Erik Bedard gets his second win in a row, and of the season.

Bedard pitched well, although he was a little wild tonight. He walked 4 batters in 6 innings but only gave up 5 hits and one run, while striking out 9 batters. Bedard needs to keep his pitch count more under control, but I’ll take 6 innings of one run ball any day of the week. The bullpen continues to be excellent, this time throwing 3 innings of shutout baseball. Chad Bradford gave up a hit and a walk in an inning, Danys Baez gave up a hit while striking out a batter, and Brian Burres walked one in his first inning of the season. If the pitching is going to be this good all year, we’re going to win a bunch of games.

The hitting had a break out game I guess you could say. Brian Roberts had a double, 2 walks, and a stolen base, Melvin Mora had a single and a double, Nick Markakis hit a grand slam (his 2nd HR of the season) and had a walk, Aubrey Huff had a single and a double, and Jay Gibbons, Kevin Millar, and Paul Bako each ahd 2 singles. Millar also had a couple of walks on the night. We still aren’t hitting great with runners in scoring position, but its getting better.

Player of the game: Nick Markakis -  1-4, HR, R, 4 RBI, BB

Tonight we get the priveledge of facing a left handed pitcher. That pitcher would be Odalis Perez (0-2, 10.80) for the Royals. The Orioles have Daniel Cabrera (1-1, 3.07) going, our pitcher so far I would say. Go O’s.

Chris Ray gets the win, his first.

The pitching was again outstanding last night. That makes 7 solid starts in a row now for Orioles pitchers, and 8 out of 10. Steve Trachsel did it again, pitching 7 innings in only 86 pitches while only giving up 3 hits, one run, one walk, and one strikeout. The bullpen also pitches really well again. Chad Bradford got the first out of the 8th inning after giving up 2 hits, Jamie Walker got the second out by striking out a batter, and Danys Baez got the final out of the inning. Baez also gave up a hit and had a strikeout in a scoreless 9th. Chris Ray again pitched outstanding in his inning of work, striking out a batter. I still think Sam Perlozzo’s over-managing is terrible, but it worked out this time.

The hitting wasn’t exactly bad, we had 12 hits in 10 innings, but we still struggled mightily at bringing runs in. Only one batter, Aubrey Huff, didn’t get on base and he struck out 3 times. The only runs came in on a Paul Bako double in the 7th (he also had a single in the game) and in the bottom of the 10th, Jay Gibbons drove in the game winning run with his 3rd single of the night. Brian Roberts had 2 hits on the night including a double, Melvin Mora walked and was HBP, Nick Markakis had a single and a walk. Miguel Tejada had a couple of singles, and Kevin Millar and Corey Patterson had a single each. The problem was the hitting with runners on base. We grounded into 3 double plays and couldn’t come through in the clutch. Sam Perlozzo bunted twice when it wasn’t exactly necessary and Jay Gibbons got thrown out at the plate.

Player of the game: Jay Gibbons -  3-5, RBI (game winning)

Tonight, we have our ace on the mound in Erik Bedard (1-1, 6.94) against the Royals again. Kansas City has Brandon Duckworth (0-0, 0.00) going for them. I’m looking for a break out game by the offense and a lopsided victory for the Orioles. Go O’s.

Kurt Birkins gets the loss, his first.

Sam Perlozzo needs to get his head examined. And then he needs to be fired. The pitching was outstanding for the Orioles last night. Adam Loewen pitched 5 innings of shut out ball with 4 strikeouts. He yielded 5 hits and 4 walks, but he also hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch in retaliation to Miguel Tejada getting hit earlier in the game. You know that will earn him respect from his teammates. The next 6 innings were pitched by 6 different relief pitchers, who each had low pitch counts after their inning was up. How in the world do you not let somebody who is pitching well continue when the game is tied at 0 and our offense looks like they would have trouble scoring against High School pitching? John Parrish struck out the side in his inning, Chad Bradford needed only 9 pitches to retire the side in order, Danys Baez gave up a hit and a walk but struck out a batter in his scoreless inning, Chris Ray struck out 2 batters in his 1-2-3 inning, same thing for Jamie Walker in his inning, and Scott Williamson had a strike out and pitched out of a jam in his inning. They guy who lost the game (besides Sam Perlozzo, of course)? Kurt Birkins. The guy who was brought up instead of a lefty masher for the bench, which would have been very necessary in this game, and hasn’t pitched since March 31st back in Spring Training. Birkins gave up 4 hits, walked one, and struck out one, but the big hit was a grand slam by Craig Monroe with 2 outs. That makes two games now that the Orioles have lost because of grand slams. And all I can think is…. fire Sam Perlozzo.

Like I said, the hitting looked like it couldn’t hit High School pitching. Of course, for the first 7 innings that had to do with Justin Verlander, the reigning rookie of the year who was on the top of his game. We couldn’t hit Fernando Rodney either, or Wil Ledezma (shocker – a lefty), or anyone for that matter. Corey Patterson had 2 hits, a single and a double, and Melvin Mora had a double (after we were down 4-0). Miguel Tejada, Aubrey Huff, and Kevin Millar each had singles. Our only run came on a balk in the bottom of the 12th inning. This is how bad our hitting is right now: we don’t have a single batter with a batting average over .250. And its not like we can use our bench, Freddie Bynum came in to pinch run for Huff in the 11th, and he didn’t run! He did what Huff could have done, stand there. Jay Gibbons was allowed to bat against a left handed pitcher in extra innings, that shouldn’t happen. Meanwhile, Jon Knott hit his second homerun in AAA and JR House had 2 more hits to bring his average up to .430. Again, all I can think is…. fire Sam Perlozzo.

Player of the day: The Orioles pitching (besides Birkins) – 11 IP, 0 ER, 7 H, 5 BB, 13 K

Tonight, the Kansas City Royals come to town. Luckily they have a right handed pitcher going for them in Gil Meche (1-1, 4.40) tonight. While unluckily, the Orioles have Steve Trachsel (0-0, 4.05) going for them. The bullpen needs to get ready again. Go O’s….. fire Sam Perlozzo.

Jaret Wright loses his second game in a row.

Jaret Wright was pitching a great game until he injured his shoulder in the 6th inning. Before that, he gave up 3 hits in 5 innings and struck out five batters. In the 6th, the first batter hit a ball off of Wright for a single, Jaret walked the next batter, and then he left the game with the trainer. Scott Williamson came in after that and suddenly the bases were loaded with no outs. He struck out the next batter and then got a ground ball to Miguel Tejada for the douple play, but Brian Roberts threw the ball past Kevin Millar at first base, allowing 2 runs to score. No more damage was done in the inning. Jeremy Guthrie came in for the 7th and he went 3 strong innings to finish the game. He gave up 3 hits and a run while striking out 3.

The Orioles did almost nothing at the plate tonight, which was not surprising since there was a left handed pitcher starting for the Tigers in Nate Robertson. The Orioles have struggled against lefties for the longest time and have never done anything about until this year, when the signed Jon Knott, Jason DuBois, and JR House, but those guys are all in AAA so we don’t have anything to do about left handed pitchers other than what we had last year. The only hits were singles from Nick Markakis, Miguel Tejada, and Jay Gibbons, a double from Kevin Millar, and Corey Patterson’s first homerun of the season. Patterson’s homerun came off of Joel Zumaya, a right handed pitcher, and was too little, too late. But if it wasn’t for the error by Brian Roberts, the game would have gone into extra innings.

Player of the game: Corey Patterson -  1-3, HR, RBI

Tomorrow night we get a chance to come back and win the series against the Tigers in what should be a great pitching match up. Adam Loewen (1-0, 3.60) goes up against the reigning rookie of the year, Justin Verlander (0-0, 0.00), who pitched great last time out. Go O’s.

Daniel Cabrera gets his first win of the season.

Cabrera has now pitched 2 great games in a row. He went 7 and 2/3rds innings, get this, without walking a batter. He did give up 7 hits and 2 runs, and he threw 122 pitches, but that was it. I’m a little surprised they let him pitch that much this early in the season, but its hard to argue with the results. Chad Bradford came in for Cabrera with 2 outs in the 8th and got out of the inning. He also pitched the 9th inning with no problem. He gave a walk in his 1 and 1/3rds innings.

The hitting did well yesterday. Brian Roberts had 2 singles, 2 runs, and an RBI. Melvin Mora had a single and a double, a run, and an RBI. Miguel Tejada had 2 singles, a run, and an RBI. Aubrey Huff had a single and an RBI. Jay Gibbons hit a double, had an RBI, and a walk. Kevin Millar hit his 2nd homerun of the season, and his second day in a row, and he had a walk. Corey Patterson had a single, a stolen base, and a run. Paul Bako and Nick Markakis both went hitless, but it didn’t matter in the end.

Player of the game: Daniel Cabrera – 7 2/3 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

Tonight, its the Tigers again. This time Jaret Wright (0-1, 15.43) takes the mound against Nate Robertson (1-0, 3.18). Go O’s.

Erik Bedard gets his first win of the season, while Chris Ray gets his second save.

After the first inning, things didn’t look too good. Erik Bedard gave up 3 hits and 3 runs, including a 2-run homer to Alex Rodriguez, in the first inning. From innings 2 through 7 though, he only gave up 2 hits while striking out 5 batters to get the win. It was really a very impressive outing for Bedard and the team, to come back and perform so well after yesterday’s game and the start of today’s game. Jamie Walker started the 8th inning and immediately gave up a triple to Johnny Damon. The ball should have been a double at best, but Jay Gibbons let the ball get by him and to the wall before picking it up. Damon scored on a ground out before Walker gave up another hit and got another out. Chad Bradford came into the game and only pitched to one batter, walking him, before getting removed in favor of John Parrish. Parrish walked a batter to load the bases before getting a fly ball to end the inning. Chris Ray came in for the 9th with a chance to redeem himself after yesterday’s catastrophe, and redeem himself he did. Ray recorded the save, only allowing one basehit.

The scoring came from two surprising places today. Kevin Millar was 2-3 with a 2-run homer (his first), an RBI double, and a walk. Paul Bako hit a 3-run homer (also his first) to give the Orioles the lead they would never lose. Well, we can’t say Bako wasn’t good for anything, and Millar looks like hes finally busting out of his slump. Nick Markakis had 3 more hits today, all singles, and also another diving catch in right field to rob Jason Giambi of a hit. Jay Gibbons had a single and 2 walks, Corey Patterson had 2 walks, and Miguel Tejada had a single to round out the hitting. One thing I’ve noticed, and I hope its not a fluke, is the patience the team has showed so far this season. The Orioles are taking more walks than I can remember since the playoff years ten years ago.

Player of the game: Kevin Millar -  2-3, 2B, HR, BB, 3 RBI

Tomorrow is the home opener and I will be happy to watch Daniel Cabrera (0-1, 3.86) make his second start, against the Detroit Tigers and Chad Durbin (0-0, 0.00). Go O’s.

Chris Ray blows the save and gets the loss, his first.

Steve Trachsel started the game, his first as an Oriole, and did an admirable job. Certainly better than I expected him to. It didn’t start off very well, Trachsel gave up a 2-run homer to Alex Rodriguez in the first inning, but he only gave up 3 runs altogether in his 6 and 2/3rds. John Parrish came in to relieve Steve in the 7th and got the only hitter he faced out. Then Danys Baez came in for the 8th inning. He got one out right away, but then walked back to back batters before serving up a 3 run homer to Jason Giambi to bring the Yankees within one run. Jamie Walker came in and got out of the inning. Chris Ray came in for the 9th to get the save and retired the first 2 batters quickly. Robinson Cano hit a single up the middle with 2 outs, then Derek Jeter walked and Bobby Abreu got hit by a pitch. That brough up A-Rod again and he, you guessed it, hit a walk off grand slam to end the ballgame and give the O’s their 4th loss in 5 games.

The hitting continued where it left off friday night, with mostly solid performances with a few stand out players. Brian Roberts didn’t get a hit, but he walked twice. His batting average is only .176 but his on base percentage is .417, which is very good. Nick Markakis added 2 hits, including his first homerun of the season, to give the Orioles their first lead of the game. Aubrey Huff, Kevin Millar, Corey Patterson, Chris Gomez, and Alberto Castillo all had a single each. But the player of the game was Melvin Mora, who had 5 RBIs on the day from a 3-RBI double to a 2-run homer, his second of the season. Miguel Tejada was the only starter that didn’t reach base and he also made his 3rd error of the season. Hard to fault the hitting, but if they could have added a few insurance runs it might have made the difference.

Player of the game: Melvin Mora -  2-5, 2B, HR, 5 RBI

Tomorrow, Erik Bedard (0-1, 11.57) gets a chance to make up for his shaky opening day performance against Darrell Rasner (0-0, 0.00) of the Yankees. Go O’s.

Adam Loewen gets the first win of any O’s pitcher, his first also. Chris Ray gets the first save of the year.

Adam Loewen went five innings, striking out 2, walking 3, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs. That was good enough to earn him the first win of the season for the Orioles. The only inning that he didn’t allow a base runner was in his last, the 5th. Adam wasn’t on his best game tonight, but he did enough to win the game and thats all the Orioles need. John Parrish continued his comeback season by throwing another inning, giving up one hit and a run (it was unearned, error by Tejada) and he struck out a batter. Chad Bradford came in for the 7th and gave up back to back singles before striking out ARod. Jamie Walker then came on to face the left handed hitting Jason Giambi. He struck Giambi out, but then walked Hideki Matsui and gave up a run scoring single to Jorge Posada. That was it though because he got out Robinson Cano to end the inning. Danys Baez pitched a perfect 8th to set up Chris Ray, who pitched a perfect 9th to get his first save of the season.

The first three hitter in the lineup did most of the damage. Brian Roberts hit a lead off double and also walked twice. Melvin Mora went 3-5 with a steal and Nick Markakis hit a couple of doubles on the night. Aubrey Huff had an RBI single, as did Jay Gibbons, and Corey Patterson had an RBI double. Kevin Millar walked twice. Millar still doesn’t have a hit on the season and Paul Bako continues to be a huge hole in the lineup, he was 0-4 on the night.

Player of the game: Nick Markakis -  2-5, 2 2Bs, 1 R, 2 RBI

Tomorrow afternoon Steve Trachsel (0-0, 0.00) makes his Oriole debu, and Kei Igawa (0-0, 0.00) makes his United States debut for the Yankees. Go O’s.