First inning continues to be haunt Orioles

The Orioles didn't allow a run in the first inning over their first 12 games of the season. Now they can't stop it from happening. The Tampa Bay Rays scored in the first inning in all three games of their series here, and the Los Angeles Dodgers scored in the first in both ends of today's doubleheader. Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen hit Carl Crawford with a pitch, Nick Punto dropped a single into center field and Adrian Gonzalez lifted a sacrifice fly to left field with one out to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. Left fielder Nate McLouth broke back on Gonzalez's ball before charging it and making the catch. He ended up in shallow left, but was unable to make a throw home. Chen threw 21 pitches in the inning, and the Orioles once again are playing from behind. Plenty of readers are asking me about Nolan Reimold's hamstring. I'll check with manager Buck Showalter after the game, but he never mentioned it following the Game 1 victory. I didn't expect Reimold to play both ends of the doubleheader, but he came out of Game 1 for a pinch-runner after his two-run double in the eighth. The Orioles held a nice tribute to Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver before Game 2. Current manager Buck Showalter watched most of the ceremony from the dugout before trotting onto the field and joining the guest speakers. "It's an honor to be the manager of the Baltimore Orioles because of Earl Weaver," Showalter said. Later, Showalter added, "Quite frankly, the Oriole Way was the Weaver Way." Those two quotes really stood out for me.