That rundown feeling

The Orioles put runners on the corners with no outs in the first inning. Brian Roberts walked and stole second, and Nick Markakis singled. Instant rally against Mariners starter David Pauley. It also brought flashbacks to spring training 2009, but we touched on that subject this morning. Anyway, Ty Wigginton followed with a sharp grounder to third baseman Jose Lopez. Roberts broke for home, and Lopez fired a throw to catcher Adam Moore rather than conceding the run and trying to start a 5-4-3 double play. Roberts reversed field and stayed in the rundown until his teammates had advanced to second and third base. Though he was tagged out - score it 5-2-5-1 - the Orioles still had two runners in scoring position. Luke Scott followed with a single into left-center field, and the Orioles took an early 2-0 lead. Roberts waved Markakis to third base while staying alive until Pauley finally applied the tag. Pauley threw 23 pitches in the inning and was bailed out when Felix Pie bounced into a double play. He allowed two runs and two hits, walked a batter and hit another. The David Pauley jokes already have started to circulate in the press box, which is slightly unfortunate because he's a really nice guy who didn't make a very good impression on the mound when he was part of the Orioles' organization. "He'll be running in the outfield in the second inning." "Check with Mariners PR to see if he'll be available to talk to the media in the fifth." Yep, we saw this exact same pitcher at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. Now that I've written this entry, he'll probably string together six scoreless innings. Before I could hit the "publish" button, Jeremy Guthrie surrendered a three-run homer to Oriole Killer Matt Tuiasosopo, who's driven in seven runs in the last two games. And the normally sure-handed Guthrie just misplayed Josh Wilson's slow roller for an error. No more Pauley jokes unless it's Jane.