The last few days have felt like the semi-lucid time when you are waking from a particularly vivid fever dream. Your loved one is there caring for you, keeping the cold cloth on your forehead, piling up the blankets as needed, as you blearily open your eyes. You don't know what day it is. You're fairly sure you know what month and year it is, but not entirely. You were so immersed in that dream that it was real, man. That world was really happening. "I saw Chris Davis get a win as a relief pitcher!" you exclaim. Everyone laughs nervously. To them, this is a further reminder of how close they came to losing you. Your palm is kissed; relief pours from the eyes of your loved one. You have survived, but you are back in the world you always knew instead of that fantastical place you dreamed of.

Remember when I told myself to stop being melodramatic yesterday? I guess I didn't listen. The fact is that the Orioles are still only riding a three-game losing streak, which is the worst losing streak of the season so far. All it takes is a win tonight to stop that and get some semblance of good feelings building again.

A key player in making that happen will be Jake Arrieta, making his 11th start of the season. Jake has one big problem this year, and that problem is home runs. He's allowed 9 in the 61 innings he's pitched this season. He is facing a Blue Jays offense that has hit 68 home runs in their 49 games. That's a lot of home runs. They are just behind the Orioles in that category - the O's having hit 72 home runs on the season, which is no longer first in MLB. They have been passed by New York and Texas in the last few days. Arrieta needs to limit these to lower a 4.87 ERA. In particular, he needs to watch out for Edwin Encarnacion and his 16 home runs. Seriously, what the heck is up with that? Jose Bautista has a respectable 12 home runs.

Ricky Romero is starting for Toronto. Command is his most significant problem in the 2012 season: a 5.1 BB/9 rate that is significantly worse than his career total. In his last four starts, he's walked at least four batters. In his last start, he walked seven batters. The Orioles may be just the team he wants to see, as they remain in the bottom third of MLB in walk rate - though their 7.9% is not exactly butting up against the dregs of the league (the worst in the AL is Kansas City with a 6.9%). Romero has yet to face the O's this year. He enters the game with a 3.86 ERA.

One interesting subplot to tonight's game will be Adam Jones' 19-game hitting streak and whether he can continue it. I have yet to call attention to it, so if he goes 0-for-tonight, you can blame me for the jinx.

There's no such thing as a must-win game in May, but I'd really, really like it if the Orioles would win tonight. Maybe they'll oblige me or maybe I'll just keep waiting for the inevitable doom.

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The Orioles' May roster carousel continues to spin as the month reaches its conclusion. Today brought another pair of corresponding roster moves. Endy Chavez has completed his rehab assignment and is rejoining the big club. Since Endy is primarily playing left field and so is Xavier Avery, it's Avery who gets optioned to Norfolk. The other move is a bit more surprising, with the heretofore unknown Miguel Gonzalez - whom I am reasonably certain is not Michael Gonzalez with a mustache - having his contract purchased from Norfolk. Tommy Hunter, who has had his Tommy Hunter-ness on display all season, has also been optioned to Norfolk. This time maybe he will be there for more than two days.

The Chavez activation was not unexpected, having been telegraphed by the beat writers for a few days. After Avery showed up and had a few nice games, no doubt some people hoped to see that Chavez would simply be cut loose when his injury time concluded. This was probably just wishful thinking, because DFAing a guy coming off the DL is one of those things it seems like baseball teams just don't do. Chavez, with his .133/.175/.167 line at the plate, may not even represent an upgrade over Avery. Still, this move can be a positive in the long run if Avery goes back to AAA with this taste of the show out of the way, now knowing what he needs to work on to be a major leaguer for more than a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we must gird ourselves for the reality of 3-4 Endy Chavez plate appearances a game.

Gonzalez swapping places for Hunter appears to be a move to bolster the bullpen, though Gonzalez did make three starts out of the 11 games he pitched for Norfolk this season. He's struck out 36 men in 30 innings in AAA this season, with only 5 walks. That could play in the big leagues. Gonzalez is from Mexico and was originally signed by the Angels in October 2003. He spent a couple of seasons in the Boston organization after being a Rule 5 draft choice, and signed with the O's as a minor league free agent on February 28. This will be his first stint in the big leagues in his career. He just turned 28 two days ago, so that's not a bad belated birthday present.

There was a free 40-man roster spot already for Gonzalez due to Bill Hall being designated for assignment on May 25.

This is the second time this season that Hunter's been optioned to Norfolk, and he's earned them both. The last time he was re-summoned after only two days because Jason Hammel had to be skipped in the rotation. Stay healthy, rotation, so Hunter and his 5.59 ERA in 58 IP can stew in Virginia for a little while longer this time. There is nothing unlucky about lifeless fastballs that sit right out in the middle of the plate. That's just a pitcher who doesn't belong in the big leagues getting lit up.

With upcoming off days on Thursday and on Monday, the O's can probably get by with four starters for the next little while, with Zach Britton taking Hunter's place in the rotation whenever he is finished with his injury recovery.

Tonight's game between the Orioles and the Blue Jays probably only takes on increased importance if you are, like me, perpetually perched on the edge of complete panic. The signs were there in the last two losses against Kansas City and all it would take is a third straight loss to prove that we're heading back into familiar territory. This is probably wrong. We should stop being melodramatic, you and I. The O's haven't even yet tied their season-worst losing streak (still only three games, thanks to the sweep by the Yankees in the second series of the season). But we have gotten a taste of winning, and we remember what it's like to not taste winning, so when we are deprived of it again it feels as if it must be gone forever.

The last time Tommy Hunter pitched in Toronto, he gave up four home runs, which may be contributing to your malaise. Feeling good with a guy with a 5+ ERA on the mound is a difficult proposition, something we know for ourselves due to the frequency with which we've seen it in the past. This is the experience. Repeating through the lineup three times with success is apparently beyond him. So all we can hope is that he minimizes the damage in the first two times through and that Buck Showalter is perched to yank him at the right moment when things abruptly turn south as they inevitably do.

Good news for O's fans is that the Blue Jays starter, Drew Hutchison, is also in that 5+ ERA category. He is sporting a 5.73 ERA. He is also 21 years old and this is his first season in the major leagues. We saw Hutchison earlier in the season, making his second ever MLB start. On that day he pitched 5 innings and gave up two earned runs. It seems he has run into some difficulties since then. Perhaps he will encounter more tonight.

This game is the (triumphant?) return to the lineup for Mark Reynolds, back with the big club after a stint on the disabled list for a left oblique injury. Reports are that he would have rejoined the O's tomorrow regardless, so the Stu Pomeranz injury only advanced things by one day. Reynolds is the DH tonight, and for as much as we've heard O's broadcasters talk about how the O's like not being stuck with one DH, they probably are now that Reynolds is back. Any one of Reynolds, Chris Davis and Wilson Betemit could probably be permanent DH types. Only one of them can be on a given night. It's Reynolds tonight. The others will see their share of action because Tommy Hunter is a contact pitcher.

Enjoy your activities of choice tonight. As our favorite announcer might say, DRINK! ... ... .. responsibly. And another thank you to all the servicemen and women out there, past and present, in whose honor we celebrate this three-day weekend.

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The Orioles have just announced that Stu Pomeranz has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 26, with a left oblique injury. As the corresponding roster move, Mark Reynolds, who had been rehabbing in Bowie for the last couple of days, has been reinstated to the active roster.

Pomeranz is reported to have strained the oblique while warming up to enter yesterday's game against Kansas City. The O's had been carrying an extra man in the bullpen since Pomeranz was most recently recalled anyway, so this will return them to a 7-man bullpen and a 4-man bench, though just who will be on the bench on a given night is another story entirely. He's only appeared in three games for the O's, though it feels like so much more with the way he boogied into our hearts with a three-inning scoreless appearance to start his big league career.

Reynolds was also suffering from a strained left oblique when he was placed on the disabled list retroactive to May 11. He had only started his rehab assignment in Bowie on Saturday and played in just two games there before the Pomeranz injury necessitated a roster move anyway. If left up to his own devices, we don't know when Reynolds would have been activated, though probably soon enough. Of the Orioles who have been rehabbing, he must have been the closest to being ready to return to action. Will he be in the lineup right away tonight?

Prior to being placed on the disabled list, Reynolds was having a very Reynolds year, which is to say he did not look good playing third base - so much so that it seems Buck Showalter is reluctant to play him there at all. Reynolds also struck out a lot, exactly 1/3 of his 108 plate appearances, and got a good number of walks. What he did not do is hit home runs or have any kind of power whatsoever, leading to a .191/.324/.337 batting line.

The Orioles press release announcing this roster move would like for you to know that Reynolds hit safely in five of the last seven games prior to being placed on the DL, games during which he batted .348/.484/.739. On a 1 to 10 scale of usefulness, I rate that information Garrett Atkins. It's nice to think that Reynolds might pick up where he left off before going on the DL, though. We were promised home runs, and we got 37 of them last year, but we'd like some more this year too.

Brian Roberts, Endy Chavez and Zach Britton remain on rehab assignment with Bowie, though Roberts is expected to join Delmarva for a few days starting tomorrow. The last report on Britton was that he is expected to be activated some time during the three-city road trip that begins in Toronto tonight.

With all the hullabaloo over the Adam Jones contract extension coming from Oriole Park at Camden Yards this morning, there was not a shortage of positive vibes for the Orioles to see spill over into today's game. A nice-sized crowd of about 33,000 turned out to see their first place Orioles and the new $85.5 million man. There was a buzz in the air and a good bit of excitement. Absolutely none of this good karma made its way onto the baseball diamond at any point, so what the parties involved got instead was a letdown 4-2 loss to close out a 2-4 homestand that saw back-to-back series losses, including losing two of three to these Royals.

The big story of the game was the failure of the Orioles offense to get any kind of significant damage against Royals starter Luke Hochevar, who, in terms of ERA, has been among the worst starters in all of MLB this season. Entering today's action with a 6.61 ERA, he is precisely the kind of pitcher you need to score runs against. Hochevar was chased fairly early, 4.2 IP with 7 hits surrendered, but he only gave up two runs (one earned) in that time, and then five Royals relievers teamed up to blank the Orioles for the rest of the game.

If there's one bit of silver lining today, it's that Brian Matusz had a decent outing. He wasn't great, but he didn't fall apart either. He made it through six innings with three earned runs surrendered. One unearned run scored in part due to Jones overrunning the ball on a routine single to center, letting a runner on second who later came around to plate a run. Of the others, one came on a Billy Butler home run (curse you, Butler!) on a good pitcher's pitch. Matusz came down and in with a fastball. There was not any kind of hanging meatball. Butler turned on it and golfed it out into the left field seats. Sometimes good hitters just do amazing things.

Other runs also scored that had much less to do with good hitters doing amazing things. Matusz surrendered another solo home run to Jeff Francoeur on a pitch that, as the announcers might like to say, "he wished he could have back." And when you're giving up hits to the likes of Alcides Escobar and Humberto Quintero, well... actually, I don't want anyone to be down on Matusz for today. Pitching is hard. Baseball is hard. He wasn't dominant today, but he was OK enough for most of the time. He avoided big innings and he ultimately notched the quality start, his fifth in his last seven starts - five more than he had all of last season.

Unfortunately for Brian and for the Orioles, the bats were mostly silent today, and the Orioles lost their fifth game out of their last seven.

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Some time over the remainder of this Memorial Day Weekend, it's a good bet that my dad will find A Bridge Too Far on a TV network that's running a war movie marathon. He will sit and watch bits and pieces of it and comment on the action as if he can affect the outcome of the failed Operation Market Garden. I will never fail to be amused by this. I guess I don't get to judge, though, because in watching the Orioles I'll be viewing A Game Too Far (Over .500) and probably shouting equally useless things like, "Don't swing at that crap!" or "F*** YEAH!"

If you missed out on the earlier Adam Jones extension press conference, one thing you missed was a question to Buck Showalter about whether he thought that other players would get the message that if they play well, they will be rewarded around here. Buck's response: "If I know our guys, they're thinking about Luke Hochevar and they want to get back into the cage." Nice answer. For all the good feelings from the Jones conference, and there were many, they won't amount to a hill of beans if the O's can't go out and get a win today. Especially considering the opposing pitcher is Hochevar, who has a 6.61 ERA on the season and a 5.36 ERA in his career.

The O's hitters saw Hochevar ten days ago. They touched him up for four earned runs in six innings of work. Not bad, but you can do better! Maybe the newly-extended Jones will pave the way. Although we certainly hope Jones doesn't put too much pressure on himself. Perhaps Rick Dempsey can tell him to focus easy?

O's starter Brian Matusz was also a part of that matchup against the Royals ten days ago. He gave up three runs over six innings then, but what was really impressive was his effort against Boston in the interim, where he struck out nine hitters over 6.1 IP. He looked a lot like the pitcher we always hoped that he would be. Some part of his problem last year must have been mental, and it's great that he has that game behind him for confidence. Brian, if you can drop that Boston lineup, you can hang with anyone in the major leagues. Get out there and prove it today.

Despite yesterday's loss, the Orioles have an obscene record of something like 22-2 when the starting pitcher records a quality start. They're also 13-1 in games where Adam Jones homers. So there's our key stats. If both come into play today, the signs for the O's are doubly good. If they want to keep hanging out above the big boys, they need to take series against weak teams like Kansas City. Go O's!

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The Orioles are busily maintaining the fiction that someone will be surprised that the 11:30am "major announcement" they've been talking about since yesterday will be the Adam Jones contract extension's official unveiling.

I assume there will be a little press conference where Dan Duquette talks about what a qualified and dependable player Jones has been for the ballclub, and Jones will talk about how the most important thing to do in Baltimore is win, that he wants to win and he wouldn't have agreed to extend his contract here if he didn't believe the team was finally turning the corner.

The extension has been reported to be a six-year contract (kicks in next year, the 2013 season) for $85.5 million, with some no-trade protection and potential escalators that could increase the value to $91.5 million. Not bad for a guy whose professional baseball career began when he got a call in his high school government class that he'd been drafted.

The press conference will be live at 11:30am on MASN, Orioles.com, and apparently also on MLB Network. Tune in for yourself if you like. If you can't get to either of those, I will be doing my best to dutifully transcribe tidbits as the thing is on the air.

It is Memorial Day Weekend. Make sure to thank a veteran for their service. We have several on this site. Thank you!

I'm still not sure how to handle the Orioles being in first place this far into the calendar year. It is almost unfathomable to me, except it is unfolding before my very eyes, so I have to fathom it. Whether it will continue is a subject for much debate, but what has happened so far cannot be denied.

To charge farther away from .500 - for once, in the right direction - the Orioles will have to overcome the challenge of Felipe Paulino today. There will not be a Paulino/Paulino matchup, barring some sort of injury, which we certainly do not want to see. When we last saw Paulino, it was ten days ago. He blanked the Orioles for seven innings, getting nine strikeouts, then the O's ultimately tied the game with a two-run 9th and went on to win in 15 innings. We probably don't want to be counting on another late-inning miracle.

What is the solution to Paulino? Who knows? He's only started four games this year, but he has a 1.42 ERA. His career ERA in 373 big league innings is 5.02. Is he a pitcher who, like Jason Hammel, suddenly discovered or perfected some pitch to take him to a dominant level? He's struck out over a batter per inning this year. Even if he has entered a new, successful era of his career, he's surely not 1.42 ERA-level good. So maybe the O's can touch him up a little today. That would be good.

Pitching for the Orioles is Wei-Yin Chen. We will also miss out on the potential Chen/Chen starting pitching matchup. A bigger challenge for Chen today than the Royals lineup might be the heat. It'll be about 89 degrees at first pitch, and with an afternoon game it's not likely to cool off substantially. Down on the field, in the sunlight, it might feel even hotter than that. We made a lot of jokes about our previous NPB import, Koji the "Delicate Flower", but if that's to be a problem with Chen we don't know so yet. One thing that's for certain is Chen is several years younger than Koji was, so I like his chances of being able to power through with superior conditioning.

Down on the farm, it's something of a big night, too. Dylan Bundy is set to debut in Frederick, and there's already talk of whether the Keys' attendance record of 11,006 might fall. In Bowie, rehabs galore as Endy Chavez and Mark Reynolds will play in the field while Zach Britton pitches. Zach will be on the same field as his brother Buck (right fielder tonight), which I think is pretty cool. Brian Roberts is not rehabbing with Bowie today. He came to Camden Yards to work out with the Orioles and he's supposed to play with Bowie again tomorrow and Monday.

All in all it's an exciting day in Birdland. Envy those who get to see it up close and personal! The rest of us will be rooting from afar, and maybe everything will come up aces.

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Well, it's been quite a day around here, hasn't it? Possible Adam Jones extension looming (at what seems like a fair price for both sides), and a number of rehabbing stories to look forward to in Bowie over this Memorial Day Weekend: Brian Roberts is in Bowie tonight, leading off and playing at DH; we heard earlier in the week that Zach Britton would be starting in Bowie tomorrow. Today we found out that Mark Reynolds and Endy Chavez, too, would be heading to the Baysox tomorrow for some rehab. Although there's not much exciting about Chavez being closer to playing again, since at this point he's probably just going to take playing time from someone younger who sucks less than he does.

With all that going on, there's still baseball to be played tonight. The Royals are in town for a three-game series. It's another one of those signs of how deeply the Orioles have damaged me that the Jones extension reminds me of another recent time that the Orioles extended someone. There's a world of difference between those days and now, or so I keep trying to tell myself.

The Orioles will be up against former Camden Yards laughmeister Bruce Chen. Bruce, I'm sorry to say it, but Andino at the Movies is better than your Joke of the Day ever was, and as a bonus, Andino is better at baseball than you were at pitching when your Jumbotron segment aired. That same Andino will be leading off against Chen tonight, as he has led off against every lefty recently. Chen. Andino. The battle of the billboards. WHO WILL OWN IT?

In his first six starts of the year, Jason Hammel did not allow more than two earned runs. Since pitching after his turn was skipped due to right knee soreness, he's allowed four earned runs while failing to get through six innings in both starts. If that knee is still bothering him, he might run into difficulty at the same point in the game tonight. If he's starting to get well again, then hopefully he can return closer to the form we'd seen from him over the first month.

Though they have an abysmal home record, the Royals are 12-9 on the road so far in 2012. The O's took the two games they played in Kansas City, and if they want to keep showing to the world they belong up top, then beating the fourth-place team in what seems to be a weak division is something that they need to be doing.

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Each ugly loss reminds us of the dark days of the recent past. Today's being among the ugliest of losses in this young season, with about the only thing to distinguish it from recent-vintage ugly Orioles losses being that there were no issues with defensive incompetence through the course of the game.

A command-challenged Jake Arrieta was socked for eight hits, with three walks surrendered, in only 5.2 innings pitched. The key stat of the day going into the game was that the Orioles have a 21-1 record when their starter records a quality start. Jake failing to reach that mark was another problematic sign in a game that already seemed like it just wasn't destined to go the Orioles' way.

Though it's Jake who's credited with the loss, in no way does he shoulder the whole burden for this lost game. Orioles hitters and baserunners also bear responsibility for the way that they managed to continually bail out an equally command-challenged Daniel Bard. The Red Sox pitcher who entered the game with nearly as many walks issued as strikeouts collected lived up to that reputation by giving out four walks against only two strikeouts. Yet Bard only surrendered five hits as Orioles hitters chased his pitches and put them in play, mostly for outs.

They ran themselves into outs - a pair of caught stealings against a pitcher who couldn't find the strike zone, further solidifying the Orioles as the single worst team for stolen bases in all of MLB. This is getting ridiculous. They are the only team in MLB that cannot even succeed 50% of the time - and you're supposed to be able to do it at least 75% of the time if you're going to do it at all. Even the speedy Xavier Avery got himself on base and stole second, then promptly got himself picked off trying to steal third. All of this with two outs and against a pitcher who, again, could barely find the strike zone - 91 pitches thrown, 50 strikes. A later Adam Jones caught stealing sent the Orioles back below the 50% success rate. Stop trying to steal bases, Orioles! You suck at it. You are hurting yourselves and us.

Even worse than the stolen bases were the double plays. For once, the league-leading team in grounded-into-double-plays did not record one in the game, but Nick Markakis twice lined to short and the play resulted in a DP. Was it bad luck? Were the runners caught being overly aggressive? It doesn't matter now. All we know is that they snuffed out rallies ferociously. The Orioles were 0-8 with runners in scoring position on the day, including both of those Markakis at-bats that ended in double plays.

For good measure, the usually-reliable bullpen gave up a pair of home runs, one by Luis Ayala to Kelly Shoppach (!) and one by Darren O'Day to Scott Podsednik (!!). Though Nick Johnson tried his best to be a one-man offense in the DH spot - two home runs on the day, now batting .206/.324/.460 on the year - the bullpen faltering kept the game out of reach and the Orioles slunk off quietly into a much-needed off day.

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For the third game in a row, the following is true: the first-place Baltimore Orioles are taking on the last-place Boston Red Sox. I will never get tired of typing that sentence.

This afternoon contest represents the rubber match of the three game series. Perhaps in the Boston sports media they are crafting stories about how the Red Sox "need" to secure this series win against the "lowly" Orioles to get their season back on track. They are working with the old paradigm. These Orioles will not be resting on their laurels with salvaging a single win against Boston with a day off tomorrow. They want to continue their dominance with another win today, and what the heck, who says they can't?

Things have even reached the point where Jen Royle said something nice - sure, a bit of a backhanded compliment, but a compliment all the same.

In today's game, the Orioles will be up against an old nemesis, Daniel Bard, who's trying out in a new role. A great relief pitcher who has the potential to be a good starter has more value to the team as a starter - he will ultimately affect more of the season by pitching more innings for the team. The Bard-Papelbon combo at the back end of the Red Sox bullpen was - game 162 notwithstanding - about as nasty as anything the Orioles would see. With this in mind, the Sox are trying out Bard as a starter this year. Not every experiment works out right away. Where as a reliever he'd strike out over a batter per inning, Bard the starter only has a K/9 of 5.48, and his walk rate is a Gregg-esque 5.27. He has only two quality starts out of the seven he has made on the season. If Bard is wild, will the Orioles keep the bats on their shoulders and not bail him out?

The Orioles will also be sending out a starter who has been wild in his career - Jake Arrieta. Jake has actually not been too wild in 2012, though, with a 2.11 BB/9 that's less than half his previous career low. That's helped to keep his WHIP at a respectable, if not eye-popping, 1.21. Jake's allowed 8 home runs in his 55.1 innings, and the Boston lineup - even one full of patchwork fill-ins - can crush some homers.

One of the stats of the day that the beat writers have been posting on Twitter is that the Orioles are 21-1 this year in games where they got a quality start out of the starting pitcher, which makes them 7-15 when they don't. That may well be the key stat for the whole rest of the season. If the starters can keep giving the team a chance to win, the team will keep seizing most of the chances. It's on Jake's shoulders today. Go O's!

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Savor this sentence, for it is the truth for a second consecutive night: the first-place Baltimore Orioles are taking on the last-place Boston Red Sox tonight. The Red Sox are tied for last in the AL East with the New York Yankees, 5.5 games behind the division-leading Orioles.

The $84,102,333 question is how long this situation will last. A win tonight would see it persist for at least another day, whereas a loss would tie the O's season-high losing streak - only three games, but still - and potentially vault Boston out of the basement for the duration. That ephemeral concept, momentum, is what is on the line. Either its burgeoning emergence in favor of Boston can be hijacked or, like the horror movie villain Andrew and I contemplated on this week's Camdencast, the Red Sox, after all the beatings they have taken, will continue to come at us, perhaps with blood-stained socks.

It's Brian Matusz who stands between us and that grim fate. Although if we want to get technical, that's not true, because it's actually the entirety of the 25-man roster, as it will ultimately be applied in tonight's game by manager Buck Showalter, that stands between us and allowing the Red Sox to ascend from the depths. The starting pitcher has a lot to do with the outcome, though, so it's simplest to say it that way. Thus, Matusz. Three of his past five starts have been of the quality start (6+ IP, 3 ER or less) variety, which is three more quality starts than he had in all of last year. He is the variable I find hardest to predict on this team. Will he keep muddling along at the way-better-than-last-year-but-still-awful 5.36 ERA level? Will it balloon worse again? Will it steadily get better? We hope the steady progress continues tonight.

Boston's starter is Felix Doubront, whom they have been tenderly shepherding through the organization since signing him out of Venezuela in 2005. With 44 innings in eight starts, the lefty is not exactly eating the innings, so the potential for a shortened outing is there, if the O's can work him and capitalize. Doubront has 44 strikeouts and 21 walks in those innings, holding his ERA at 4.09 even with a WHIP of 1.48.

Tonight's game marks the return from the DL for Kevin Youkilis, much-cursed in these parts mostly because he always seems to destroy the Orioles. Youkilis is at first base tonight so Will Middlebrooks can remain at third, which has at least temporarily pushed Adrian Gonzalez out to right field. Gonzalez has played in 1,059 games at the major league level in his career, and in that time he's played right field for a total of 35 innings. Boston has kept scoring runs even with a lineup held together by duct tape and baling wire; if Youkilis comes back close to form, their lineup will only be that much more dangerous as the ship is righted.

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Here is a sentence to savor: tonight's game features the first-place Baltimore Orioles taking on the last-place Boston Red Sox. One wonders if the usual rodents will appear at Camden Yards for tonight's contest. It's entirely possible the Northern Virginia pink hat coalition has exchanged their Bs for curly Ws.

One curiosity about tonight's game is that it's a rematch of the starting pitchers of the 17-inning marathon game from May 6. Clay Buchholz takes on Tommy Hunter. Does that mean anything? Probably not, but there are a lot of meaningless statistics that it's cool to notice in baseball. I think ESPN's Jayson Stark makes a living off of that sort of thing.

Buchholz is the worst starter, in ERA terms, who has the qualifying number of innings pitched. He's sporting a 7.77 ERA. There is not much relief in the peripherals for Clay. His walk rate is a Gregg-esque 4.70 per 9 innings. With a K/9 of only 5.11, that leaves Buchholz with a K/BB ratio of not much more than 1, which is really, really not good. Also, he has allowed ten home runs in only 44 innings pitched. Up against the MLB-leading team in home runs hit, that's a poor omen for the pitcher whose career was launched by a no-hitter against the Orioles. Perhaps in the end they will say that it was the Orioles who welcomed Buchholz into MLB and it will be the Orioles who usher him out of it.

On the other hand, there is Hunter. He is a very Orioles pitcher, a term that no one should consider complimentary. His 4.78 ERA and 10 home runs allowed in 49 innings pitched would have been right at home in any Orioles team over the past decade. One thing we can say about Hunter is that he eats some innings, averaging a little over 6 per game started. Not a good matchup against the team that's scored the most runs in the American League, though.

The Red Sox offense is all that has saved them from being the laughingstock of the league. They have scored 10 or more runs in 8 of their 20 wins. They have continued scoring runs in bunches even with a revolving door of players due to injuries. Their right fielder tonight is someone named Che-Hsuan Lin, whose name sounds like the kind of player that Dan Duquette would get Orioles scouts banned from a country's baseball games for trying to sign. Lin is from Taiwan. He has appeared in two games and has yet to have a plate appearance. If I was trying to break in to the big leagues, I think Hunter is exactly who I would want to see on the mound.

Dating back to last season, the O's have won 8 of 10 from the Red Sox, but the tide can turn tonight. A much better outcome for O's fans would be to send the Sox back into oblivion, where they will be surrounded by the circular firing squad that is the Boston sports media. Maybe they can start tonight.

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The Orioles have cleared the gauntlet with their record still intact, and that was great, but the specters of the past still haunt O's fans - or at least me, anyway. Andrew and I try to figure out what's for real and what's not through the surprising success of the first quarter of the season.

Along the way, we revisit some of our preseason predictions for the Orioles, including revised win projections, which I was guilted into making by Andrew while we were recording, so that you all can give me plenty of crap for being wrong a second time. Some other highlights include:

* A whole lot of Adam Jones contract talk, with recent O's who got extensions and how they worked out
* Andrew and I's favorite article that was written about game 162 of last year
* The Red Sox as a horror movie villain
* Andrew and I bandy about ideas for what to do about the third base situation and mostly decide we hate them all

This episode has a run time of about 49 minutes. An embedded player is below the jump for your listening convenience.

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If you have ever in your life read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you know that 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. It's a fitting thing today because in the Orioles' 42nd game of this surprising 2012 season they will be up against Stephen Strasburg as the Nationals try to stave off a sweep. Strasburg's been spending the year destroying the National League. He enters the game with a 2.25 ERA and he's got 56 strikeouts against 12 walks over 48 innings pitched. With 336 strikeouts, the Orioles hitters lead MLB in the category.

The really astounding thing about Strasburg's strikeout rate - that's a 10.5 K/9, which, for a starter, is ridiculous - is that it isn't even the best on the Nats staff. Gio Gonzalez, who the O's missed int his series, has a K/9 of 11.1. If they can manage to beat Strasburg, that may very well mean life, the universe and everything to Birdland. If they don't, well...

Okay, let's not get too melodramatic about it. One of those things we may have to get used to if the Orioles remain good is that not every loss need be imbued with ominous portent. Even an astoundingly good 100-win baseball team will lose 62 times over the course of a regular season. As fans, we wouldn't want the Orioles to roll over and give up on any game, but when all is said and done, if the O's were to lose to Strasburg without any infuriating old-Oriolesque moments, we would say, well, that's OK. There's always tomorrow. Even my 7th grade social studies teacher acknowledged this sort of thing prior to the 1996 season - he told us that the Orioles were going to go 159-3 because "they'll run into Roger Clemens and David Cone a few times." No, I don't know why I remember that kind of stuff.

Something that is different about this year's Orioles is that they aren't always bringing a plastic butter knife to a gun fight. While Wei-Yin Chen isn't the kind of fireballer that Strasburg is, he's gotten results so far in his time in the big leagues - a 2.45 ERA that's even more impressive than Strasburg's when you consider that Chen has had to face a DH rather than a pitcher/pinch-hitter in opposing lineups. And Chen gets to face a Nationals team that's averaging 3.65 runs scored per game. Nats hitters only have 6 fewer strikeouts than Orioles hitters on the season. They also strike out a lot.

A loss to the likes of Strasburg isn't going to be a reason to go all Chicken Little around here and act like the good times are over. But, should the Orioles manage to find a way to win this game and complete the sweep today, we might finally start to feel like it's safe to take the plunge and believe that this team could be for real. Go O's!

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The script was a familiar one for Orioles fans who've been used to sad-sack baseball teams. Score a fair few runs in the initial innings of the game - in this case, 6 runs over 5 innings - and then fail to add on any runs even as the O's starter abruptly runs out of steam. The ending to that script involved a bullpen allowing the other team to continue to chip away, culminating ultimately in a walk-off home run. In 2012, the endings to all of the scripts have been rewritten. Birdland cometh. Deal with it.

That's not to say that the game was not without tension. If you are an Orioles fan like me, you've been conditioned to the losing. You expect the worst, still. The season's early success has not been enough to blast away the lingering doubts and the familiar malaise. Jim Johnson entering the game to strive for his 23rd consecutive save was one of these moments. The entire 2012 Orioles bullpen is such a moment. Watching them night in and night out and that parasitic pessimist inside you says, "These guys are way overdue to blow one." Every pitch is a tense moment. Will the closer mysteriously hit the batter with a pitch and then give up a game-tying home run? Will he walk two guys and then give up a game-winning home run? These are the things I ask myself.

For those who were watching on TV, you probably also noted FOX's Bob Carpenter (typically the Nationals play-by-play man for MASN, as well) doing his level best to drop a jinx on Johnson by pointing out that consecutive save streak. Rationally, there is no such thing as a jinx. I know this and you also know this, but we are fans and fandom is irrational, so we also know that the fickle finger of fate is ever present in the world. We do not tempt it. Carpenter did - intentionally, we have to suspect, being that he is a Nats guy. So when Ryan Zimmerman's batted ball sailed out into the bullpen in left field, we said, "Of course."

We waited, then, for the next shoe to drop. .300+ hitter Adam LaRoche stepped up to the plate. 0-8 in this series, he was "due" if ever a player was. Due is due. That's how it was supposed to go. It was written right there in the script. Johnson - and the entire 2012 Orioles - are playing off a different script, so he just went ahead and coolly struck out LaRoche, neat as you please. The Orioles are in the win column for the 27th time this year. That is a 27-14 record. Two short years in the past, the Orioles were 27-59.

I like this new script a lot better, don't you?

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Twelve games over .500. How we got here is a blur of unbelievable victories. Tonight the Orioles will be looking to rack up one more against the Nationals. They will be doing this behind one of their best players - Jason Hammel, still looking to put together a solid start after dealing with a little knee soreness.

Opposing him for the Nationals is Ross Detwiler, who enters the game with a 2.75 ERA on the season. That isn't bad - but of course, it was accumulated against the National League. The Orioles bats were mostly in slumber last night and we hope that they are going to wake up.

I'd post a little more but I've been unavoidably busy this afternoon. Have at it yourselves, chaps - and remember that this game will be on the FOX network. If you're out of market, I think you're screwed as far as watching on TV. MLB needs to get in the 21st century in a lot of ways and the broadcast rights' inherent unfriendliness to the fan is one such way. Unfortunately they will not be correcting themselves today. Hope you can see it somehow!

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We've got a 1-1 tie between the Orioles and the Nationals as we head into the 11th inning. Strong starts by both Jake Arrieta and Edwin Jackson no longer matter. It's a battle of the bullpens. God help us all.

Dear Nationals fan,

Though you could not beat feet fast enough to jump on board the bandwagon with Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, though you perhaps listened to all of the feckless national media personalities whose answer to the question, "Is there any hope for Orioles fans?" was to start rooting for the Nationals, it seems that you have been outmaneuvered. For the first time in its history, the Battle of the Beltways matters. The Baltimore Orioles are putting their first place in the American League East on the line, and our trendy neighbors to the south look to keep apace in the National League East, as they enter play today a half-game behind Atlanta.

What all of this means is that if you have ever been inclined to try to keep loyalties to both teams, the time for that has come to an end. There is not going to be any, "Well, I'll root for the Orioles when they're good and for the Nationals when they're good." There is no, "They're both from the Mid-Atlantic, so I can root for them both, right?" No. There is no more of, "One's in the American League and one's in the National League and they hardly ever play one another anyway." There are stakes now and you must choose.

You may be tempted still to choose the new hotness, the team with the young phenoms and the preseason national media buzz and the kid who practically paints "Douchebag" onto his eye black in silver - douche underneath the left eye and bag underneath the right. You may be tempted to forsake the team of your father and your grandfather and instead go with the team of the transient sycophants. You may be tempted to turn your back on the nearly 60 years of Orioles tradition in favor of manufactured hype that's as pre-packaged and fake as anything else that comes out of the district that team calls home. Choose wisely.

Something else that you might want to remember is this: the land now known as the District of Columbia was once a part of Maryland. You've been doing a nice job of taking care of it for us - well, if you even live in DC proper, that is. I've got to admit, Nationals fan, I have this unfortunate feeling that you probably live in Northern Virginia and a couple of years ago you were a Yankees fan and a couple of years before that you were a Red Sox fan. We will be back for it, is what I am telling you. In fact, we are starting the reclamation tonight.

Birdland cometh, and all the Natitude in all the world cannot stop it.

Sincerely,

Eat More Esskay

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It is 4:55 in the afternoon on May the 17th and the Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the American League. They have at this moment won more baseball games than any other team in MLB so far in the 2012 season. Tomorrow will mark six weeks since Opening Day. We all must handle in our own ways the slow unfolding of a season beyond our wildest dreams; whether it will continue, we cannot say, but one thing we do know is that the steady march of success has not halted yet. This is the world we live in, and the Orioles are in first place.

There were plenty of chances to have letdown games in this two-game set against the Royals. After a long stretch of games against teams with pretensions of contention in which the O's acquitted themselves excellently, would there have been much surprise if they let up just a little bit in "only" facing the Royals? Yet we saw last night the same as we saw today, the same as we have seen most all of the season: there's no quit in this team. Even starters you might expect to surrender to one bad inning - like today's pitcher, Brian Matusz - are hanging in there and minimizing the damage and giving the team a chance to come back from small deficits. That's where Dr. Jones and Mr. Hardy come in.

Trouble began for Matusz in the third inning. He retired the first six Royals hitters in order, then gave up back-to-back singles by Alcides Escobar and Irving Falu. That brought Humberto Quintero to the plate, who damaged the Orioles yesterday. A hanging pitch by Matusz drove deep to center, where Jones, playing in to try to cut off a run (I guess) could not chase it down in time to catch it. Two runs scored and Quintero advanced to third on a poor throw in to the plate that bounced away from Orioles catcher Luis Exposito. After a strikeout, the next batter, Johnny Giavotella - career .269 OBP - dropped a single into right field to score the third run. Billy Butler followed with a single, and the Royals had their 4-5 hitters due up with two men on base and only one out.

This was the time for the wheels to fall off the bus as said bus careened, brake lines having been cut, towards the cliff's edge. This was the time for the spontaneous engine fire to engulf the out-of-control bus as the highway brigands riddled its exterior with bullets. This was the time for that bus, carrying our hopes, to plummet into the fiery oblivion that it would surely meet if the crags onto which it crashed did not kill them from impact first.

We know these feelings. We have felt them before and we are still unable to shake the certainty that they lurk around every corner. Today they were banished. Matusz got the outs and you could feel, right there, if only the O's hitters could solve Luke Hochevar, there was a chance in this game.

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It's a businessman's special for the Orioles today, which is appropriate because they need to take care of business against their hosts, the Royals. Note that I am not sure any businessman in Kansas City would want to play hooky in order to be caught with the mobs of school children attending the game as part of School Trip Day, which is also happening today.

There is one reason why the O's need to win today's game, and that reason is Luke Hochevar. Once the #1 overall pick in the 2006 draft, Hochevar has just never lived up to that billing. He was supposed to be the polished, college pick. Now 28 years old, he's thrown 620.2 innings in MLB and has a 5.39 career ERA. Orioles fans may lament what might have been with someone other than Billy Rowell being drafted that round, but it's got to be even worse for Royals fans, who can look at the same players that tantalize O's fans in addition to Evan Longoria and Clayton Kershaw.

What is Hochevar's problem? He's got a 7.20 ERA so far in 2012 and is only averaging 5 innings per start. On the other hand, his FIP is nearly half of his ERA: at 3.69, one wonders whether he suffers from bad luck or whether it's what I like to call Chris Tillman Syndrome, where he has a high BABIP because his stuff is sub-par and it's easier (relative to other MLB pitchers) for baseballs to be hit hard to places where defenders are not standing or cannot dive or run.

The destiny of Brian Matusz in May has been to face off against fellow under-performing starting pitchers. In matching up against Hochevar today, he will be continuing that trend. I have no idea what to say about Matusz any more. We may have established that he is less terrible than he was last year, but with a 5.50 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP, he's not exactly in contention for the Cy Young award either. Matusz is walking a fair number of guys, and also giving up a lot of hits, though blessedly, his HR/9 rate is down to 1.19, which, don't get me wrong, still sucks. That rate just sucks a heck of a lot less than last year's 3.26. Trying to predict what we will see out of Matusz on a given day, or ever, is a pointless endeavor. I think it's fair to say that if Matusz was going to be able to flash a sign to us that he may again be decent some day, he would need to do it against this Royals team.

It is May 17 and the Orioles enter today's game tied for first place in the American League East. Pointing that out will never stop being awesome to me.

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The Orioles need to stick it to the Royals in the same way that Texas stuck it to the Orioles. They have emerged on the far side of the 15-game tough stretch with a few scratches, still far better than I anticipated. Now they have to keep their collective foot on the accelerator, because the injury-plagued Royals need to have their Duke-blue butts beaten silly by a team that has designs on emerging as a power in the AL East, or at least as a decent baseball team.

In order to accomplish this, someone who has thus far had a lackluster 2012 is going to need to step up his game. That player's name is Tommy Hunter. He's the Orioles starter tonight. He's given up like a million home runs. That was an exaggeration; Hunter has actually given up ten home runs in his 42 innings, still a fairly absurd total. Of fly balls that opposing batters have hit against Hunter, slightly over one in five have been home runs. Keep it on the ground, Tommy! No, that's just not your game. You are a contact pitcher and some of it is hard contact. So at least stop walking guys. Tommy's sporting a 2.79 BB/9 which is the highest of his career.

The O's have three players with 8 or more home runs. The Royals do not have a player with more than 6 home runs. That doesn't mean that hitters like Billy Butler and Mike Moustakas will not crush mistakes. Also be on the lookout for Eric Hosmer, who's only batting .182 but also only has a .175 BABIP. His luck could start to even out.

Starting for the Royals is Felipe Paulino. He has made two starts in MLB in 2012 and thus far has not sucked, managing a 3.09 ERA. Paulino's struck out over a batter per inning - and this is not a significant departure from his career K/9 of 8.32. His walk rate is also down substantially, which may not be a problem for a team that doesn't walk much, like the Orioles. Paulino hasn't given up a lot of homers since the 2009 season in Houston, a sign that he may have evolved as a pitcher. But of course if he's prone to give up some bombs tonight, the Orioles have more than a few batters who will be glad to send balls into deep and unplayable territory.

Paulino is right-handed, so against him the Orioles are sending out members of the "sucks against lefties" contingent like Nick Johnson, Wilson Betemit and Chris Davis. All of those three fellows could stand to pump up their stats with a breakout game. Whether they are capable of having one against Paulino tonight is something we will find out.

This is a game the team needs to win if they want to maintain their position in the standings for more of the season.

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Let us never speak of last night again.

Among the several pleasant surprises there have been for the Orioles so far this season is Wei-Yin Chen, tonight's starter. We saw him most recently as the only O's pitcher who was capable of remotely stymieing the Texas offense. This is no less impressive as the days have passed. Tonight he'll put his 2.68 ERA on the line in a game where the O's could really use a stopper to go deep in to a game to rest a tired bullpen.

CC Sabathia is the Yankees starter. We may have to consider the possibility that he's a robot. Sabathia's already thrown 51.1 innings across 7 starts, which is impressive. That is a workhorse. The dude is pulling this off while striking out over a batter per inning. In fact, with 53 strikeouts, he's 4th in MLB in that category, and the three guys ahead of him have all notched 8 starts on the year. With at least five strikeouts tonight, Sabathia will lead MLB in strikeouts. In a stroke of good fortune for him, he'll be facing the Orioles, the team with the 4th-most strikeouts in MLB.

For all of this, Sabathia has a 3.51 ERA on the season. Bad luck? At a 1.75 BB/9 (a very good rate) and with getting nearly 50% ground balls, this is probably the case. This guy is good. He has never thrown fewer than 180 innings in a season in his career. He hasn't thrown fewer than 200 innings since 2006. The highest ERA he's had since 2005 is his current ERA. With 2,070 career strikeouts, he ranks 60th all-time. The number of baseball players you'd want to be on the hook for $99 million in guaranteed salary after this current season concludes is very small. Sabathia's track record suggests he should be worth every penny.

But maybe the Orioles hitters can light him up tonight. Here we grasp at some meaningless batter-pitcher matchup numbers because they look pretty. In 39 plate appearances against Sabathia, Adam Jones has batted .333/.385/.583 with two home runs. Robert Andino's 18 plate appearances against Sabathia have seen him bat .389 and slug .611. Andino is leading off tonight, incidentally. If you hear someone suggest that his numbers against Sabathia are why Andino's leading off, consider ignoring that person's opinion about baseball. Put them on probation, at the very least.

Andino's been getting time batting leadoff against LHP over the last couple of weeks. In 2011, he had a .367 OBP against LHP. That was over 161 plate appearances, so it's still probably not statistically significant, but there have been worse leadoff hitters for the Orioles this year with worse reasons justifying their position as leadoff batter. A small step of progress? Maybe so.

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I am not a weatherman. I do not know if this game will be played on this date at this time. What I do know is that the Yankees are in town for what is supposed to be a two-game series. I also know that no matter what the outcome is of these two games, the Orioles will end the series with a better record than the Yankees have, and that they will emerge with a better-than-.500 record in the "rough stretch" of 15 games we all talked about. One more thing that I know is that last sentence is grammatically incorrect because I ended it with a preposition.

Back after a skipped start brought on by knee soreness, Jason Hammel is set to pitch for the O's tonight. In a start on April 30, he took the loss against New York despite giving up only two runs over six innings; on that day the Orioles' offense managed only five hits and a single run. The early success of Hammel has been one of the biggest stories for the O's. A 2.09 ERA after six starts? Yes, please. The best part is if you want to look at peripheral stats such as FIP to see if he's due for regression, even this is 2.54, still plenty impressive. Hammel has dramatically increased his K-rate while walking fewer batters and getting more ground balls - a 61% GB rate against last year's 43.9. That's a great way to have a pitching renaissance at the age of 29.

His opponent is Ivan Nova, who's already seen the O's twice this year. Once he gave up two runs and won, and once he gave up five runs and lost. This is about what you might expect. Actually, Nova's been a walking poster boy for the uselessness of pitcher wins; his 4-1 record comes in spite of a 5.02 ERA. In fact, the O's in that May 2 victory gave Nova his first loss since last June 3. How much of that ERA is bad luck? He has a BABIP of .381, which is absurdly high. He has given up eight home runs in only 37.2 IP. Perhaps his true misfortune is pitching in Yankee Stadium with its comical right field dimensions, in front of a Yankee defense featuring Derek Jeter (-6.4 runs in 2012) and Curtis Granderson (-9.7 runs - yikes!)

The Orioles lineup is loaded with lefties with power potential to capitalize on the homer-prone Nova. Actually, this might have been close to their usual lineup with any pitcher, but sports are more fun when there are narratives; we just have to concede that deep down they are probably incorrect. Anyway, consider: Matt Wieters has all 8 of his home runs against RHP (as a lefty batter); five of Nick Markakis' six homers are against RHP; so are four of Wilson Betemit's five homers, four of Chris Davis' five homers, and both of Nick Johnson's homers. Even rookie Xavier Avery, leading off for a second straight game and still in search of his first MLB hit, is a lefty who might like to face off against a homer-prone righty.

I almost sound confident here. This is going to take some getting used to.

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The dark past is ever an anchor on our potential to kick back and enjoy the present season. On this Mothers Day it is no different, with the reminder that the Orioles are 1-6 in their last 7 games on Mothers Day. We all remember the infamous loss in Boston. That particular 9th inning I watched on a TV in a restaurant while my family was waiting to be seated for dinner; after the meltdown happened, my grandmother announced that Sam Perlozzo should be fired and then promptly knocked back two rum and cokes. I had never seen her drink before.

I'm still not entirely sure who these Orioles are or how long they can keep it going, but one thing that is for certain is that they are not the Orioles you remember who roll over and get beaten. The bogeymen of the AL East are not the colossal titans that you remember, either. The once-seemingly-invulnerable giants of the past are now mortal. Of the much-discussed 15-game gauntlet, the Orioles have already managed eight wins. They will come out of it with a better record (in games over .500) than they started it with. They have also already logged the series win against the Rays. Today they go for the sweep.

The star of the day, at least before the game starts, will be Xavier Avery. The 22 year old is being called up to the big leagues today and he's being thrown right into the mix. He's leading off. This could be Joe Jordan's finest hour: one of his toolsy outfielders finally made good. Avery was looking worthy of the promotion based on his stats through 33 games this year: batting .273/.373/.469 in Norfolk with 6 doubles, 2 triples and 5 home runs. Small sample size, surely, but it's the first year he's ever shown power and patience at the plate. Now he'll get to test his skills against the best baseball players in the world. Good luck, Xavier!

Our pitching matchup today features "Big Game" James Shields facing off against Jake Arrieta. Last year and the year before, I made fun of calling shields Big Game James, but after last year when he pitched 249.1 innings with a 1.043 WHIP, he's spared from further mockery. Arrieta will counter with his command-and-control mystery - how good will it be today? Who knows? Hopefully good enough.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there in Birdland.

In a game that seemed to be a constant comedy of errors, the Orioles laughed first and they laughed last. Someone is going to have to break up the Orioles, because they've just won their 22nd game of the season and extended their lead in the AL East to two games, but that's better than no games. I am writing this from Camden Yards as the crowd files out. Bill Hall has just been hit in the face with a shaving cream pie. Let's rewind a little bit.

What started out as an intriguing matchup between a couple of young pitchers who have had their struggles in the season turned into a game that was more about errors. The Rays had five on the game, with three in the second leading to two Orioles runs and two more in the fifth leading to a pair of Orioles runs. This is the Orioles we're dealing with, and on a night full of errors, they couldn't fail to do their part. Specifically, Wilson Betemit could not fail to do his part. He gave a grand Bill Buckner whiff - right through the wickets, as MASN play-by-play man Gary Thorne might say - to a ground ball, with no damage resulting. Then for good measure he failed to pick a ball in the dirt from Steve Tolleson on what might have been an inning-ending double play. This one did lead to two runs scoring against Matusz.

The errors were a shame because Matusz had a fairly strong outing otherwise. He ended up getting chased after 5.2 innings, with five hits, three runs (two earned) and only one walk with five strikeouts. A Brandon Guyer home run was the first run of the game, but that was really the only well-struck ball off of him on the day. He could have very easily escaped through six with only one run in, and five hits. We'll take a 1.00 WHIP from Brian any day of the week. Can we say much about him going forward? He faced a depleted Rays lineup, so maybe not.

As for how the Orioles got their runs against Moore, well, he might have been victimized even worse by his defense. A throwing error by Sean Rodriguez let Adam Jones on base to lead off the 2nd inning. Perhaps a bit rattled, Moore tried to pick off Jones and threw the ball towards the tarp. Jones advanced and Matt Wieters walked. Two batters later, Steve Tolleson stepped to the plate looking to avoid the side being struck out with two men on base. He doubled down the left field line, just out of the reach of Rodriguez. In left field, Guyer could not field the ball cleanly underneath the padding, so two runs scored on the play.

They would need more runs than that to win the game, and the Rays defense was happy to provide.

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Maya Angelou knows why the caged bird sings, and perhaps tonight I will learn as well. I am at the moment ensconced in the press box, where I will remain because bloggers are not allowed to talk to players on the field or interact after the game.

I've watched nearly all of every game this year and I'm still not entirely sure how we've reached this point for the Orioles. As I sat in the stands last night, I kept wondering if this is really my life. It seems to be. We have a first-place baseball team in Baltimore. Tonight that place in the standings will be defended by Brian Matusz. He came away from his lone 2011 start against the Rays with four earned runs allowed in 1.1 IP. I can't make up my mind about him. Is it safe to believe in him again? He is less terrible than last year, but not near good.

One good thing for Matusz is that he will be facing a depleted Rays lineup. Evan Longoria has been on the DL. Carlos Pena and Desmond Jennings are not starting tonight. Even Matt Joyce isn't starting, and he may be the most threatening hitter in the lineup based on his 2012 line to date. That leaves Luke Scott to terrorize his former team. The Rays pregame notes I have been provided note that Scott's already equaled the 22 RBI that he collected in his injury-shortened 2011 season. Is that really the most important statistic you can think of to tell me, Rays? Seriously though, this lineup is a hot mess, but then, so is Matusz, so at the risk of being a broken record, it may be a game where we find out which is the victor between the stoppable force and the movable object.

Something working in the Orioles' favor is that the Rays starter tonight is Matt Moore. You might remember the rookie sensation who appeared in the playoffs for the Rays last year. Not looking so good so far this year. He's sporting a 5.71 ERA after six starts. He's got 18 walks in his 34.2 innings against 28 strikeouts and has allowed six home runs. Of course, Moore also gets to face a weak Orioles lineup. The bottom three hitters are Bill Hall, Steve Tolleson and Luis Exposito. None of those guys were even on the 40-man roster at the beginning of the season. Hall and Exposito weren't in the organization. But here they are starting a Saturday night game in first place and this is their lineup.

The bizarre and unlikely has worked for the O's so far. Why stop with that now?

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First place in the American League East is on the line in this contest tonight. Who would have imagined we'd be saying something like that in the second week of May when the season started? Not only that, but it's the Orioles and Rays who are the two teams currently tied for first. This will be the first time the teams have faced one another on the year and after the slugfest beatdowns from Texas, I'm not regretting that they are in the rear view mirror.

What challenges will face us from Tampa Bay? Well, the first challenge that the Orioles will face is that their own starter tonight is Dana Eveland. I've been dismissive of Eveland since his acquisition. In spring training I said that I'd forget he existed between starts and when I remembered him, I wished I could forget him. We'll see if he is any better than that in actual big league action. One of the things about him is that he had really bad AAA stats the last couple of years, but as people note to me, that was in the PCL, which is a hitters league. Eveland will get to face a depleted Rays lineup that's been without the injured Evan Longoria for some time, and also won't have Desmond Jennings.

Starting for the Rays is Jeremy Hellickson, who has got to be one of the luckiest pitchers (if you give weight to FIP) in all of MLB. Hellickson's got a 2.75 ERA but a 5.09 FIP. That is an astounding difference. But he maintained a pretty strong spread in favor of a lower ERA last season in his rookie campaign as well. He may benefit either from the Tampa defense or from some ephemeral quality in his pitching. He's vulnerable to the homer, though, with six surrendered in 36 innings on the season. That could be good news for an Orioles offense that loves to score runs by the homer and doesn't really love to score them otherwise. Hellickson has been walking a fair amount of batters as well, with 15 walks in his 36 IP. That may be less of a problem for him as the Orioles as a team don't walk a lot.

Another angle for this game is the return of Luke Scott to Camden Yards. Luke has seemed to find his power again early in the season. That's about all he's found. He's batting .247/.304/.548. He's already hit seven home runs. But he's a lefty and Eveland's a lefty, so hopefully he won't be putting any more plaques on Eutaw Street tonight now that he's on the wrong team.

It's two for the price of one baseball in Camden Yards today, and the few fans who made it to the afternoon part of the twin-billing certainly got their money's worth. After a brief intermission, it's time for the nightcap. The Orioles and Rangers have played some wild doubleheaders in recent memory. The first game may have been enough to be labeled wild on its own. Will the second one add it to that pantheon of weirdness?

The peculiar odyssey of Tommy Hunter this week may be something that contributes before a pitch is thrown. After being the forgotten footnote, the starter in the 17-inning contest, Hunter was banished to Norfolk. He's back in Baltimore, though, due to the knee soreness for Jason Hammel. So Hunter was demoted to AAA for three whole days, and in fact he'll be starting a day earlier than his turn in the rotation would have been if he'd never been demoted. Tommy's got to hope that he can channel the same mojo against his former team that Brandon Snyder had on Monday. He'll need it, because his 5.00 ERA in 2012 is less than impressive, and we've seen what Texas can do already in this series.

Starting for Texas will be Derek Holland, whom our Rangers blogging compatriots at Lone Star Ball refer to by his absurd mustache - the Dutchstache. Derek has gotten beaten around a little bit early in 2012. Not bad, with a 4.43 ERA, but not great either. One thing that hasn't been a problem for him is getting strikeouts, as he has 35 in 40.2 IP. He's done this while getting a lower WHIP than he had last year, so maybe he's having bad luck this year, or maybe he had good luck last year. He'll be looking to stop the home run parade that the Orioles unleashed on his rotation-mate Colby Lewis in game 1. The O's continue to have problems scoring when they don't hit home runs, so if Derek can stop the long ball, he's halfway there.

I have no idea who is even playing in the nightcap, because the twi-night doubleheader has things smashed together so close that nobody's even had time to post lineups. Most likely some players will be swapped around, considering Hunter is a righty and Chen was a lefty. Plus, no way Matt Wieters catches two games. Maybe if we're lucky, he'll DH!

Nobody (including me) gives them much chance to split this series by winning the second game today, but stranger things have happened. We've seen a lot of them so far this year, and even earlier today.

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If it's true that the Orioles team is exhausted from the weekend's marathon series against Boston, then a twi-night doubleheader in the midst of a 20-day stretch of games with no scheduled off day - though of course they got one last night thanks to the rain - is probably not what they want in order to recuperate. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you might find you get what you need.

What the Orioles need this afternoon is a strong outing from Wei-Yin Chen, who will be appearing for the first time in his career against the Texas lineup. The O's pitching has thus far been shellacked in this series. Chen has tended towards being a fly ball pitcher in his brief time in MLB. Will that be a bad combination against the home run-hitting juggernaut that is Josh Hamilton? Well, Chen has this in his favor: the lefty-lefty matchup. Against righties, Hamilton turns 19.5% of fly balls into home runs in his career. Against lefties, he only turns 18% of fly balls into home runs. Wait, what? That was my vaunted consolation statistic? He even hits fly balls at roughly the same rate against lefties and righties. F***.

So maybe it'll be up to the Orioles hitters to get something done against Colby Lewis, who's off to a great start to his 2012: 39.1 IP over six starts in which he's managed a 2.97 ERA. If there's one flaw, it's that he's already allowed six home runs. A lineup with Ryan Flaherty leading off is just the sort of thing that will strike fear into the hearts of Orioles fans. Not so much fear for Lewis. Here is a little silver lining for facing Lewis: he's probably been absurdly lucky with stranding men on base, a LOB% of 88.1 that is remarkably higher than his career rate. If you are inclined to believe that the silver lining is an impending lightning strike, you might consider that Lewis has a K/BB rate of 6.20 going up against the O's offense, which has one of the highest strikeout rates and one of the lowest walk rates.

Monday's Oriole-beater, ex-Oriole Brandon Snyder, will see action in the opening game. He's been appearing mostly against left-handed pitchers, and we saw what he can do against them on Monday.

With the recently-demoted (and re-summoned) Tommy Hunter scheduled to start the nightcap, the O's are in desperate need to halt the two-game skid before it stretches out to four games, as it easily could by night's end. Whether they have it in them to put one over on Texas and salvage something out of this series is what we will find out in the next several hours. Our hopeful hearts and our rational minds will probably be sending us conflicting messages in the meantime.

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