I also failed to mention earlier that Trembley announced today that when Loewen returns he will remain in the bullpen this season. 

Beyond that is anyone's guess but Trembley says they talked about it a few weeks ago and "[Loewen]'s fine with it. He understands," and the move is purely to limit his pitches for his own safety. 

I'm sure his ineffectiveness throughout the start of the season must have something to do with it.

_________________________

A solo shot leading off the seventh inning for Adam Jones put the Orioles up for good, 3-2, in Minnesota on Wednesday. 

This was only Adam’s 3^rd homer of the season and his 2 for 4 outing puts his average at a middling .256.

Nick Markakis joined Adam with a 2-run homer of his own in the third putting the Orioles ahead for the first time in the 3^rd inning.

The Markakis shot was a towering drive off the upper deck façade.  Nick was 2 for 3 with a walk on the day and only suffered 1 strikeout.

Once again, you can’t ask for much more from Garrett Olson who notches his 5^th win to go 5-1 with 1 strikeout, scattering 8 hits in 6 and 1/3 innings.

Score: 3-2 Orioles, (Box Score)

Highlights: Adam Jones go-ahead homerun

Next Game: Blue Jay Fri 7:07PM Burres (4-5) v. Marcum (5-3)

Current Record: 29-30, 6.5GB

Orioles Take Pitcher First in Draft

With the number 4 pick overall, the Orioles selected 6-foot-5, 200 pound lefty pitcher Brian Matusz.

Matusz is the all-time strikeout leader from the University of San Diego who went 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA last year and improved to 12-2 with a 1.71 ERA this season.

MacPhail’s strategy was to take the best player available rather than filling a need, and he was successful in doing just that.

The pitcher was first drafted when graduating high school in 2005 by the Angels in the fourth round but opted for college instead.

To check out the video of the selection click here.

To read Tony Giro's take on the selection, click here.

Take a look at this video of Matusz overpowering a San Diego State batter (click here if you don't see it below):

(AP Photo)

LaTroy Hawkins has been suspended three games for his pitch at Luke Scott's head on Tuesday night.  (Jump to the story)  A fine will accompany the suspension, but that has not been released.

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The Orioles followed up their Tuesday night Yankee beat-down with a sorry looking loss of their own.

Garrett Olson took his first loss of the season (now 3-1) credited with 6 runs and 8 hits on 2 2/3 innings looking overwhelmed by Yankee stadium and the patience of the Yankee hitters.

In the bottom of the third, score 4-0 and Olson on the ropes, Daniel Cabrera’s buddy Melvin Mora blew a perfect Markakis throw from right that would have nailed Matsui keeping a runner off third and recording a second out. 

Mora misjudged the ball badly as it came in allowing it to get by, which let the sitting duck runner arrive safely. 

Miraculously, the horrible miss wasn’t scored an error.  This would have been Mora’s second consecutive game with an error.

These kinds of plays are completely unacceptable from the veteran third baseman, especially when he’s batting .250.  This guy is supposed to be a rock at third and consistent at the plate and so far this season he has been far from either.

To add injury to insult, Mora then dropped his right hand into Matsui’s path taking an impact from the Yankees’ spikes on his right ring finger.  Melvin was then unable to throw with plenty of bleeding for decoration.  Cintron came in to hold down the corner.  Mora is day-to-day.

Cintron then stole a hard short-hop down the line and threw out Chad Moeller on the very next play, but Olson continued to meltdown to the tune of 6 runs.

I don’t understand why Trembley waited until his team was in a 6-run hole before pulling the obviously shaky Olson.  A grounder in the right place would have gotten him out of the inning, but he was clearly not hitting his spots and there were plenty of arms in the bullpen. 

The young starter was floating the ball too high for all 3 innings – just ask Alex Rodriguez who tattooed a high changeup into deep left-center for his second homer in as many games after coming back from the quad strain. 

The Baltimore offense was unable to make any progress against Darryl Rasner who went 7 innings and allowed only 5 hits.  Luck was no better against Chamberlain who shut the O’s down over 2 innings with 3 Ks.

Orioles pitchers gave up 8 runs in all and the lineup was shutout by the Yankee team they took batting practice against on Wednesday night.

The rubber match of this three game series is Thursday night with the steady Brian Burres (4-4) going up against the struggling but much-hyped youngster Ian Kennedy (0-3).

(Wednesday Box Score)

(Photo: AP)

Garrett Olson took the win to go to 3-0 on the year in his shakiest outing yet.  The youngster gave up nine hits in only five innings and earned all three runs.

Olson had thrown only 70 pitches when Trembley replaced him with the lead noticing Olson's less than top form.

The bullpen shut down the Nationals highlighted by a three strikeout eighth by the new go-to, Jim Johnson, setting up Sherrill for his 16th save.

Crowd favorite Luke Scott went yard for the second time this homestand and third time on the year.

The turning point came though in the bottom of the fifth scoring runs on a Mora (who did make the start despite a sore shoulder) double to drive in Brian Roberts followed by a Millar single to score Huff.

Millar ended the rally prematurely by running through first and on to second only to be thrown out by the catcher after Huff scored. This is the second time recently Millar has given away an out on the same situation.

Millar then blew a must-get RBI in the bottom of the eighth with a man on third and one out. It did not hurt Friday night but those are mistakes the Orioles can't afford over the season - least of all from veterans.

The Birds keep their momentum going into game two Saturday as Brian Burres (3-4) goes against 11-season vet Odalis Perez (1-3)at 7:05.

(Friday's Box Score)

(Photo: AP)

Garrett Olson looked like a reliable big league pitcher again in his second start of the year for the O’s.  He was bested in a pitcher’s duel by Dana Eveland in this 2-1 Orioles loss, but not by much.

Losses behind this much strong starting pitching are hard to swallow.  Each 1, 2, or 3 run start is a little pleasant surprise that’s not to be wasted and I get the feeling we don’t know just how many of them we can count on getting.

Ramon Hernandez had the team’s only RBI, driving in Melvin Mora on a grounder in the ninth to ruin Hudson Street’s save chance.  Trembley had given Ramon a stern talking to about his little homerun trot from Monday night- let’s hope the skip can keep the ship afloat.

While the Orioles have lost 7 of their last 9 games, they’ve only scored 14 runs in their last 6 outings.  Huff leads the team with a .278 and it’s all downhill from there, but even Huff is searching for excuses: 

“You're going to go through dry spells. We'll bounce back. We've had a pretty killer road trip; we haven't had much time off. Hopefully, that's it. I'm just trying to make an excuse somewhere.”

This loss parks the Birds at .500 with a record of 16-16, 4 full games behind the Red Sox.  The season’s honeymoon April may be over and reality looms.

(Monday Box Score)

Loewen Non-Information

Adam Loewen’s surgeon can’t find anything wrong with his elbow either so the recommendation is to rub some dirt on it and get out there.  He’ll start throwing forthwith and I’d say he’ll be back up and struggling in 3-4 weeks.

It is hard to tell if no diagnosis is better than a moderate diagnosis.  Something is obviously wrong, so saying ‘get back out there’ shouldn’t offer us much comfort.  This could be the nagging injury that wears out Loewen’s welcome.

(Photo: AP/Ben Margot)

Just as I was getting ready to eat my words about Daniel Cabrera, Ramon Hernandez came to my rescue--giving us all new reasons to be disappointed in our catcher.

Saturday – A Cabrera Start’s A Terrible Thing To Waste

For an unprecedented fifth game in a row, Daniel Cabrera gave the O’s a start to rally behind going into the eighth inning and giving up only three runs and most astonishingly walking only two.  Quiet Baltimore bats kept silent though and Luke Scott’s lone RBI wasn’t enough to overcome a score of 3-1.

(Saturday Box Score)

Sunday – Stuck In Trachs-hell

Why would Steve Trachsel look surprised to see Dave Trembley striding out at him in the fourth inning after giving up six runs and three home runs?  He had a look on his face like he couldn’t believe it.  I had the same look on my face after the third dinger.

This was Trachsel’s second straight three inning outing, and the third in six starts.  I’d love to jump on the bandwagon that’s sending him out of town, but in order to do that you need a replacement and until the Roberts deal gets done we’re not going to have another true starter ready to move in.

Millar was right on the money when he said, “We didn't have good shutdown innings. We scored two, they scored four. We scored one, they scored two. You've got to have a shutdown inning, and we didn't today, so we lost."  The Orioles got to the Angel pitchers, but they got to Trachsel even more as he gave up all six Angel runs in this 6-5 Oriole loss.

While Trachsel’s arm was throwing BP, Oriole base runners were having trouble staying conscious.  As if Ramon Hernandez’s team low .198 batting average (Torres doesn’t count, not enough ABs) wasn’t enough reason to skewer him, his first inning homerun trot sure was.  Granted it was a well hit ball, and sure he has to enjoy every hit that leaves the infield since there haven’t been many, but if you can’t see where the ball went, you better run.

That’s his explanation.  He couldn’t see it.  He didn’t see it, so he assumed it was a home run.  While he’s assuming, he’s also getting tagged out strolling into second on what could have been a pivotal offensive inning. 

“…the thing was that it bounced right at [Garret Anderson] so I couldn't watch the ball."

Not good enough Ramon.  Absolutely not good enough.  Sure, Roberts got picked off and caught stealing third, but I can chalk that up to aggressiveness and not pure carelessness. 

With the loss, the Orioles fall to just one game over .500 and are in a three way tie with the Rays and the Yankees for second with Toronto just a game and a half behind. 

(Sunday Box Score)

Next Up

The Orioles pull into Oakland to take on the overachieving A’s in a three game set.  Garrett Olsen will try to follow-up on his strong debut outing facing the 3-2 rookie Dana Eveland.

(Photo: AP)

Olson’s big test was a bases loaded jam in the third.  Two outs and Upton at the plate, Olson dug deep and struck out the hot hitting centerfielder.  This was a key situation and the youngster didn’t even flinch.  Upton would get his revenge with a homerun on Randor Bierd who gave up 2 runs and only recorded 1 out.  This is the second poor outing from Bierd after a dominant start to the season.

Luckily for Bierd, the Oriole bats were alive in a serious way, including Huff’s 5^th homerun of the season contibuting to the 7-4 Oriole win.  Even Ramon Hernandez got into the action going 2 for 3 with a walk, raising him above the Mendoza line to .208.  Looks like my prayer vigils for his BA have already started paying off.

Matt Albers is going to get the start tonight with a chance to build on his 2-0 start to the season.  We still don’t know how long Loewen is going to be laid up, but the bone scan results should be in soon.  All we know is he won’t be back when his 15 days are up. 

My guess at this point is that Olson will be Loewen’s replacement given Trembley’s line that Albers has done well in the pen and he’d like to keep Matt there if he can.

Millar went 1 for 3 with 2 walks, a run, and an RBI last night but is only batting .176 with runners in scoring position from the cleanup spot?  I’m not saying other options abound, but he’s been in the 4 slot all season and based on a .176 when it matters, someone else has to get a shot.

(Tuesday's Box Score)

(Photo: AP/Rob Carr)