Running on empty

Adam Jones kept apologizing to Nick Markakis last night after costing the right fielder an RBI by holding at third base on a ground ball to first. Jones could smile about it (I'm not sure about Markakis) because he eventually scored on Luke Scott's single and the Orioles eventually won, but man, the baserunning on this team continues to give me a rash. New season, same issues. Like I keep saying, they work on this stuff in spring training. Every...single...day. Maybe it's like my daughter taking thorough notes in class but still botching the test. The information doesn't always transfer smoothly from paper to brain. Speaking of my daughter, she's attending her junior prom tonight at M&T Bank Stadium. I'm trying to talk her into doing the Ray Lewis dance and yelling "This is my house," but I don't think it's going to happen. I offered to dash over there from Camden Yards and check up on her, maybe steal a dance. Her response: "No! Please don't!" She was so vague, I'm not sure what to do. Back to baseball: Corey Patterson didn't know whether he robbed Shin-Shoo Choo of a home run last night. He needed to go to the replay. "I guess," he said. "I just made sure I stayed with it off the bat and was able to time the leap just right and made the catch." So simple. "I always get more pumped on a good defensive play rather than a home run or a base hit," he said. "I think it can carry over to the offensive part of the game. "Pitching and defense wins games." Nothing wrong with the occasional home run, too. He's also got one of those. Brian Matusz pitches tonight with his parents in attendance, and he'll try to make up for that six-run, nine-inning mess in Minnesota. No guarantees tonight, but I like his chances. Matusz has faced the Indians once in his career, allowing one run and four hits over seven innings to pick up the win. He walked one and struck out eight.