Game status and note on Schoop (start time is 9:35 p.m.)

The start of tonight's game is delayed due to threat of inclement weather. The tarp is on the field. The rain supposedly is on its way.

While most of the attention last night fell on Henry Urrutia, and deservedly so following his walk-off home run, Orioles manager Buck Showalter noted Jonathan Schoop's contributions at the plate and in the field.

Schoop was coming off one of his worst nights in the majors, committing two errors and dropping a throw that denied the Orioles a chance to cut down a runner at the plate. He also kept stranding runners with poor at-bats.

Fast-forward to last night, and there's Schoop with a game-tying two-run homer in the sixth inning and a flawless performance in the field, including an acrobatic catch and tag in mid-air to deny the Mets a stolen base.

Showalter figured that Schoop would bounce back.

"Without a doubt," Showalter said. "He wears it on his sleeve. You see it on his face when he comes back from the batters box. He cares for the right reasons, not because of what it means for him individually. He knows we need a lot of things every night against really good competition.

"You realize the challenge it is to have a night that you haven't normally had, how do you get up the next day? They have to, and they do. And they have a great support group around him. Because we've all been there.

"I talk all the time about the problem with coaches and ex-players, they forget about how hard the game was to play and how many on a given night were horse-bleep, too. So there by the grace of God go all of us. But you'd like to see a guy at that young age handle it well. If a guy has a really bad game, you really want to play him the next day. That's why the worst job in baseball is the starting pitcher who's struggling. Those four days in between, they're terrible."

Schoop remains in the lineup tonight, batting sixth and carrying a .301 average with nine home runs in 46 games. Is he progressing as a hitter in the manner that the Orioles anticipated?

"I think it's so hard to project power in 19- and 20-year-old kids. Anybody that thinks they can do that..." Showalter said.

"I remember we took a guy in the Alex Rodriguez try, trying to project the body and where the power would be, and 10 years later he's had the same body and the same strength factor. That's why you spend a lot of time looking at the moms and dads and the sisters and brothers. You get an idea. But Jon's right where he should be for a college senior. I feel confident that he'll be as good as he's capable of being. He cares, he cares.

"Like a lot of young guys, he's impressionable and you want to have the right people around him. Same way with Manny (Machado). They have a little thing every day. I'm sure you all see it. They get through with all their work and they sit around behind second for a while, and it's quite a gathering. But it's baseball. J.J. (Hardy) quizzes them and Kirb (Wayne Kirby) and Bobby (Dickerson) do, and some of the best stuff goes on there. Jon's become more and more confident in his take on things, which is good."