Bruce Chen gets the loss, his 7th.

Kris Benson made his return to the rotation and pitched pretty well. He was in line for the win until the bullpen blew the game. He went 5 innings, allowing 6 hits (2 HR), a walk, and 3 runs. Considering it was his first start back and he was facing the Boston lineup at Fenway, I’d say he did a decent job. Todd Williams, Tim Byrdak, and LaTroy Hawkins combined for 3 and a third scoreless innings, but that was after we gave up our 4 run lead. Chris Britton was the culprit this time. In 2/3rds an inning he let in 4 runs on 3 hits (including a homerun) and a walk. We we’re tied going into the 10th inning, and Bruce Chen came in. He walked the first batter, then intentionally walked David Ortiz to get to Manny Ramirez, who promptly knocked in the game winning run with a single. I don’t see how you intentionally walk Ortiz in this situation. Its not like hes guaranteed to hit game winning shots. There were no outs and a runner on first. So you walk the guy to intentionally put someone in scoring position, still with no outs, with Manny Ramirez coming up? I sure as heck wouldn’t. I would take my chances with the lefty – lefty matchup and see what happens. I would rather they he earned his way on, as opposed to just handing them a runner in scoring position with no outs. Sorry Sammy P, you get an F on this one.

The offense did a good job at hoping out to an early 7-3 lead going into the bottom of the 6th. But that was all we could manage. After the Red Sox tied the game, we couldn’t put any more runs on the board. Brian Roberts had a couple of hits, so did Brandon Fahey, including a double. Nick Markakis had 2 more hits today and another double. Jeff Conine had a double and 2 walks. Melvin Mora was the only starter that didn’t have a hit, but he did have a sacrifice fly. Fahey made a bonehead move getting thrown out at 3rd with our 3-4 hitters coming up. He also had 2 errors. We just can’t seem to make smart decisions on the bases or anywhere for that matter.

Markakis watch: 2-4 (.298)

Tomorrow we can try to avoid the sweep. Daniel Cabrera (5-7, 4.95) gets his second start since coming back from AAA, hopefully its as good as his first. The rookie Jon Lester (5-2, 3.86) has been great so far, he gets his first shot at the O’s. I think Cabrera will do his part, go O’s.

Adam Loewen gets his 4th loss of the season. Lets mark this one down as a learning experience.

Loewen could only manage to get through 2 innings before he was pulled from the game in the third, only recording one out. He gave up 6 hits and 2 walks, which resulted in 6 runs allowed. He struck out 3. It was his first start at Boston and thats always tough. I’m not taking tonights performance too badly, its nice for him to get this experience this year. Rodrigo Lopez followed Loewen with his first relief appearance of the year. He didn’t fair too well, but he did save the bullpen. He managed to go 4 and 2/3rd innings. He allowed 7 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs. He had 5 strikeouts. I think he could be an asset coming out of the bullpen, much more so than in the rotation. Russ Ortiz pitched the last inning and it was his first appearance that didn’t result in disaster.

Brian Roberts was the star of the show for the sticks tonight. He was 3-5 with a double, an RBI, and a stolen base. Corey Patterson also had a good game, with 2 hits including his 11th homerun of the season. Nick Markakis and Kevin Millar each had a double. Melvin Mora and Fernando Tatis were the only starters without a hit. But even though we had 11 hits and 2 walks, we only managed 2 runs which was no where near enough to win tonight.

Markakis watch: 1-4 (.295)

Tomorrow is an afternoon game, and Kris Benson (9-9, 4.71) makes his return to the rotation. He’ll be facing ex-Oriole Jason Johnson (3-11, 5.96) who has struggled this year. I forsee an Orioles win. Go O’s.

Erik Bedard gets his 8th loss of the season.

Bedard got the loss, but he didn’t pitch too bad. He went 7 innings and struck out 4, but let in all 4 runs of the game. He let up 7 hits and a walk. It was a step down from his last 8 or so starts, but if this is him on a bad day, I’ll take it. Todd Williams came in and pitched a perfect 8th. I’m not sure what I would do with Williams for next year. Lets see how he finishes this year, but I think I would start him out at AAA if we get enough bullpen help from youngsters. We could then call him up as an experienced arm if someone got hurt or didn’t perform. Or he could stay with the big club as one of the last arms out of the bullpen.

The hitting only got 8 hits and 3 runs, but we were facing Roy Halladay so thats not too bad. Brian Roberts got a hit and a stolen base. Brandon Fahey had a couple of base knocks. Melvin Mora knocked in a run with a double. Corey Patterson had a double and a stolen base. And Nick Markakis had 2 hits. People are saying that Miguel Tejada gave someone the middle finger at some point in yesterday’s game, but I didn’t see it. If its true, then I would think he would have to be at least fined. I don’t know why he would do it, but if he did he has to face the consequences.

Markakis watch: 2-3 (.296)

Thursday is an off day for the O’s before they go off to Boston to face Javy Lopez and the Red Sox. The pitching match up looks like its going to be Adam Loewen (2-3, 5.72) going against one time Orioles David Wells (0-2, 8.05). This should be a good test for Loewen, Boston has a very solid lineup. I can’t wait to see what the kid is going to do. Go O’s.

Daniel Cabrera makes a strong return to the rotation and wins his 5th game of the season.

Cabrera looked great out there in making his first start since being demoted to AAA. He went 7 innings and only gave up 5 hits and 2 runs (1 earned). But the most amazing thing was that he only walked one batter. Yep, in the whole game. It was a big step up from seeing Russ Ortiz out there on the mound. If we can get the recent success of Erik Bedard, Adam Loewen, and now Cabrera, we can have a very good starting rotation. Plus we have Hayden Penn who is ready and could be better than the first 3. We could either keep Benson as the solid veteran or trade him for a hitter and sign a free agent starter like Jason Schmidt or John Smoltz. All of a sudden I’m starting to feel good about how our pitching will look next year and beyond. Now we just need to add some power to the lineup and we’ll be set. Oh and the bullpen… Speaking of which, LaTroy Hawkins came in for the 8th and gave up 2 hits (a homerun) and 2 runs. Luckily Chris Ray came in for the 9th and gave us the win.

The offense production was good last night. Melvin Mora hit a double, Miguel Tejada hit his 20th homerun and walked twice, Jay Gibbons doubled and walked, Jeff Conine had 2 hits, and Corey Patterson had a double. But the player of the game was Nick Markakis. He hit a 3 run homer to left center field to give us the lead, and also knocked in a run with a single earlier in the game and stole a base. He had 4 RBI for the game, a new career high. The only player that didn’t get a hit was Brian Roberts, but he did walk. The defense was also an asset last night as both Patterson and Brandon Fahey made fantastic catches.

Markakis watch: 2-4 (.292)

This afternoon should be a great game to watch, if you like pitching duels. Our ace Erik Bedard (12-7, 3.85) goes up against theirs, Roy Halladay (13-3, 3.21). I want to predict an Oriole win, so I’ll say we win 2-0. In other news, Kris Benson will return to the rotation saturday and Rodrigo Lopez will go to the bullpen for now. No word on Russ Ortiz… Go O’s.

Russ Ortiz gets his 8th loss of the year, and still somehow manages to stay on the team.

Its amazing how we keep running this guy out there every 5 days. If we can’t find anyone better to throw out there than Russ Ortiz, we have some serious issues. Hayden Penn should be up right now to fill his spot, or if they don’t think hes ready yet, Brian Burres who continues to pitch well at AAA. Yesterday, Ortiz managed to get through 3 innings, and he only gave up 9 hits (2 homeruns), 6 runs, and 3 walks with no strikeouts. Yeah, lets give him yet another shot… Bruce Chen came on for the next 2 innings and pitched good. He only gave up 1 hit and struck out 3. Then the guy that somehow managed to get sent down for Daniel Cabrera’s return to the rotation pitched 2 scoreless innings and struck out 2. That guy being Winston Abreu. Yep, we’re keeping Russ Ortiz in favor of Abreu. How inept can this front office get? Next was Tim Byrdak, who struggled, going 2/3rds an inning giving up 2 runs. Chris Britton got the last out on his first try.

The offense faired no better, only managing 2 hits and a run. The star of the game was Miguel Tejada, who went 1-4 with a double. Fernando Tatis had the only other hit. We did walk 6 times, but you might want to mix some hits in with those next time. Just an incredibly frustrating game. Ted Lilly didn’t even start te game for Toronto. They split the game up between 3 relievers and still held our offense down.

Markakis watch: 0-2 (.290)

Tonight its Daniel Cabrera’s (4-7, 5.25) return to the rotation. He’ll be making his return against Shaun Marcum (1-1, 5.33). I have a good feeling about this one somehow. I think Cabrera will show that hes ready to stay in the big leagues. Hopefully I’m right. Go O’s.

In the first game, Chris Ray served up a game winning homerun in the 9th. We lost 5-4. Chris Ray got his 4th loss.

Game 2 was our only win, 5-0. Adam Loewen recieved his 2nd win of the season.

And Game 3 was another loss, 6-1, with Rodrigo Lopez getting loss number 12.

Bruce Chen started the first game and struggled as expected. He gave up a homerun to the first batter he faced. He was lucky to only give up 3 runs. He walked 2 batters and gave up 9 hits in only 5 innings. The bullpen was strong for the whole series. The only runs they gave up was the go ahead homer Chris Ray gave up to lose the game, and a run in the same game off Chris Britton. LaTroy Hawkins pitched 2 scoreless innings over 2 games, Julio Manon pitched 2 and a third scoreless innings over 2 games, Todd Williams pitched 1 and 2/3rds scoreless, Tim Byrdak got an out without giving up a run, and recently promoted Winston Abreu pitched 2/3rds scoreless while striking out the first batter he faced in his major league career. Adam Loewen started the second game and pitched outstanding. He went 6 and a third innings only allowing 1 hit and no runs with 8 strikeouts. The only drawback was 5 walks. He has gotten better in each of his starts for the O’s. The Orioles pitchers combined to pitch their first 1 hitter since 2000 when Mike Mussina did it all by himself. Rodrigo Lopez pitched game 3 and go lit up for 4 homeruns. He did manage to go 7 innings, saving the bullpen some innings, but pitched poorly.

The offense combined for 10 runs over the 3 games. Brian Roberts was 3-13 with a double and a stolen base. Melvin Mora was 2-10 with 2 walks and a double. Miguel Tejada went 5-12 with a double and a stolen base. Jeff Conine was 6-11 with a double. Ramon Hernandez was 1-5 with 2 walks. Corey Patterson was 2-6 with a walk and a stolen base. Nick Markakis was 1-9 with a walk. Jay Gibbons was 2-7 with a walk. Fernando Tatis was 2-5 with a homerun. Chris Gomez went 1-3 and Kevin Millar, Brandon Fahey, and Chris Widger combined to go 0-14. Chris Widger did have a walk though. So it was another unsuccessful series for the O’s. Some bright spots, but mostly disappointment.

Markakis watch: 1-9 (.292)

Some good news is that it appears Jeff Conine, Rodrigo Lopez, and LaTroy Hawkins all cleared waivers and we can trade them all before the August 31st waiver trade deadline. It would be a nice turn around to be able to get something for these guys after we were unable to do it before the non-waiver deadline. I haven’t seen anything about Adam Stern since we traded for him. Something about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays claiming him to get back at the Red Sox for possible tampering.

Today starts a series with the Toronto Blue Jays. The first match up is Russ Ortiz (0-7, 9.23) and Ted Lilly (9-10, 4.20). This doesn’t look good at all for the O’s. We have trouble against lefties first of all, and mostly we have Russ Ortiz pitching. Ortiz says he found a mechanical flaw in his delivery and hes back on track. I think I know the real problem…hes still on the team. I’m feeling pretty confident that he will be gone after his start today. Hayden Penn looks ready in AAA and Daniel Cabrera will be back very soon. Go O’s.