Orioles-Royals Open Thread
First thing: Jamie Walker has been sent to the DL, and Adam Loewen is up to take his place — in the bullpen.
Second: if you missed it (AooR mentioned it in the comments), the O’s have a great promotion running this Sunday. Called “We Win, You Win,” the deal is this that if you buy a ticket for Sunday’s game and the Orioles manage to win, you’ll get a free ticket to any non-prime game left in the season. It’s pretty brilliant, actually. Stay tuned on this one because I might have something for you later in the week.
As for tonight, the less-bad-than-I-expected Kansas City Royals are in town for the start of a four game set. Brian Burres is scheduled to start against Zach Greinke.
Nick Markakis owns Greinke — he’s 1-1 with a homer. Not much else to report other than 3-4 should be very doable here.
Mora’s batting 6th tonight, with Huff taking his #3 spot. DT actually sparked the offense pretty well when he first made the decision to put Melvin in the #3 spot, but it wore out about a week ago. Aubrey should have lots of opprotunites to drive in Roberts and Markakis.
Looking around the farm system, it’s really startling that the O’s have absolutely no one that is earning their way into playing first base, second base, short stop, or third base. I mean… wow. It’s a wasteland down there.
HR Ramon! Don’t look now, but the guy’s got 7 HRs and is batting .243 which is respectable after hovering around the Mendoza Line for close to 2 months. Come ooonnnn trade value.
Jamie Walker was apparently caught off guard by the DL move, which I guess is kind of strange. But the way he took it is pretty amazing:
“I don’t make any excuses,” Walker said. “I’m not a happy camper about it, but I don’t make any excuses. It just hurt more and all that. I go out and just compete with what I’ve got. That’s just an excuse for somebody. I’m not that guy.”
As is often the case I’ve got this one on the radio. The crowd reaction to Jones’ triple sounded pretty damn impressive, especially for a Monday night against the Royals.
And Cintron drives him in with a ground rule double. The man can hit – let him start at short stop, damnit. Screw Felipe Lopez.
Jamie is the man. He thought he was getting a cortisone shot at the break, but he needs to just get it now and be ready for the second half. He hasn’t pitched very much yet this season and we’ll need him.
He’s also played a hell of a shortstop tonight.
And Nick drives him in!
Aubrey Huff is an absolute monster right now. It seems like when these guys get a little bit of an opening they just will not stop until the walls are busted down. Sheer will — exactly the thing they lacked most last year.
Huff drives him in!
Aubrey is playing as advertised when we signed him. Absolute extra base machine.
Luuuuke
aw, I jinxed it.
Millar drives him in.
off topic alert…
For anyone who’s interested in my non-sports work, give this link a look-see. I’d love to hear thoughts, if any.
/off topic alert
I’ll put this in a main post eventually, but how does everyone feel about a Loss Column Night At The Yard (LCNATY) on Thursday July 17th? First game after the All Star break, and originally one of my specified dates for an “unofficial promo night” (an idea that kind of faded out).
Nice logo. You don’t do logos for bands do you? Ha..
Uh oh.. it’s Bukvich time.
Nice! One pitch GIDP for Bukvich.
1st Base Coach for KC Royals: Rusty Kuntz.
If your last name even VAGUELY sounds like a human body part, why WHY give your child the burden of an adjectival first name?
OMG
lolololoololol
It better be pronounced Koontz.
The Bukvich era better be short lived.
Yeah Dan, I just heard it like 5 minutes ago and thought it was an attempt at humor since it came from Thorne. “First Base Coach Rusty Kuntz says he’s wearing bloody socks tonight, but Mirabelli just told me it’s totally fake.”
But I checked it out on their own website, Rusty Kuntz in the flesh.
God dammit Bukvich fuck bitch.
Jesus. Bukvich… more like F*kb!ch.
Great minds!
Took him 1 pitch to get two outs, yet he threw 25 pitches in the inning. Jeeeeeesus.
A hit, Melvin. Get one.
Not this AB.
I don’t get what happened… he was on such a tear to start the year.
Hopefully Sarfate gets these outs quickly. We need to get back into a hitting rhythm.
Jesus the Royals are a freaking singles machine.
what the hell, sulfate?!
melllttt
dowwwwnnnn
I miss Matt Albers.
RUSH ESTEBAN YAN
Jim Johnson is going to get ABUSED without Matt Albers. If Sarfate would just come in and get outs somehow. It’s like 1 out of every 3 appearances he’s good. I dunno.
Whatever happened to Rockey Cherry? Is he in Frederick or Bowie?
…and as soon as Cintron is starting to hit 7 field, he grabs his hamstring and has to be helped off the field.
DAMMIT
I gotta stop stepping away from the radio. It seems like every time I do, some kind of crazy bullshit goes down.
At least I got back in time for Cintron to get injured. No big deal because we’ve got so much organizational depth at SS.
*hit & field
Rocky Cherry and Randor Bierd…I wonder if those guys will be available to help this year?
At least Joe Angel still says “Brendan” Fahey.
Oh man… Did Bynum clear waivers?
Oh, Dan: email me if you want about your band. We can definitely talk about it.
Roberts into the DP. I’m not liking this, there’s too much baseball left to play. C’mon Nicky.
JONESY!!!!!! What a play.
BIGGEST DOUBLE EVER
Here’s MelMo’s big chance to be a hero and give ‘Ol FlatBrim some breathing room…which he could probably use.
Or not.
The MLB record for most doubles in a season by a team is 373, shared by the 1997 Red Sox, the 2004 Red Sox, and the 1930 Cardinals.
Heading into tonight, the Orioles had 152. The Rangers, amazingly, had 183. Just thought it was interesting, considering these guys seem to hit a ton of two-baggers.
Sherrill has out #1…
And out #2…
His curve is beautiful tonight!
0-2…