Friday's win latest example O's have turned it around since 1-4 start

Considering the Orioles are playing without Manny Machado, Ubaldo Jimenez is 0-3 with an ERA of 7.31, J.J. Hardy missed six games, Chris Davis and Adam Jones have one homer each and the O's started 1-4, an 8-7 record looks pretty good about now. It sure does, as the Orioles have suddenly won seven of their last 10 games. They've won three in a row, outscoring the Rays and Red Sox 18-5. Meanwhile the question that fans keep asking reporters is what happens when Machado returns? Good question and it doesn't have to be answered today, but if it did, how could the team send Jonathan Schoop down? I don't think we'd see that happen with Schoop hitting so well right now. He went 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs last night. Over his last seven games, Schoop is batting .429 (12-for-28) with six doubles, a homer and seven RBIs. Yep, that is seven extra-base hits in seven games for the kid. He is batting .304 on the season with a .500 slugging percentage and an .804 OPS. Want to find something to nitpick him on? He's struck out 13 times without a walk yet. So he's not perfect, but I kind of like when he swings the bat these days. I think we truly learned something about Schoop a week ago last night when he made two errors. How he handled himself in the postgame interviews that night and how he quickly put that game behind him was very impressive to me. Maybe circumstances will be different in several days or a few weeks or whenever Machado rejoins the Orioles, but right now, Schoop's position on the roster looks secure to me. It had to be a nice sight for O's fans to see Nick Markakis double in the first and third innings. In two at-bats there, Markakis tied his extra-base hits total for the season from his previous 61 at-bats. Nelson Cruz had another big hit and his two-run single in the third provided the O's the early 4-0 lead. Cruz is 3-for-14 against Boston this season, but the three hits have all been big. He homered in each of the season's first two games and then came up with the big single last night. Those three hits have produced five RBIs against the Red Sox. Last night, MASNSports.com reported that Eduardo Rodriguez, the Orioles' No. 3 prospect, is going to miss his scheduled start tonight for Double-A Bowie and is likely headed to the disabled list with a knee strain. He hurt the knee between starts weight lifting. At this point, team officials consider this to not be a serious injury and don't sound too concerned about the 21-year-old left-hander. "It happened lifting weights. During our normal strength and conditioning session (on Thursday), he was doing lunges and he sprained his knee," Orioles director of player development Brian Graham told me last night. "It is a probable DL. He has seen a doctor and it's just a sprain. But it's going to take some time to rest and recover. It is not serious." After a very strong finish to his 2013 season, when he pitched to an ERA of 0.36 over his last four Bowie starts, Rodriguez is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his first three Baysox starts this year. Rodriguez is a consensus top-100 prospect. He was ranked No. 43 by ESPN, No. 61 by Baseball Prospectus, No. 65 by Baseball America and No. 68 by MLB.com. Triple-A Norfolk's Suk-min Yoon had a decent outing last night in Norfolk's loss to Durham. After pitching to an ERA of 16.20 in his first two Tides start, Yoon went 5 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and one earned run with four strikeouts.