Britton falls behind, 3-0

Zach Britton got into a jam in the second inning when David Freese reached on an infield hit and Colby Rasmus walked with one out. He fell behind, 1-0, to Yadier Molina, and catcher Matt Wieters called time and headed to the mound for a brief conference. I don't know what Wieters said, but Britton retired Molina on a fly ball to right and got ahead of Mark Hamilton, 1-2. It looked like the game would remain scoreless. Wrong. Hamilton, Nick Punto and Ryan Theriot strung together three straight singles to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. Britton has one win in his last nine starts, but he's turned in 10 quality starts in 15 games this season. He'll need to stop the scoring right here and complete the sixth inning if he's going to add to that list. Britton has already thrown 43 pitches in two innings. The Cardinals rank second in the majors with a .269 average, but they were batting .229 since Albert Pujols went on the disabled list. They looked pretty good in the second inning. Nick Markakis extended his hitting streak to 17 games, tying his career high, with a double in the first. Derrek Lee's single in the second leaves him one hit short of 1,900 for his career. Second baseman Brian Roberts, calling into The Mid-Atlantic Sports Report earlier today on MASN, chuckled when asked whether his wisdom teeth might have contributed to his headaches. "No," Roberts said before reminding viewers that he underwent a root canal during the first week of May. Roberts said there's still no timetable for his return to the Orioles. He'll be examined again next week by Dr. Michael Collins in Pittsburgh. Roberts said the only baseball activities he's performing are playing catch and "jogging after fly balls." He's hoping to be cleared soon to swing a bat. As for where he'll hit in the lineup once he returns, Roberts said he'd expect to bat leadoff, "but wherever they want me to hit, I'll hit."