Garrett Olson joined a very small group of pitchers tonight. He allowed a home run to Tony Pena. Shawn Chacon, Jose Contreras and Jamie Moyer accomplished the feat in the past. Since the start of the 2006 season, Pena has the fourth lowest slugging percentage of any player with at least 700 plate appearances, .321. I'm actually surprised it's that high.

Zrebiec/Roch: O's looking at Eckstein

Austin Surhoff Makes Semis in Men's 200 IM

Ryan Lochte was back in the pool again to capture the top spot in 1:59.49..... in 16th is Austin Surhoff (2:02.60), son of B.J., of baseball's Baltimore Orioles among others.

PECOTA added all of this up, coupled it with the fact that the Rays' talent core was young and still on the upswing, and concluded that the club was liable to win somewhere between 88 and 90 ballgames in 2008. Not even the Rays themselves were entirely convinced by this forecast. The team executives I spoke with this winter expected -- or hoped -- to go .500 this year, perhaps making a serious run at the playoffs in 2009.

But a quick run through their offseason checklist reveals that sometimes the best-laid plans go even better than expected:

Daniel Cabrera Is the New Sidney Ponson

Both guys are evil temptresses, registering in the high 90s and hurling the odd brilliant game in which they go the distance, exhibit control and stalk off the mound looking like the pitcher you believe they can be. Their shared problem, of course, is what’s between the ears. As a result, they get hit too hard, walk too many guys and repeatedly fail to live up to expectations.

Take a peak at their five-year numbers, and you can see that the results are similar (Cabrera’s are career to-date, Ponson’s his first five years)

If you're looking for an explanation for Baltimore's surprising start, the bullpen is a pretty good place to focus. Orioles relievers are 15-13 with a 3.28 ERA, compared to 24-35 and 5.71 last season. After going 13-31 in one-run games a year ago, the O's are 17-12 this season.

Brian Matusz pitching breakdown

A man claiming to be a Red Sox fan called a Tampa area radio station yesterday morning, complaining about the rude behavior he'd encountered the night before at Tropicana Field. Rays fans took one look at the Dustin Pedroia jersey he was wearing, the man said, and taunted him when the Sox lost.