Red Sox 2 Orioles 1

There will be no 4th straight series win for the Orioles as they lost their 4th straight game and 3rd in a row to the Boston Red Sox.

This time around, the O's actually got a very good outing from Koji Uehara but couldn't get anything off Sox starter Jon Lester and when they did have chances, they couldn't deliver the big hit.

Uehara deserved better today as he held the Red Sox at bay over 7 strong innings. The only runs he gave up were a Paul O'Neill/Jorge Posada Memorial Bloop RBI Single (Posada and O'Neill were/are the masters of "excuse me" hits) to Mike Lowell and an RBI single to Dustin Pedroia. For most of the game, the O's couldn't touch Lester, who struck out 9. And when they did get some guys on base, the couldn't get them in, as witnessed by getting two on with none out in the sixth. Robert Andino had singled and Brian Roberts walked, and for the first time all day, Lester looked vunerable. But Felix Pie and Nick Markakis struck out and Aubrey Huff grounded out to end the O's rally. The O's only run came off Takashi Saito and even then, they squandered an opportunity for a big inning. Nick Markakis and Huff hit back-to-back singles but then Ty Wigginton hit into a fielder's choice (scoring Markakis but giving the Sox an out), Luke Scott flied out and Gregg Zaun, pinch-hitting for Ryan Freel, struck out to end the game. All told, the Orioles left 6 more men on base today.

Some Hangar Observations:

- Adam Jones left the game in the first inning after pulling up lame running out a ground ball. The postgame report says it was a sore hamstring. Not good.

- Felix Pie replaced Jones and turned several of the balls hit to him in center field into an advensture. At the plate, Pie came to the O's with a reputation as a big whiffer and so far he hasn't disappointed in the season's first two weeks. He's struck out 6 times in his last 12 at-bats. Somebody on the Orioles coaching staff needs to channel his inner Lou Brown and somehow convince Pie that with his speed he should be hitting the ball on the ground and legging them out. Perhaps make him do 50 pushups for everytime he hits the ball in the air? Pie is a guy with the skill-set to be another Al Bumbry/Omar Moreno type but goes to the plate with the mentality of Rob Deer. He's a slasher who thinks he's a home run hitter.

- It's not good for your offense when the light-hitting Andino is your best hitter.

- Ryan Freel has already begun complaining about playing time. Um, Ryan, when you're 1-for-14 it's hard to complain about PT. Here's a hint: Stop chasing balls up in your eyes like you did today. And when you do get in, get on base and rack up steals. It's the only way you're getting to get at-bats. If you're not doing that you're pretty much useless to this club.

- Chad Moeller did make a nice catch in the stands. Unlike Freel, Moeller at least does something when he gets in there. The shame is, he's likely to be out of a job the minute Matt Wieters shows up.

- Does David Ortiz look like he aged in dog years or what? He looks like the guy that got released by Minnesota back in the day, not the feared Big Papi. Injuries and not having Manny Ramirez around can do that but still, it's odd watching Ortiz struggle to hit pitches he either would have taken or mashed into the bleachers just 3 years ago. He's looked awful in a series where, most of the time, the Sox have been feasting on Orioles pitching.

- Brad Bergeson, who was the O's minor league pitcher of the year last year, will be getting the call on Tuesday against Chicago.

So one more O's loss in the bank. I knew I should have taken a picture of that 6-2 record, it would have lasted longer. One more game in Boston tomorrow at 11 a.m. for Patriots Day up there before coming home. With Mark Hendrickson on the mound, the potential for ugliness is at Defcon 4. But until then, one last time, let's get Otto von Bismarck's thoughts on the game.

"Scheisse"

Red Sox 6 Orioles 4

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party on last night's Orioles game but I was in Ocean City without access to my laptop. I was with a buddy of mine and a bunch of his work colleagues. Fortunately, the place we had dinner at had a TV in the bar, and even better, I had a clear view of it from my seat. Since we were dining at a pricey Italian restaurant, the food took forever so I did get to watch the whole game. I love multi-tasking.

Before I get into the recap, while I'm on the topic of Ocean City, Maryland, allow me to go on a quick tangent about the place we ended up, an enormous bar called Seacrets. Most of you that have been to or lived in the Mid-Atlantic and visited Ocean City have heard of it. Quite frankly, it's lame. La-la-la-lame. But at the same time, it's one of the most ridiculous places on Earth. They have this very restrictive dress code (they wouldn't let one member of our party enter because he had a visable white undershirt) and they put you through a metal detector as you go in. As if the terrorists are going to target some beach bar in Ocean City, Maryland. Guys, I think they have better alternatives out there.

Then there are the people. Oh, the people. 95% of the guys look like they are auditioning for the newest season of "Tool Academy." Lots of bright colored polo shirts, Baby Gap size T-shirts, gelled up hair and Jersey Shore meathead swagger. The girls are all in halter tops and some of them seem to have a competition going to see who can look the most like a prostitute. We saw this one gal in hotpants that rode up all the way to her ass cheeks. It was an outfit that screamed "Slip me a Roofie!!!" As if that were not enough, the place has a bouncing dance floor, a lot of bands who cover "Laid" by James and these TV screens showing girls dancing in shadow, which generally resembles an iPod commercial. It truly is like the poor man's Sodom and Gomorrah with plenty of overpriced drinks and faux tough-guy bouncers to make it a pleasant experience for the whole family.

Ok, with that said, here were some notes I took from Saturday's game.

- Last night made it abundantly clear what the difference is between the Red Sox and the Orioles. When it comes to the lineups, the O's are right there with Boston. But when it comes to pitching, the O's are as far from Beantown as Istanbul is. Adam Eaton got the start and was awful. Again. And when the O's did get to Sox starter Josh Beckett, the Boston bullpen was able to slam the door. Baseball is all about pitching, pitching, pitching and the Boston pitching is just miles ahead of the O's at this stage of the game. They can go to an ex-World Series MVP like Beckett, while we have Eaton, who helped the Phillies win the World Series last year by not pitching for them.

- That said, Brian Bass looked much, much better than in his last relief appearance. Chris Ray, Jamie Walker and Jim Johnson also looked good. That trio can form the basis of a very good relief corps, if only the starters could give them a lead to protect.

- The O's lineup, as good as its been at the beginning of the season, is ridiculously weak in the 7-8-9 holes. Last night's trio in those spots (Gregg Zaun, Felix Pie and Cesar Izturis) went a combined 2 for 12, left 7 men on base and are all hitting under .200.

-Can't say the O's didn't get some chances. They left a whopping 17 runners on base. Aubrey Huff and Ty Wigginton, batting in the 4 & 5 spots respectively, left a combined 6 men on base. You need better than that from guys in prime RBI spots to beat a good team like Boston.

- Can I repeat again how awful Eaton was last night? The numbers tell it all: 4 innings, 9 hits, 2 walks and 6 earned runs. His ERA in two starts is over 11. I hope Eaton decided to rent and not buy in Baltimore. Actually, I hope he didn't rent either. For his sake, I hope he bought a timeshare because his next game of 6 earned runs might be his last.

So that's all for my commentary of last night's game. This afternoon's game just ended so I will be right back with a post on that one. For now, get used to seeing Otto von Bismarck today.


"Schiesse"

Orioles 10 Rangers 9

Ah, Texas. Like John Wayne Gacy's crawlspace, whatever-the-Rangers-Stadium-is-called-these-days is a place where things get buried, in this case, the ERAs and WHIPs of pitchers. The victims this day were Texas' Vincente Padilla and the O's Koji Uehara. Padilla got the hook first, after being blasted for 7 earned runs on 11 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Koji fared a little bit better but was clearly laboring by the 6th inning and his stat line looked just as ugly: 5 innings, 7 hits and 7 earned runs. Danys Baez, who looked sharp the first two games, morphed back into the hittable pitcher we all remembered from 2007. He did inherit a mess from Uehara, bases loaded with none out, but he helped turn a 10-4 rout into a 10-9 nailbiter. However, some solid holds by Jamie Walker and Jim Johnson kept the Rangers at bay. George Sherrill came on, and of course, put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. But Nick Markakis bailed Sherrill out with a brilliant catch of a long flyball by Michael Young and Flat Breezy struck out Marlon Byrd to end the game. Just another day at the office for Sherrill, who Jim Palmer fittingly nicknamed "Mr. Excitement."

But with the bad pitching came hitting. Lots and lots of hitting. Aubrey Huff had the biggest night, going 4 for 5 with 3 RBIs. Markakis and Brian Roberts kept up their hot starts by going a combined 5 for 10 with 3 RBIs and 5 runs scored. But the biggest shot came off the bat of Felix Pie, who hit his first home run as an Oriole and then punctuated it with the fastest home run trot since Pete Rose. Seriously, dude looked like Usain Bolt flying around the bases. And oh by the way, how nice were those new Orioles road unis with "Baltimore" written across the chest...

...Sweet.

So let's just call this one another typical night in Texas. The O's can assure a third straight series win tomorrow night with Alfredo Simon going against Brandon McCarthy. But for now, if you like an O's win, give me a Domo Arigato!

Good Guys Links - Orioles

Sorry for the late start to the blogging day but the day job was so busy today I needed a break from words for a little while. I'm ready for more though now so I'll be bringing the posts fast and furious tonight. For starters, here are some links to the Good Guys - Orioles edition.

- This is a little bit older but O's blogger Roar From 34 remembers the day Ken Griffey Jr. ended Brad Pennington's career with one monstrous home run.

- The O's starting pitching staff this year is, to put it mildly, a mess.

- That being said, Manager Dave Trembley liked what he saw out of Adam Eaton in today's exhibition loss to St. Louis.

- Nice stuff by Jeff Zrebiec on hitting coach Terry Crowley and his work with offseason acquisition Felix Pie.

- Ex-Oriole Sir Sidney Ponson may not find a lot of judges to beat up in Kansas City.

Lazy links...

Here are some links to tide over the few, the proud, the Hangar 39 readership. I'll be back tonight with at least one new long-form post. Time will dictate if there is a second. If you can dig it...SUCKAAAAA!!!!

Lots of stuff from the Baltmo Sun today regarding the O's and Ravens.

-First up, is a story from Jeff Zrebiec on the O's left field situation with newcomers Felix Pie and Ryan Freel and holdover Luke Scott. I think O's manager Dave Trembley will be able to manage all these guys, giving Scott the bulk of the DH work while throwing him the occasional bone in left field. Freel will face left handed pitching and can play anywhere on the field except pitcher and catcher. You know management will want to see what Pie can do out there, so barring injury, he's going to get his chance. As a side note, how many headlines like this can we expect this year given the English pronunciation of Pie's (pronounced Pee-yay) surname?

-Zrebiec and the Schmucker have the story of another new face, pitcher Rich Hill. Hill, much like Pie, is another low-risk, high reward guy the O's got from the Cubs. He won a bunch of games for Chicago in 2007 before losing it last year. If he bounces back, he could give the O's a competent 3rd starter, something they haven't had since the halcyon days of Jimmy Key.

-Another one from the Schmucker about the optimism in O's camp this year.

-Jamison Hensley has the scoop about Ravens center Jason Brown, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent. Brown is looking to be paid like a guard (where he played in 2006 & 2007) while the Ravens want to pay him as a center. Oh boy. Personally, I wonder why Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome decided to use the franchise tag on Terrell Suggs and not Brown. I know he didn't want to risk Sizzle going onto the open market, but if you locked him up first and then franchised Brown, you would have to pay Brown a whole lot less than you're going to pay Sizz.
As a sidenote, I hope the Ravens are able to get Jason signed. He was the first Raven I ever interviewed for the Cape Gazette and I've always found him to be one of the nicest, quotable and most-accessible of Ravens along with Derrick Mason and Haloti Ngata.

-Recaps from last night's Caps game by Japer's and Tarik.

-Another one from the WaPo (Katie Carrera this time) about Nicklas Backstrom's unheralded play this year.

Non-sports links:

-Icon vs Icon has the details on this year's Crue Fest.

-Rejoice fellas, Megan Fox is back on the market. What the hell was she doing with Brian Austin Green anyway? (link found via The Big Lead & US Weekly)

-Music is causing teens to have sex. Really?We're breaking out this old hat again? Funny, when I was a kid I listened to Axl Rose sing about his serpentine and tell a woman to "Back Off Bitch," and yet I never had the urge to try any degrading sexual practices. Nobody I ever knew as a teenager ever had the urge to try them out after hearing Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg sing about "Deez Nutz." Maybe we were different? Or maybe kids today are just fucking stupid, did we ever think about that?

Finally, today's YouTube clip to swing your heavy metal hair to is "Taking The World By Storm" by Kataklysm...

Lazy links...

This morning I'll send a few links up related to the sports teams collectively known as "the good guys" (that would be the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Capitals for those who haven't figured it out yet). This is lazy blogging at its finest, but since I'm doing this while on the clock, there's no time for a long dissertation. For the few of you that like that sort of thing, I'll be back later tonight with an Orioles related post and a recap of tonight's Caps-Flyers tilt. Until then, enjoy...SUCKAAAAAASSSSSS!!!!!

- Japer's Rink has a preview of tonight's Caps game. Let's see how the team responds to another rivalry game. Surely, the Flyers will not fold like a tent when the Caps play a little rough with them like Pittsburgh did.

-More from On Frozen Blog regarding the Crosby-Ovechkin business from Sunday

-I mentioned Felix Pie in my O's post from this weekend. Well, he is just now getting to spring training due to visa issues in the Dominican Republic. The Schmucker has the details.

- Ken Murray of the Sun has the antidote to all Ravens fans out there fretting over this Ray Lewis to the Jets or Cowboys business. Personally, I couldn't agree with Murray more on this one. The other thing, if you read Peter King's piece and see some of the ESPN coverage on the possible "Ray to the Cowboys" thing, do you notice a certain glee these national nitwits have when talking about it? Funny how some of these same nitwits were calling Ray a murderer nine years ago. I see, but he's ok now that he may be signing with the national media's beloved Jets or Cowboys. National media, meet my middle finger.

-But if you're a Ravens fan and you are losing sleep over Ray Lew's potential departure, this news from Jamison Hensley ought to perk you up.

Non-Sports Department:

- My old buddy Greg "Snake" Maki has a review of Oscar night.

-Speaking of pimping the blogs of friends, here's Icon vs. Icon's interview with the director of the Razzie Award winning film (Paris Hilton-Worst Actress) "Repo! The Genetic Opera."

- More bad news for the newspaper industry. Both the Philly Inquirer and Daily News are filing for bankruptcy. I actually applied at the Inquirer about a year ago and now am quite glad I did not get the gig.

-I try to keep this site apolitical, but reading this story on Yahoo!, I couldn't resist. A "Where Are They Now" on officials from the Bush Administration. I hope when they do this 10 years from now, prison is included for some of them. I'm looking at you Dick Cheney.

-Finally, our YouTube clip to swing your heavy metal hair to is "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" by Prong.