Oh man, the start of this game was bad. Brian Matusz gave up a single, a double, and a home run in the first. Things looked pretty grim. Then the O's fought back in the bottom half as Pie singled and Riemold doubled to put runners at first and third. After Roberts struck out Markakis had a sac fly to bring in the first Oriole run of the game.

Brian Matusz would settle down and pitch into the 7th for the second time in a row, this is a good sign for all Oriole fans as he walked just one, struck out four, and gave up six hits, half of which came in the first inning. He ran into trouble in the 3rd, giving up three more hits and a run. After that he would face 13 batters without giving up a hit and allowing just one baserunner in that span. In the fitfh, Matt Wieters erased the lone baserunner for the Rangers, during that time, by throwing out Elvis Andrus trying to steal second base. It is also important to note that it seems as though Nick should have had the ball that fell for a triple and resulted in the last run Matusz would give up back in the third inning.

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Melvin Mora was the hitting hero of this game, first he had a solo shot in the second. Then he had a two out, bases loaded, rbi single in the third. That was followed by a second rbi single in the 5th. He finished the day, 3-4 with 3 runs batted in and a run scored. Melvin rounded out his day with some nice defensive play.

The rest of the scoring happened when Nolan Riemold went yard in the 3rd, with a solo shot.

Danys Baez pitched a perfect 8th and the act was followed by Jim Johnson who went three up three down, with no drama, in the 9th. JJ recorded his 8th save. For those of you keeping track Danys now has 10 holds.

Hope y'all enjoyed this "nationally" televised game in "HD." Good night and good luck.

P.S. Those were some sharp threads today.

I'm getting a little sick of Jason Berken to be quite honest. In just 5 innings he put on 10 base runners, giving up a three run shot in the fourth, and a sac fly after a throwing error by Matt Wieters, although it looked like Cesar Izturis could have handled the throw. Berken played with fire all night, putting runners at first and third in the first, loading the bases in the second, and giving up 4 in the fourth. Hendo would later give up 1 in the 8th and Cla followed giving up one in the 9th. Gotta give a quick shout out to Brian Bass for pitching a couple of scoreless inning. I'm just glad that this series is over, Guthrie and Berken in the same series. David Hernandez has actually emerged as our number two starter behind Bergesen.

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 A dormant offense sprinkled one single in the first four inning before finally "busting out" in the 6th inning. Aubrey Huff left the yard for the 13th time this year, with nobody out and Nicky Boy on first. With one out Luke Scott doubled, then Matt lined a shot into center that Rajai Davis miss played, coming up on the ball, it then hopped past him for a run scoring triple. Then, surprise, Wigginton flies out and Cizzy goes down swinging. Most likely, the most important play of the game came in the bottom of the 7th. With Roberts at second and Markakis at first the O's tried to pull off a double steal. Now Roberts would have been safe easily, but Kakes was gunned down by a mile, leaving a runner at third and two outs. Lightning never strikes in the same place twice and Huff went down looking, putting the kiss of death on this game.

Quite honestly I fail to see where Jason Berken fits into this teams future with continual outings like this. I hate to be a pessimist, but the A's have one of the worst offenses in baseball, and he just looked bad out there. He did two things well in this game: he didn't walk anyone and he coxed the A's into  FOUR double plays today. To counter that of the 86 pitches he threw, he only threw 50 strikes, that's not good at all.

Just another day in Birdland, I hear we could be challenging the Royals for that second pick soon. WE'RE NUMBER TWO!

Jeremy "Ace" Guthrie, my man, was on the mound for the start of this one. Having an easy first getting for infield ground balls and not laboring to hard to get out of the inning.He still threw 19 pitches but it was a good inning.He struggled in the second putting runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. He then gave up a single to Ellis Then a silly little pop up brought in a second run, putting the A's up by 2. They really didn't hit too many balls that hard in that inning. Guthrie got through the third with 69 pitches, way too many. Guts made it through the fourth easy but still threw to many pitches. In the 5th a lead off "error" was followed by an out, then two singles to bring in one more. Then after loading the bases with 2 down, Mark Ellis singled to bring in two more. Hendo finished the inning after a very poor showing from Guts. 4.2 ip 11 hits, and all to one of the worst hitting teams. He did not exactly improve his case to be part of this rotation next year.HOWEVER, The A's got quite lucky with some of their hits and didn't hit a single homerun.

While the first was nothing special for the offense, it is important to note that both Jones and Markakis swung at the first pitch with a runner on a first. The second started with a leadoff walk, Wiggy took second on the wild pitch, then after a wee base running error, that didn't make much difference put Scott at second. That was followed by a lame strikeout from Melvin Mora and a groundout. Cesar Izturis lead off with a plunker single. Brian Roberts followed with a beautiful bunt, absolutely wonderful, putting runners at first and second. Nolan Riemold had a sac fly and the good baserunning of the O's moved runners to second and third. But Jones struck out on three pitches and Markakis grounded out on the first pitch, leaving two in scoring position.

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Good to note that Nick Markakis has reached base in 31 straight games (thanks O'sfan21) now after a double in the 6th, with one out. That was followed by a ground out, and a Luke Scott.

MelMo had a leadoff single in the 7th, Then Matt Wieters brought a double, and a storm. After that the Orioles made three outs.

Cla Meredith struggled in the 9th giving up 4 more runs.

In the bottom of the inning, LUKE SCOTT, drilled one to left center, the one good thing of this game. His first long ball in a month.

This game was the combination of everything bad about the Orioles all boiled down into one game, there is really no other way of saying it. No hitting, no pitching, no base running, no nothing.

For the most part the starting rotation is set, the lineup is about 85% complete, but one major problem is, once agian, going to be the bullpen. We will start the year, for the first time, without George Sherrill. That pits Jim Johnson at closer obviously but leaves the 8th inning open.

Now lets look at who else wont be with the team in '010. The contract of Danys Baez runs out after this year, and following a 6.44 ERA year, with a whole year out, and another year with an ERA over four its doubtful the O's will resign him again after Flanagan et al blew 19 million dollars on him. 

Koji Uehara will be back and after a year filled with injury and just 66 innings pitched. Last week MASN reported that this year if rehab goes well he will end up in the bullpen. A spot that we will most likely see him in next year. The only question is will he be long relief, or more of a 6th, 7th inning guy. I would imagine that we would see him as a guy who can come in a pitch 2 or 3 really good innings. Marky Mark Hendrickson will most likely not return, at 35 he holds a 5 career ERA and has been solid out of the pen, put in his last 10 outings his ERA has gone up 40 points.

Chris Ray has had injury problems abound lately but i really believe that in these final two months he will prove to be valuable in next years bullpen equation. They dont have an option on him this year but I can see if he does well then the O's could sign him to another one year deal with an option. He has pitched 5 scoreless innings since coming off the DL. I think next year he could find himself as a 7th inning match up guy who comes in to face a right handed hitter. I really like what I've seen and I think we will see more of Chris Ray. 

That brings us to Cla Meredith who i see as an 8th inning guy. He has a unique look for hitters and since being acquired he has allowed 2 runs in 8 innings. The 26 year old has a career 3.45 ERA and for sure fits into future bullpen plans for Baltimore. Expect to see Jim Johnson signed to a two or three year deal in the off season, and unless they sign someone else, he should start the year in the closer role. 

I don't really see the return of Matt Albers in the future, as he has gone 2-4 with a 4.89 ERA padding his 5 career ERA. Unless the O's really need a long relief guy I wouldn't bring Albers back. In 49 innings last year his ERA was over a point bigger, but in double the innings in '07 he had a nearly 6 era. They may bring him back, but I see him as a short leash guy. Dennis Sarfate is in rehab and will be re-evaluated soon. He struggled in just 12 innings this year and has yet to really prove himself. The 29 year olds contract is up this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see him singed to a minor league deal.

The 27 year old Brian Bass holds a 4.39 ERA and will probably return to the long relief role although in his career his ERA has never been below 4.70. I don't think Alberto Castillo will make an appearance next year. Jason Berken is an interesting case as he doesn't really fit into the rotation,so they may pick him over Bass. David Hernandez as well might see himself in the bullpen next year.

I would love to see Kam Mickolio in the pen next year, I think that he has proven himself in the Majors and there should be room for him to be a middle innings guy. The one thing this pen lacks is a shut down lefty. From within the organization, there is Wilfredo Perez. He is 24 years old, he is a good strikeout guy and has pitched well in the minors leading to a 2.37 ERA and about a K per IP in AA. Then there is Tony Butler, just 21, picked up from the Berdard deal. He has a 3.38 ERA in the rookie league, so we wont see him next year. But keep an eye out for him.

Other lefties include Waters and Patton, don't expect to see Waters, maybe Patton could work in the bullpen but I highly doubt it. That leaves Andy with the need to go out and get a lefty after Walker failed us this year.

Other Players to note: Jim Hoey Former minor league pitcher of the year. He struggled in the Majors he underwent surgery in '08, started this year in AA and has a 3.72 ERA. Jim Miller was a AAA all-star this year. Bob McCrory, 27, gave up 5 runs in 5 IP this year in the majors, probably wont see him again.

EDIT: Linking my sources: www.baseballcube.com, www.espn.com

and I think I just broke the "One fanpost per day rule"

We still "love" you Brian. Brian Matusz struggled in the 2nd and 3rd innings of this game, which proved to be a very short start for the young lefty. He pitched well in the first, getting a strike him out throw him out double play. But a couple of walks and the long ball proved to be a real killer for him, as nearly every Blue Jay run came on the HR.

Brian Bass came in for a good 3.1 innings, in some much needed relief. He handed the ball to Matt Albers who was god awful, I mean really bad. He faced five batters, got one out, and gave up two runs. Enter CHRIS RAY! Chris Ray got out of the inning with a weakly hit ball back to the mound and then pitched a scoreless 8th. Maybe, just maybe, Chris Ray is back.

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Double plays really hurt the O's early in this game, hitting into two in the first two innings. Still Luke Scott went out of character for one AB with an rbi single, and in the 3rd, Cesar Izturis doubled to capitalize on an error and a stolen base by Robert Andino. After that though with Jones and Markakis up they couldn't get anything more done agianst Halladay. Andino singled in the 5th but was erased by a third O's double play courtesy of Felix Pie. In the 6th after back to back singles with one out, Aubrey Huff did his damnedest to ground into a fourth double play. After the fielder's choice, Melvin Mora brought in a two out RBI, to finish the Orioles' scoring for the day.

This game was destined to be bad from the 3rd, as you cant expect to much offense against Halladay. It's nice to see we didnt get any outfielders hurt on that stupid carpet this time. It's nice to leave Canada and hopefully head back to Birdland. Cito STILL sucks!

Missed opportunities. Think about that for a second. Runner at second, two outs, Andino grounds out in the 3rd. With a runner at second and one out, they get a walk, but fail to get a hit. A one out bunt single is followed by two straight outs. Bases loaded 1 out after a lead of hit batter, followed by a pop out and a fly out. First and second with 1 out and still no one can get a hit. Top of ten, Nick Markakis leads of with a double, followed by Huff striking out and two ground outs. The result was that in the bottom of the tenth Danys Baez gave up another game winning hit, this time a double to Adam Lind. Looks like we are back to the same old Danys.

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If there is one really good thing that you can take from this game, is the outing by Chris Tillman. This was truly a bright spot as Tillman went into the 7th inning retiring two, and struck out 4 while giving up 3 walks and 4 hits. That was followed by another good outing for Cla Merideth. Since at this point in the season, we don't look at wins necessarily, we just try to look at how the player of the future are panning out, this was a good game. The evolution of Chris Tillman certainly progressed today seeing him go deeper into the game. 

All that said the hitting front was not so positive with Kakes going 2 for 5 with a double, Nolan Riemold went 1 for 4 with an RBI, and thats about it. Its also important to note that Brian Roberts left the game with a bruised shin (I think our Shins are cursed). He fouled a ball of his leg and there is so far no more news about the injury. This game was very Anti-Birdland. I might also add that I feel as though Danys Baez should no longer be used in important situations and Mr. Claw should fill the role that Danys once had at the start of the year.

The New Jason Berken, its something to see, really its quite o.k. he pitched 6 pretty good innings, threw a couple of mistakes early giving up back to back home runs. A foreboding start for sure, but he settled down and really only had to work out of trouble once. That one time Nolan Reimold miss judged a fairly well hit line drive pitting runners at 2nd and 3rd, but Berken worked out of that jam nicely. So maybe we should all start saying nice things about JB cuse he appears to be turning it around.

Once agian the Orioles were no-hit into the middle innings, but a big 6th had the O's put up a big old 4 spot by loading the bases for Nick Markakis. Nicky rocketed a "double" ruled as an error. That was followed by a Huff single and a Riemold fielders choice, give Nolan some credit for running that out.  That knocked out Here's Lucy after 6.

After a 3 up 3 down for Berken, Matt Albers put down 3 in a row in the 7th. The 8th saw the O's pick up a few runs for good measure with Riemold and Wiggington picking up big RBI singles and Matt Wieters coming through with a two out double.  It is important to note that well MW had two hits his other out was also hard hit, good news.  Also the Orioles finally got hits with 2 outs when they needed them in this inning, now THAT's Birdland.

Phat Albers stuck around for the rear portion of the 8th giving up a lead off single. And I might as well just say that Matt Albers works veeeeery sloooowly, just sayin'. After putting runners at 1st and 2nd with one out, they went to Chris Ray. Ray quickly gave up a hit, but Nicky made a great play to grab an out, that play brought in one more run, making it a two run game leading into the 9th. Now we enter the 9th with Jim Johnson going in for his first outing as the new closer and he pretty much shut them down for a very Birdland win.

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David Hernandez was a let down. Going just three innings and giving up 5 runs putting a kiss of death on this game early. The O's bullpen did a solid job pitching 5 innings giving up 2 runs. It looks like Brian Bass might be running out of magic dust, giving up 7 earned runs in 10.2 innings. Sure it's bad to judge with that sample size but I have the feeling Brian Bass is coming back down to Earth. For DH his last two starts have been struggles, going just 4 ip in his last outing. You figure this means that at some point down the road he will turn into a bullpen pitcher, he has good stuff to be a late inning guy, but he needs more time before we jump to conclusions. In both of his starts after facing teams a second time he has failed to make it past the fourth inning. It's a sign that teams are adjusting to him, now we need to see how he can adjust to them.

On the hitting front, Luke Scott continues to look awful at the plate, Wiggy is making a mockery of Melvin Mora, and day game lineups are bad news for Baltimore. They went just 3-13 with RISP, meaning they had a shot at winning this game in the middle innnings. They didnt get a hit until the 5th inning and Luke stranded three baserunners, two of whom were in scoring position, he is really painful to watch. Huff brought in a run but also really killed a rally GIDP with runners at first and second and no body out. Felix Pie had an RBI (that rhymes) but only saw 7 pitches in 4 ab's, not quality. Robert Andino continues to struggle at the plate, so not having Adam Jones and Cesar Izturis in the lineup really hurts on a day like this.

But the fact is, is that if you dont get good starting pitching you dont win baseball games. FACT. Looking forward to the present, I'm sure DH will get back on the right track or maybe not.

Lets discuss the lineup first: Nolan Riemold is not sick, he just isn't starting, I'm sure Dave has some wonderful logic behind that method. It was for his own good, to preserve his batting average. He came into the game anyway however after Felix Pie bounced a ball off his Adam's apple, probably a result of everyone posting pictures of apples in game threads. That being said, you all got your wish, Jones 3rd, Nick Crabby Kakes 2nd, Luke 4th, Melvin somewhere out of sight, but still in the lineup. For a little icing on the cake we got Greg Zaun, however this is bad cake, we now have food poisining. Now its not all the chefs fault. He was out of Cesar Izturis, he needed to give his Matt Wieters a break and ..well the rest is his fault. The first inning was nothing to write home about, the O's were still in the game. From there Jason Berken got progressively worse going just 3 and a thirds and giving up 9 runs, to the worst offensive ever, other then the mariners and ourselves. David Hernandez came in a did a nice job in front of some family and fans, good for him, hopefully he can get himself back into the rotation. Enjoy your Kudos bar David. Okay, so the starting pitching was a suckfest, so you might ask about the hitting, right. Not all bad news here, Nick Nack had a couple of hits, looking like he might break out. Ofiicer Jonsey had a double and Melmo had ONE hit. But wait, the seventh inning a sighting of offensive, making this game slightly watchable. Scott singles, Huff singles, Melvin Mora neeeearly grounds into a double play, how predictible was that. That is followed by Greg Zaun who get an RBI in the most Greg Zuan-ish way. Nearly hitting into a double play but it goes of the pitchers glove and he get the "single." Then Nolan Reimold made Dave Trembley look like a total fool by jacking a three run shot which the moronic A's announcer claimed would be "playable" what a fool. 

Anyway the rally ended there. Baez put in some work, did a solid job. 8th inning Nick K's (its ok, you still did good Nick) Jonsey singles, Luke singles and oh my god is this what baseball fans refer to as a lineup? Things were looking pretty nice, and then Aubrey Huff tried to hit. Okay to be fair Holliday made a nice play on his ball. So bases loaded for Greg Zaun, can you guess what he did? Thats right he struck out.  Robert Andino might be a thug but, do we have to put up with him hitting for 15 days? Brian Roberts continues to struggle, thats bad. The End, Bad start for Berken, hitting picked it up, thats pretty much it. Note to A's fans, you aren't good, you're just playing the Orioles. The only other good thing was that the new Jay-Z song came out today.