Orioles 7 Rangers 5 (10 Innings)

Another day, another series win, another George Sherrill near-heart attack for the Orioles.

The O's improved to 6-2 and assured themselves of a third straight series win with tonight's 7-5 victory over the Texas Rangers in a roller coaster ride of a game. It looked early on like the Rangers were going to play Home Run Derby with O's starter Alfredo Simon, as Texas got 3 solo homers in 2 innings by Michael Young, Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis. But Simon had to leave after an inning and 1/3 due to an apparent elbow injury and the O's bullpen slowed the Rangers down, led by sterling work from Dennis Sarfate, as well as contributions by Chris Ray, Jamie Walker and Jim Johnson. The O's offense chipped away at Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy with homers by Luke Scott and Aubrey Huff and an RBI single by Adam Jones. The bullpens then took over until the 10th when the O's exploded off of 400-year-old Rangers reliever Eddie Guardado. Jones hit a mammoth 2-run shot into the O's bullpen and Scott followed 3 batters later with a 2-run double that scored Nick Markakis and Ty Wigginton. That gave the O's a seemingly secure 7-3 lead into the bottom of the 10th.

Then, Mr. Excitement entered the picture. George Sherrill came in and did what George Sherrill does. What is that you ask? Well, he didn't get the nickname "Mr. Excitement" by going out and going 1-2-3 every time. Sherrill gave up 4 straight singles to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Omar Vizquel (he's still in the league?), Ian Kinsler and Young to turn it into a 7-4 game with the bases loaded and nobody out. After forcing an RBI groundout from Josh Hamilton to make it 7-5, Sherrill gave up two towering flyballs to Hank Blalock and Cruz, both of which went to the warning track. But they stayed in the yard and Mr. Excitement escaped once again. Manager Dave Trembley might not live much longer or may take up smoking as long as Sherrill is the closer. With Sherrill the name that always comes up is Don Stanhouse, the O's closer in the late 70s who earned the nickname "Full Pack" because he would make Earl Weaver so nervous by getting into jams that Earl would smoke a full pack of cigarettes while Stanhouse was on the mound. I'm not even the O's manager and Sherrill makes me want to smoke a full pack of cigs.

Two Random Notes:
- The Oriole catchers finally threw out someone trying to steal. Opponents were a perfect 11 for 11 stealing bases against Gregg Zaun and Chad Moeller but Zaun threw out 2 Rangers tonight to end that little streak.

- The O's brass bragged all off-season about the improved defense and it has been on display in Texas. First, there was Markakis' great catch from last night and then tonight, Jones and Brian Roberts executed a perfect relay play to nail Young at the plate and get a key out when the game was still tied 3-3.

So that's all for tonight. The O's can once again try to get a sweep tomorrow night. If nothing else, they can hopefully avoid giving up 11 runs, which they've done the last two times they've tried to get a sweep. Of course, that's an iffy proposition with Mark Hendrickson on the mound tomorrow against ex-Oriole Kris Benson. But for now, if you like an Orioles win, give me a Hoo-rah!

Orioles 5 Rays 4

A little late getting this up (not that anybody gives a crap) but the Baltimore Orioles are now 3-1 thanks to a 5-4 victory last night over the defending AL champion Tampa Bay Rays (still weird to say that). The O's can guarantee a second series win tonight against what figures to be one of the top teams in the division. We've seen the O's get off to good starts before, only to crap the bed come August and September. But so far there is something a bit more encouraging about this team. Right now, the O's top 3 hitters (Brian Roberts, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis) look as solid as any in baseball. Those three guys hit the crap out of the ball again last night, collecting five hits and scoring 4 of the 5 Oriole runs. Melvin Mora, who hit so well last year with runners in scoring position, knocked in 3 RBIs, hopefully picking up where he left off last year.

Now, if you asked me who my two least favorite Orioles were at the beginning of this season I would have told you without hesitation: Mark Hendrickson and Danys Baez. I nearly strained my voice screaming "NOOOOO!!" when the O's signed Hendrickson, a 6'9 lefty who couldn't break a Cheez-It with his fastball. I saw Hendrickson plenty in his days with the Dodgers and wasn't very impressed. Baez, much like Hendrickson, was also with the Dodgers, stunk there, got signed by the Orioles and stunk in 2007 before missing all of last year with arm injuries.

With that said, of course those two guys would look very sharp last night. Hendrickson allowed plenty of baserunners in his 5 1/3 innings pitched (6 hits and two walks) but he pitched himself out of it and only gave up one run, a homer to Evan Longoria. Baez was even more impressive and looks reborn if his first two appearances this year are any indication. He struck out four Rays over his 1 2/3 innings of no-hit ball. He looks like the guy who saved 40 games for the Rays a couple of years ago.

And yet, the O's bullpen made it interesting again. This time, it was the guys who were good last year, Jim Johnson and George Sherrill providing the heart palpitations. Johnson especially looked shaky, giving up a two-run homer to Longoria to turn a 5-1 game into a 5-3 nailbiter. Of course, shaky is Sherrill's business and Flat Breezy was up to his usual tricks, striking out all three Rays he faced but also giving up a homer to Dioneer Navarro. Business as usual, right Georgie?

Other than the bullpen, the only other worry sign for the O's is the inability to stop other teams' running game. The Yankees stole four bases in three games when they were here and Tampa Bay added another one last night. A lot of these steals, the catchers haven't had a chance. The pitchers have to do a much better job of holding guys on.

Small quibbles when you're winning though, and the Orioles are winning out of the gate. Let's see if they can get another one tonight with Jeremy Guthrie on the hill against Jeff Niemann (who?). Until then, if you like an Orioles win, give me a Jai Ho!

Orioles 10 Yankees 5- Magic Number: 161

Great way to start a season eh? Beating the dreaded, hated Yankees. Pounding $160 million fat ass C.C. Sabathia into submission (seriously, did you see the size of Sabathia out there? Dude looked like a sperm whale. As my old man would say, "He don't look like he's skipped too many meals.") It was one of the most satisfying opening day wins I can remember in quite some time. Yes, it was only one game, and the pitching was as suspect as O's fans expected. But who gives a crap? For one day, we whacked Sabathia and the Yanks pitchers around the ballpark.

The top 3 in the batting order, Nick "The Greek" Markakis, Brian Roberts and Adam Jones, looked lethal at the plate. The Yankees pitchers couldn't get them out all day. Cesar Izturis did more at the plate and in the field in one game than last year's shit sandwich of Freddy Bynum, Alex Cintron and Luis Hernandez did all season, even bringing a small measure of cosmic revenge for Jeffery Fuckin' Maier in 1996 with his home run.

But the real point of this little rant is to tell all the O's fans that were in attendance today: Bravo! You not only took back Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a place that for far too long had become the personal domain of the Sal's, Anthony's and Vinnie's making their way down from New York but you gave Mark Teixeira the booing of a lifetime. And it couldn't have happened to a bigger douchebag than Teixeira.

"Double talkin' jive
Get the money motherfucker
Cuz I got no more patience"
- Axl Rose

Here's the thing, Yankee fans and outsiders won't completely understand the venom we have towards Tex. They all think it was because he signed with the Yankees and not the Orioles. Or because he took the Yanks' $180 million over the O's $150 million. But really, the reason we gave him the Elway treatment and booed his ass all the way back to the Bronx wasn't because of either of those things. Oh sure, they were a part of it, but the real reason is because Tex, a Severna Park native, could have come back to Baltimore and been the hero of the day. He could have been the beacon of the O's return from the baseball graveyard. Some O's fans were looking forward to his free agent year for 3 seasons. A good portion of the fan base was ready to build him a statue to go with Johnny U's. The thought of a local boy coming home and helping to resurrect the Orioles to their place as a top organization was just too good to be true. He got everybody's hopes up by indicating through the press that coming back to play in Baltimore (or in D.C.) would be a real thrill for him. We salivated at the thought of this guy hitting his 35 homers and 100 RBIs in orange and black.

So when he revealed himself to be just another baseball mercenary, it felt like a real double-cross. But even then, we could live with Tex signing with the Yankees. We could live with the money. But when he gave that press conference for the New York media where he talked about how it was his dream to play for the Yankees, how Don Mattingly was his favorite player and how he would go to games at Camden Yards wearing a Yankees cap, well, that was the last straw. Tex wouldn't just get a token booing like Mike Mussina did. No no, he would get an epic kind of booing. A John Elway/Robert Irsay-style booing. The kind of vitorol that most people don't think Baltimore fans have but oh, we do.

My only worry going into today was that the Yankee fans would drown out the boos. But O's fans, you guys came up clutch.

We booed Tex so bad, he revealed himself as utterly and completely full of crap. "In a perfect world, I'd be an Oriole?" Uh, Tex, Judge Hangar has found you guilty of being a lowlife, front-running, chickenshit motherfucker. I got news for ya big man, that $180 mil bought you 8 more years of booings like this. We O's fans can take comfort in the fact that for 10 games a season for the next 8 YEARS, we can come to the Yard and boo Tex out of the ballpark. That we can look forward to a whole series of damage control statements like this one. You could have been a hero Tex but now, we O's fans hope when you go for crab cakes, the chef, the hostess, the patrons and the waiter boo your ass as well. Like Johnny Utah told Roach at the end of "Point Break," "I hope it was worth it."

So, it's 1-0 for the O's with a day off tomorrow before playing opening night against the Yanks on Wednesday. Until next time, if ya like an Orioles win, give me a HELL YEAH!!

A few links...

There won't be much activity here at Hangar 39 today. Besides a busy day of work (writing stories for my day job) I'll be on the road today, travelling back up to the Easton Town Limits to make my big Easton public access TV debut on Gary "The Woo" Wooters and Justin Williams' sports show. I'll be talking Caps and other hockey stuff for what it's worth. Thus, since I'll be trekking through the icy terrain of the Mid-Atlantic, there won't be much time for blogging. Not that I'll be missed at this point. So I'll post up a few links first and come back a little later with my thoughts on the Caps trade deadline activity. So let's prepare the ship for metamorphosis. Ready Kafka?

-Baltimore North has added a new member. Jim Leonhard has signed on with Rex Ryan's boys. Maybe Rex figures if Modell was able to move the whole franchise, he can certainly take the players. Sucks losing Big Jim, he was a terrific pickup last year and was absolutely invaluable when Yamon Figurs stunk and Dawan Landry got hurt. Unfortunately, with Landry coming back the Ravens had other fish to fry and there was no guarantee Leonhard would have a starting spot next year.

-Per The Sun again, the Ravens are looking into signing free agent center Matt Birk to replace Jason Brown. Matt Birk. He went to Harvard.


- Nice piece from the Schmucker on Adam Jones and his efforts to try to get more African-Americans interested in baseball.

- Our annual "Watch Out For Hayden Penn!" story. It might be the new "Daniel Cabrera Has Turned The Corner!"

-THE Towson Univerity hoops team will face Drexel in the CAA tournament starting Friday night in Richmond. The Tiggers have lost twice to the Dragons already this year but have won their first-round game the last two years. Doing better than their abysmal 14-27 from the foul line performance the first time they played Drexel (a 60-53 loss) would help.

- From the "Can It Get Worse" files: After two straight humiliating home losses, the Caps get a scare when Alex Ovechkin left practice today gingerly after taking a shot to the foot. Tank says he's OK though. How much you want to bet the shooter was either Jeff Schultz or John Erskine?

-Per Deadspin, this prank from last night's Maryland-Wake Forest hoops game.

-Finally, today's YouTube clip to swing your heavy metal hair to is "Seasons In The Abyss" by Slayer.