Let Me Take You Home Tonight
Tonight the Orioles have their first of two chances to secure a series victory in the most hostile of hostile territory, Fenway Park. Garrett Olson looks to continue his solid-so-far season against the Michelin man Bartolo Colon.
No matter what, the O’s have already secured a winning road trip by going 5-2 through the first seven out of nine. Which is pretty damn amazing when you think about it.
Here’s an interesting nugget: the Birds lead the majors in comeback wins when down two or more runs. On top of that, they’ve already won more one-run games this year (14) than they won all of last year (when they went 13-31).
Don’t forget to cast your vote in the first installment of the sports media approval ratings. I’m very happy with how that idea has gone over, so look for it to show up every Monday (or thereabouts) for the foreseeable future.
ps — bonus points to anyone who catches the headline reference.
I posted this on Roch’s blog, that Adam Stern was released last night from the Tides. Can anyone actually verify that it happened? I read it on a messageboard.
Anyway, the move makes sense, since Reimold is going to be promoted to take over in right field. The next move would be to promote Tripp into AA to take over Reimold’s slot, but Tripp is struggling. Maybe Nowicki goes headfirst into AA instead and skips Tripp?
I nearly said eddie money which would have turned my cheeks red
Bostons self titled debut album is absolutely killer and was one of the best selling for a long time. Scholtz is a genius and Delp was pure talent
RIP Brad
Your band sucked in concert, but your album production was A+.
I saw where my personal demon of vengeance, Jon Heyman, set out today to make a No-Star team to mark the coming mid-season moment (this isn’t too rare, most writers do something like this all the time). Seems like an opportunity to grab an Oriole or two, right? Bynum or Trachsel or Jamie Walker perhaps?
But wait, says Heyman, I’ve discovered the most underachieving No-Star playing for the birds, who is weighing down the team in a way Steve Trachsel can’t even fathom. Why, it’s Adam Jones! Adam Jones is by far the third to first worst outfielder in the AL, along with Curtis Granderson and Gary Matthews, Jr.. In fact, Adam Jones is easily one of the biggest busts in all of baseball!
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME JON HEYMAN? Are you telling me that, in the AL, the only outfielder who is a bigger bust than AJ is Curtis Granderson (seeing as Sarge Jr is doing slightly better than AJ)? Seriously? Shannon Stewart, Wladimir Balentien, Joey Gathright, Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez, Jacque Jones, Nick Swisher, etc. etc. are all beating the pants off Adam Jones?
I hate Jon Heyman in ways Kevin Millar can’t even imagine.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg6oSkZCCTs
2. Heyman is a joke and should not be dignified by being mentioned on this website at all.
3. Gibbons. Pleading for a minor league job. Pleading to work for FREE, giving all of his minor league salary to charity. Jay, man… isn’t it a little hypocritical to reject going to the O’s minor leagues, assuming that’s what happened? Instead, the O’s called your bluff and released you. I doubt any of us would really be opposed to having Gibbons in the minors since we have to pay him anyway, and since there’s always a chance he remembers how to play. But now he’s forced to be a sad piece of shit begging for a job when he could have had one.
I know Heymans a joke, but while he’s making a living off such terrible sports commentary (it matches up really well with ESPN and Yahoo who routinely don’t know who players are that don’t play for Boston or New York – like this morning’s picture of Nick Markakis as Brian Roberts from teh Mitchell Report….Just terrible) I will continue to call him out until he throws down, at which point I will defeat him and force him to go hang himself (or something less gruesome but such that I will never listen to his inane banter ever again)
O’s signed LHP Randy Keisler to AAA today. He was released by the Cubs after posting a pretty good ERA. Hmm.. a little Brian Burres insurance?
Sweet, Olson gave up 5 runs (and counting) in the 1st inning.
/clap
/clap
/clap
daaaaaaammmnn neal, no love for the ravens’ first-ever hall of famer announcing his retirement?
just thought i’d mention it.
two hall of famers with their first two picks ever.
no one will ever top that.
I was actually planning on putting up an Ogden post tomorrow, once the press conference actually goes down. He deserves and will get his due here for sure.
This is 100% off-topic, but with the O’s down 6-1 in the sixth I figure it’s time for a break:
click here if you’re (a) not easily offended and (b) could use a good laugh
What Sucks is one of my favorite humor sites and when it’s on, it’s crazy on. This post literally had me laughing out loud.
wait is it just the frank or the beans also? would suck to go through life when every pat on the back was like a punch in the balls. very confusing.
Orioles…Magic?
oh well, they at least made Papelbon pitch tonight.
Not a terrible loss, really. Olson’s rough first inning just buried the Magic, but they still played well on the whole and — characteristically — battled hard. And, yeah, getting Papelbon into the game was a small victory.
Nice pinch hit single from Oscar Salazar. 1-1 baby!
Two great defensive plays from Roberts in an 0-5 effort.
Nice catch and good RBI from Jones.
Home run number 10 for Luke.
Cormier continues to be solid.
It wasn’t an embarrassing loss at least. Olson needs to figure it out, though.
It’s the kid’s first start in Fenway on HD. First big start in a major market. He was nervous, the game could have been far worse. While I wouldn’t call it excusable, it was at least explainable.
Tomorrow, Guts on the hill, we got a shot to take the series.
Olson tonight reminded me a lot of Olson’s first start in Yankee Stadium and Olson last year – he looked uncomfortable and – yes – kind of really nervous. So he’s not exactly a big game pitcher, BUT it is worth noting that he bounced back in his second start against the Yankees (though that was at OPACY) and was just lights out. So expect him to bounce back again against Houston.
Off topic, I saw the movie Le Mans tonight (1971 Steve McQueen) about the 24 Hour Le Mans race featuring Ferrari vs. Porsche. I’m no racing fan, but the movie was seriously very compelling and maybe one of the very best sports movies I’ve seen in a long time. Very little dialog in it, there was maybe a dozen lines all together outside of background chatter and the movie focus mostly on the sport at hand. Fantastic and I hadn’t even heard of it until two days ago. It also featured this great line, delivered in style by McQueen, explaining why racing is important to risk your life for it:
“A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well.When you’re racing, it… it’s life. Anything that happens before or after… is just waiting.”
You put that line in the context of and you have exactly how I feel most of the time (about baseball, natch).
And to Olson’s credit, he did settle down for the next 4 or so innings and put up zeros, which is all you can do after letting up a 5 spot in the 1st.
I think we can win Guthrie/Lester.
Good News:
The Orioles signed LJ Hoes.
4-4 split with the sox thus far – that has to be a PLUS seeing that it was 12-6 Boston last year, although I suppose that potential still exists
We should be able to take Guthrie v. Lester tonight for sure.
Never good to start poorly against the sox – they are 8-2 this year in the ten games they’ve scored more than one first inning run. (although one loss was against the O’s)
Lester has control issues. Let’s hope for some plate discipline and long AB’s so we can crack open that bullpen around the 5th or 6th.
saw this on rotoauthority.
Brian Burres (-2.04) and DCabs (-1.20) are among the 15 most improved BB/9 rates this year and old friend Erik Bedard (+1.44) is in the other group of recessions from last year
File under fantasy geekdom or under Notches in AndyMac’s Belt. however you choose.
Reading the Dugout archives, found this Oriole related gem from Spring Training 07:
http://dugout.progressiveboink.com/archive/b68.html
Yesterday I watched the MASN pregame show for the first time. Boy was it ever terrible. I don’t think I’ll be attempting that Dempsey/Hunter “thing” ever again. Yesterday, Rick Dempsey’s keys to the game were (translating from retardese):
1) Aubrey Huff needs to have a better game than ManRam
2) The Orioles need to win the game
3) Bartolo Colon needs to have a bad game
Good work, fellas. I especially like that you can look back on the game now and say “Well, we didn’t do 2 or 3 that’s why we lost.”
Anyway, how about some real keys to the game for tonight?
1) Avoid Ellsbury getting on base
2) Don’t let Lester get into a groove, because as a lefty he’s prone to bad times at Fenway, but recently has been stellar there
3) Guthrie’s been great against the Hats, so assuming this won’t be a low scoring affair, we need perhaps one big inning, which requires Bynum and Ramon to at least try to produce.
I know those were obvious, but I didn’t want to step in on “Win the game” as a key to winning the game.
Interesting stat of the night, based on Thorne commenting about the work Ellsbury puts a pitcher through.
The Orioles have 4 players in the top 40 in the AL of pitches/PA (in ascending order: Mora, Roberts, Millar, and…wait for it….Luke Scott at 17th!). The Sox have Youkilis, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Drew (at 9th). Elssbury is down at 61 underneath AJ, the Stick, Huff, Pedroia, and Lugo.
The Orioles see 3.80 pitches per plate appearance (7th in the AL). The Hats see 3.85 (4th).