Guthrie and Roberts on tonight's game

Jeremy Guthrie turned in another quality start, but he wasn't satisfied, saying he was "outpitched" by Minnesota's Scott Baker and took the loss. "I didn't make the big pitches where I needed to," he said. "It's a reoccurring thing and it's not good enough, not good enough tonight, not good enough last time, not good enough the time before. So we'll work on it, try to get better, make better pitches." At least Guthrie has his health. "I felt much stronger today than I felt the previous two outings," he said. "I think that's a good thing for me to feel better."

The home run to Jim Thome came on a changeup. "No, not a good pitch," he said. "It was the wrong part of the plate. It was probably a little bit harder than it needed to be. It didn't have that softness that the changeup earlier in the at-bat had that he swung through, so all the blame on me for that pitch. Not a good pitch, not a well-executed pitch at all. He still has to hit it, so give him credit. I'm not going to take anything away from what he did." Guthrie believes that he felt as good as he did on opening night, when he shut out the Rays over eight innings, though he said there's no real way to measure it. "I felt good going into the last start, but you get a few pitches into it and you realize the body maybe isn't all the way back, so tonight I felt as good as I felt in that first game and hopefully that continues and the body is all the way back," he said. Second baseman Brian Roberts reached base three times tonight and extended his hitting streak to nine games. He actually had some success against Baker, who's 6-0 lifetime against the Orioles, getting a single and walk. He later drew a walk against reliever Jose Mijares. "It's just one of those circumstances," Roberts said. "It seems like we can't beat the guy. He's a good pitcher, so you tip your hat and unfortunately you move on and try to come back tomorrow and get a win." Roberts felt bad for Guthrie, who lost despite holding the Twins to two runs in seven innings. "Sure, you always feel for a guy that has a good outing and comes away with a loss," Roberts said. "I guess that's kind of the unfair part of the game sometimes, but maybe one day this year, he'll give up six and we'll score nine. I don't hope that he gives up six, but if he does, we'll score nine." Asked if it seemed like a missed opportunity for the Orioles against the depleted Twins, Roberts said, "I wouldn't necessarily say so. They still have big league players. They're tremendous and some very quality players. You win with pitching and defense - pretty evident obviously when you look at the way they won their two games." Roberts also talked about Nick Markakis' slump. "We all struggle at some point over 162 games," Roberts said. "He's obviously very consistent usually, but consistent doesn't mean that you go 1-for-3 every night. Consistent's over a long period of time and everybody's going to go through their struggles. You can look back and I'm sure that you could look at his at-bats and see he's had plenty of good at-bats and plenty of hard outs. When you're not getting ones to fall when you're not hitting it hard, it makes it even worse. He had good at-bats and he battled, and I know from playing with him that there's nobody that's going to prepare more than he is, there's nobody that's going to try and figure it out more than he is. It's just a matter of time."