A Teagarden party turns into free-for-all (O's win 5-3)

Not many people showed up for it today, but what did you expect? The Orioles may have their smallest crowd of the season, but it's not expected to be a record-low. The fans who maneuvered around all the road closures to get here today just saw Taylor Teagarden hit his second home run, a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the third inning that tied the score, 1-1. Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy followed with back-to-back doubles and Adam Jones hit his career-high 26th homer for a 4-1 lead. Teagarden is 4-for-36 this season, including today's home run, his first career walk-off homer in his first game with the Orioles on July 14, and a tie-breaking 10th-inning double on Aug. 5 at Tropicana Field that snapped a 1-for-25 streak. Way to make 'em count. Jones ended a 110 at-bat homerless streak on Tuesday. Today's homer is the 101st of his career. The Orioles totaled five extra-base hits off Chicago left-hander Jose Quintana in the third, all of them coming with two outs. The White Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second inning while collecting four singles off left-hander Zach Britton. Jones threw out A.J. Pierzynski at the plate - the White Sox catcher went in standing for some odd reason - but Dayan Viciedo scored on Gordon Beckham's single. Didn't Beckham have three hits last night? Isn't he batting ninth for a reason? Britton has struck out five of the last seven batters he's faced. His seven strikeouts in four innings ties his career high, first set on Sept. 17, 2011 against the Angels. Getting back to the process of setting the playoff roster - and there's been a ton of confusion here that I've contributed to - players must be in the organization by Aug. 31 to qualify. That's why guys acquired from outside of it need to be in place before the weekend. The Orioles will option a pitcher Friday to make room for left-hander Randy Wolf. Assuming it's Britton, he can still be part of the playoff roster because he would replace someone on the disabled list (Nick Johnson or Stu Pomeranz, for example.) That's how it's been explained to me. Eligible if in the organization, but room must be created through DL if not on 25-man. Setting playoff rosters hasn't been a concern around here in quite a while. Update: Teagarden did it again. His RBI double in the fourth gave the Orioles a 5-1 lead. This is Teagarden's first multi-hit game with the Orioles and his first multi-RBI game since his debut. Britton collected his career-high eighth strikeout in the fifth inning. Quintana lasted 3 2/3 innings and allowed five runs and seven hits, with one walk and one strikeout. He threw 76 pitches, 46 for strikes. Update II: I tried to re-explain the postseason roster mess higher up in this entry. Hopefully, it makes more sense. Britton has retired 16 of 17 batters as we finish up the bottom of the seventh inning. Today's attendance: A season-low 10,141. You can thank the Grand Prix, which caused the time change and all the road closures and traffic nightmares. Update III: Britton went eight innings today, his longest outing since he tossed nine scoreless innings against the Mariners on May 12, 2011. He held the White Sox to one run and seven hits, with no walks and 10 strikeouts. He threw 104 pitches, 77 for strikes. Britton retired 19 of the last 21 batters. In his last three starts, Britton has allowed three runs and 17 hits in 21 2/3 innings, with five walks and 21 strikeouts. Update IV: Pedro Strop gave up back-to-back singles, and both runners scored on Alexei Ramirez's single off Jim Johnson, who eventually picked up his 41st save in a 5-3 win over the White Sox. The Orioles go 5-1 on this homestand and improve to 56-0 when leading after the seventh. Next up: The Bronx