor Teagarden and his ability to call pitches.
The O's have one of the best backstops, of course, in Matt Wieters and it's nice that the club can send a guy out there to sub for Wieters without a huge dropoff.
The pitchers need to be confident in the guy behind that plate and the literally hundred or more decisions he makes each game.
I asked...
A few eyebrows were raised today when the Orioles released the probable starting pitchers for the upcoming Boston series and Miguel Gonzalez was not listed.
The Orioles list Wei-Yin Chen to pitch game one of that series tomorrow afternoon with Jake Arrieta going Wednesday, after an off day and Chris Tillman on Thursday night.
Gonzalez, who gave up two runs over 6 1/3 innings in his first start in the third game of the Tampa Bay series, would have been in line to start Wednesday in Boston,...
The players are not supposed to be better at asking questions than the reporters, but when Tommy Hunter noticed several reporters interviewing T.J. McFarland today, he jumped in and provided some solid help.
He asked McFarland who he got out for his first major league strikeout last night and then gave him some grief for not instantly remembering it was Trevor Plouffe in the top of the fifth.
Hunter: "How many (strikeouts) did you have?
McFarland: "Was it five?"
Hunter: "Who was the...
What have we learned through the Orioles' first five games?
Well, the rotation could struggle this year with an ERA of 5.74 through one turn. Chris Davis may not be reliable at first base. After all, he made an error last night, but he may drive in over 500 runs. Adam Jones may have a shot to hit .400. Heck, he's batting .522 already. And the Orioles will be terrible in one-run games this year. They are 0-2 already.
Yes, I write this to make a point. Why do we overreact to what happens in...