Don't you ever be sad,
Lean on me when times are bad.
When the day comes and you're down,
In a river of trouble and about to drown

Just hold on, I'm comin',
Hold on, I'm comin'.

Following two straight devastatingly crappy losses, George Sherrill nailed down the ninth inning tonight as the Birds held on to down the Royals, 7-5.

We have a comfy 7-3 lead before Ol' Sar-farty came in there and started walking the field, but George knew what to do. Though he gave up a bleeder single that drove in two runs off the bat of Mark Grudzielanek, he then struck out Alex Gordon to FINISH IT! with aplomb.

Gordon had previously hit a monster home run in the first inning off of Radhames Liz that apparently one-hopped the Warehouse. Good great mamma jamma was that a shot.

Five interesting points of the game:

1. Second inning, Fahey hits a line drive double to left field that Jose Guillen bobbles on the pickup, allowing Adam Jones to score. Next batter is Roberts, who skies one into left center. Guillen, like the jerk he is, stands still and leaves Joey Gathright to fend for himself. Lucky for KC (and Guillen), Gathright makes the catch.
2. Bottom seven, game seeming to get a little too close for comfort. BRIAN ROBERTS SMASH
3. Adam Loewen makes a relief appearance, throwing two scoreless innings with a bit of mystery to them. Season ERA falls to 7.08.
4. Mora finally gets dropped in the order, falling to sixth, and goes 0-for-3 with a walk.
5. Jimmy Gobble makes duck feel better about his own last name.

In case you missed it, that's the scoop. Steve Trachsel will not return to the starting rotation. Instead, Radhames Liz is up and will take the ball tonight.

Luis Hernandez managed to hit a robust .241/.295/.253 in 79 at-bats this season, made several fielding and baserunning boners, and lost his job right quick to Freddie Bynum once Freddie was available for action.

Liz has a 4.05 ERA so far at Norfolk this season, with a hard luck 1-5 record. I'd rather see him than Trachsel any day. I'd rather see him try to hit and play short than Luis, too.

Going back to the shortstops, though, I do want to be really fair. Yes, Luis was terrible. But so was Fahey. So is Bynum (.210/.258/.274). So is Cintron (even counting his .350/.381/.350 line so far). They're all terrible and have no business starting in the majors. But there's also no reason to carry three of them, and they've kept the right two. Cintron is a better fielder and hitter than Hernandez, and Bynum's flexibility and CF availability makes him as useful as someone with a .532 OPS can be.

And from the Orioles team report:

Mora had no specific explanation for the throw, but the Orioles third baseman has been coming up short on a number of throws to first base lately. Mora has nine errors in 50 games at third base. Two came in Friday's game.

Jim Palmer in particular loves to talk about Melvin's great glove. He makes some highlight reel plays. He also screws up a lot. He's Derek Jeter, third baseman, without the star power or pinstripes or rings, though he is a playoff veteran of the first order.

WHAT'S JEREMY GUTHRIE GOTTA DO TO GET SOME RUNS IN THIS JOINT?

Our boy went out and dealt again yesterday. Seven innings, six hits, three runs, no walks, four strikeouts. All he got in return was a two-run homer from Melvin Mora in the fourth inning.

In his last three starts (20.2 innings pitched) the Orioles have given Guthrie exactly those two runs off the bat of Melvin Mora.

He's got a 3.64 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP, batters are hitting a paltry .236 against him, and he's 2-6.

This is getting ridiculous. Jeremy "Hard Times" Guthrie gets no love from his teammates, despite him generally giving them a chance to win every time he starts.

Come on, guys. Help the brother out. Daniel Cabrera's having a pretty similar season and he's 5-1. Daniel Cabrera might make the All-Star team! He'll probably be the only Oriole that does make it if things stay the course, but is he really any better than Guthrie? No.

The good news is we took two of three from the Yankees, making us 5-4 against New York so far. I mean, yeah, it's not really the greatest thing in the world considering New York is 22-22 against everyone else, but it's a nice trinket to put in our pocket.

The O's are off today before we start a four-game set in Boston Baltimore on Friday. The current matchups for the first three games are Cabrera-Beckett, Olson-Lester, and Burres-Colon. Ol' fatso Colon has looked pretty good in his first two Sox starts, though he did face Kansas City and Seattle. Of course, he'll just be facing the Baltimore lineup next. I think batting average is pretty worthless, but when your leading hitter is coming in at .271 (Roberts, heating up) and it's not a lineup filled with walk machines, things ain't goin' so great.

I've had the great pleasure of listening to the Royals broadcasts in the last two nights. First of all, it's fun to listen to a team's commentators talk about their boys not winning against the Birds since 2006.

But my favorite thing about the Royals broadcasts are the commentators themselves, play-by-play man Ryan Lefebvre (right, son of Jim Lefebvre) and color commentator Frank White (left), Royals Hall of Famer.

The two of them are gold. Not only are they terribly unfamiliar with the Orioles and bat-dung crazy, but they're also seriously easy to listen to and seem like a couple of nice damned guys.

A quality start to Frank White is a complete game. Denny Leonard threw twenty complete games. Now that's quality. White also claimed to have been following Brian Roberts since his first day in the Major Leagues, thinking of him like he does Marcus Giles (?), a small stature guy with pop in his bat. White would be the world's only person who saw pop in the bat of Brian Roberts prior to 2005.

Lefebvre spent an entire, long half-inning talking to some dude from American Idol who's from the area. I'm not even being elitist. He seemed like a nice kid, genuinely excited to be there (White said he used to work at the park when he was a child), and he threw out a nice first pitch. Lefebvre and this dude just went on and on and on while a game was happening. Tremendous, totally uninteresting stuff. Lefebvre then decided that this American Idol dude was a good human being. Just had a feeling. Freddie Bynum hits a double, Melvin Mora hits a two-run homer, they talk about this dude going to the mall.

But the best part of that segment was Lefebvre recalling another reality TV star at the park who threw out a terrible first pitch and was booed off the field. "It was, uh...I don't remember his name. Anyway..." Must've made that kid feel good about his future.

Lefebvre later wanted to invent a new statistic, the Quality At-Bat. After tinkering with it out loud, he settled on this: the hitter is down in the count at some point, he sees eight pitches or more, and he hits it hard somewhere. Doesn't matter if he gets a hit. Also, walks are out of the question for the Quality At-Bat. Fantastic.

Jose Guillen appeared to have hurt himself a little bit running to first base later in the game, and Frank White said he had a "nice grimace" on in the dugout. Lefebvre took issue with the idea of a "nice grimace." This followed (I don't have exact quotes here, but this is very close):

Lefebvre: "Nice grimace. That's like jumbo shrimp. Those two don't go together! Or, uh, slight groin injury."

White: "Or tweaked hamstring."

Moments later, White recalled a young Jay Payton, as he and Lefebvre talked about Payton coming out of Georgia Tech at the same time as Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek, and some expected him to be the prize of the bunch.

"Jay Payton had great speed when he came out (of Georgia Tech). Playing center field for the Red Sox."

Payton, of course, did play for the Red Sox, at age 32, in his eighth Major League season. In total, Payton (who had really lost his speed to injuries well before that) played 16 games in center field for the Red Sox. He was a member of the 2000 Mets team that went to the World Series, and had played for three other teams (Mets, Rockies, Padres) by the time he got to Boston.

Just all-around tremendous stuff. I love you, Ryan and Frank. Never change. Continue to think that Melvin Mora is a great player and that Daniel Cabrera throws 98-99 with his fastball. It's OK to be stuck in 2004.

A few quick talking points about the game:

• Trachsel didn't kill us.
• The bullpen nearly did through every pitcher brought in.
• Freddie Bynum is quickly winning me over.
• Nick Markakis is finding his stroke again.
• Brian Roberts is not.
• Aubrey Huff! DONG.
• Melvin Mora! DONG.
• Even Kevbo had a couple hits.
• The Royals are still terrible.

Let's let the face of Kevin Millar tell the story. The days of the Orioles playing .500 ball in 2008 have come and gone, and more likely than not, this is just the beginning.

I'd like to expand on something I said yesterday, too, because discussing the weaknesses is just not something I'm up for this morning.

Aubrey Huff has been hitting, and I say hats off to him. Huff's line is now .277/.353/.471, which makes him the team's second-best hitter, behind Markakis, who is still slumping badly. Diamond Dave even went back to Nick in the three-hole and Mora at No. 2 yesterday, and it made no difference. Markakis still went 0-for-3, but he did take another walk, his 24th of the year.

I have my doubts that this is the case, but has the idea of Markakis pressing to get hits been brought up yet? He was taking a ton of walks early on, but we had Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer and Jim Hunter and Buck Martinez yammering on about how you don't want your three-hitter taking walks -- actually, to be fair, Palmer seemed to understand why he was taking the walks, and summed it up with, "And good for him."

Look, obviously it'd be great if Markakis got to HIT more. But did anyone not see this coming? Putting Huff behind him instead of Millar (.213/.297/.336) is a good start. And more likely than not it's just a slump. Every player has them. But if someone decided to tell Nick he needs to be more aggressive, then that is simply typical Baltimore Orioles, and would be horribly distressing.

But let's talk about the A's. First of all, I want to apologize for dissing Emil Brown and his stupid RBI totals the other day, because he's making me pay for it. Some of you Papa Shango lunatics that believe in voodoo magic via the power of web logs or TV commentators saying "no-hitter" think it's my fault, but credit where it's due, Brown is making the most of an opportunity this season. That said, dude's OPS is still .725, and the Oakland commentators going bananas about "magic stick" and "RBI machine" have killed me for two days. They're actually an enjoyable commentary team in a lot of ways, though. They aren't overbearing, but aren't dull either.

He's still Emil Brown, and that'll catch up with the A's at some point this year.

We've got one more at Oakland, then head out to Kansas City for four games, then back home against the Red Sox. Win or lose, gotta play the games.

Before we close this out, let's give props again to the pitching. Burres did his job, and then Matt Albers finished it out with another strong performance. How they can let Albers sit in the bullpen while Steve Trachsel rots away in the rotation is beyond me. Take a cue from the Tigers, Andy.

via d.yimg.com

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I'm sure. It's one thing to come into this season with low expectations, and knowing the team is going to compete for Worst Team in Baseball, and knowing how rocky and downright bad it's going to be, but it's another thing to actually sit and watch it happen.

The O's came out for 2008 with another surprisingly fast start, ending April in contention. We're a week into May, 16-16, and now we're in fourth place. And brothers and sisters, it's only going to get worse.

We're a half-game up on Toronto, and the Jays are riding a five-game win streak. It's only a matter of time before we get settled in the cellar.

I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic. Think about some of the guys starting for this team. Luis Hernandez and his .542 OPS, weak arm, and frequent boneheaded baserunning mistakes. Ramon Hernandez and his .581 OPS, detrimental alleged defense behind the plate, and frequent boneheaded baserunning mistakes. Luke Scott (.778 and nosediving) and Jay Payton (.642 and steady) are in a left field platoon.

Our starting first baseman is OPSing .672. Nick Markakis is in a massive slump right now. Our number three hitter is Melvin Mora -- .729 OPS.

This offense is offensive.

And it kind of makes you feel bad for a starting pitching crew that is performing a lot better than most would have expected. Jeremy Guthrie (4.06/1.24) is doing his thing again. Daniel Cabrera (4.06/1.35) seems to have found a balance between power pitching and trusting his stuff enough to let people try to hit it. Brian Burres (2.87/1.28) has been terrific. Garrett Olson (2.08/1.08) has been great in two starts since being called up. Steve Trachsel is a waste of time, so let's not even bother talking about him right now.

The bullpen has been a little inconsistent, but they've held their own for the most part. There's not much more you could ask of this pitching staff than what they've given us, to be totally fair.

And then there's the boneheaded baserunning and fielding and other assorted screwery. It's hard to watch a team make so many fundamental little mistakes that wind up costing them games. The A's had no business winning last night. They shouldn't have scored a run.

But then the Orioles shouldn't be making two outs on every hit-and-run they attempt and gloriously fail to execute. The Orioles shouldn't run into so many outs. But Dave has them running, despite their constant presentation of evidence that they don't know how to run the bases. Roberts is a fantastic baserunner. Markakis is a really good, savvy baserunner, last night's boner notwithstanding. But guys like Luis and Adam Jones, while they have speed, aren't good baserunners. It's one of the few times I'll go out of my way to praise Derek Jeter, but that guy is a magnificent baserunner. It's not just speed, and we all know that. Markakis isn't terribly fast, but, like Jeter, he has good instincts and rarely screws himself over.

And it's not just on the bases. It's in the field, too. Melvin Mora, God bless him, makes more idiotic mistakes than anyone I can think of. He also makes a lot of highlight reel plays. His tendency to look to get a glory out and wind up getting nobody out is a little high. Luis Hernandez? I can't really blame him. He's not really a Major League shortstop. He does not have the arm for the position.

I'm not mad about them being bad, and I'm not upset about it, and it doesn't depress me or anything. But it's hard to watch a team so bad on so many levels. They try hard, there's a lot of moxy, and there's plenty of grit. They've got some gamers. That's super.

They stink, though. We all knew they would.

(And Aubrey Huff has been fine.)

via www.baltimoresun.com

O's WIN 4-3!

I didn't watch the game, but here's a place to chat if you did. Notable:

• what slump? Nicky goes 2 for 4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI!
• Guts finally gets his first win since July 27 of last year
• Mora bunts home Luis Luis, so expect to see more bunting from Melmo. Mora is also caught stealing, so expect to see .... more stealing from Melmo.
• The Orioles lead the majors in one-run victories with a record of 8-2. 

You KNOW who's pitching today. I will try not to jinx him by naming him here. 

I came into tonight's game late, and it was 5-0 Mariners. First thing I saw was Jay Payton go deep. The Orioles went on to win 8-7, after I immediately proclaimed that we would win tonight. Just had a feelin', ya know? The first thing I see is a Jay Payton home run. We're winning this thing.

I missed another fabulous start from Adam Loewen, who went two and two-thirds (60 pitches, 33 strikes) with three walks, a strikeout, four hits, five earned runs, and a homer allowed to Adrian Beltre. His ERA is now 7.85. Does anyone really think this dude deserves a rotation spot instead of Matt Albers? Really? I know the team is invested in Loewen, but at what point do you have to STOP THE INSANITY?

The guy can't pitch. Trembley is on record as saying we're foolishly carrying thirteen pitchers (and thus, a bench consisting of Brandon Fahey, Guillermo Quiroz and Jay Payton) because Loewen can't go deep into games.

He's not getting any better about it! You can stick him in the bullpen (since optioning him isn't really an, um, option), but that'll spell disaster, most likely. A couple of years ago, one of the Baseball Prospectus guys said that Loewen might be better off there. The way he simply can't keep the ball over the plate, I have my doubts. Sure he could pump his fastball, but he can't control that thing any better than the rest of his junk.

So what do you do with him? He's taking up a valuable spot on the 25-man roster.

After he was gone, it went a lot better. Matt Albers and Jamie Walker gave up an earned run each (both on Ichiro's two-run bomb off of Walker, but we've already discussed the stupidity of matching Ichiro by the book, as he kills lefties and had healthy numbers against Walker career), but RAN-DOOOOOR! pitched two scoreless right after Loewen, Bradford went one and a third, and Sherrill shut the door after some drunks ran onto the field. I had the dreadful Mariners TV broadcast, but apparently Gary Thorne said they were "not taking it lightly" on the knuckleheads (that one credit to the Seattle booth) that got out there.

That gives Shutdown eight saves on the year, five against the Mariners. And that skirt-wearing weiner Erik Bedard is still too afeared of the mighty, mighty O's. As well he should be!

You know who I hate? Yuniesky Betancourt. 3-for-4. That guy kills us. Get him out of here.

Markakis was 2-for-3 with two walks, Millar managed a sac fly, Huff was 1-for-5 with an RBI, Roberts homered in the eighth to put us up for good, and Adam Jones (Player of the Year, 2010 Seattle Mariners) was 3-for-4 with a two-run, go-ahead double in the seventh.

Much fun all around! Now we have a bunch of games in Chicago against the White Sox, so that wraps up our season series against them, too. Let's do it to it!

Another series won. Can't argue with that.

We don't play this game on paper!

Shut it, Squinty. You give hating the Yankees a bad name.

This is sort of a "random thoughts" idea, although I really don't like how "random thoughts" sounds. I don't like the word "random." It gets used too much. That, in itself, is a random thought. Or, really, I guess it's pretty on-topic.

...

1. Who was that umpire with the hemp necklace? Way to rock your fashion within the confines of your outfit, dude. Let's go see some Daaaaave.
2. On the topic of attire, Gary Thorne about made me pee last night. No man should ever wear so much beige at one time, and his complexion just isn't fit for it to begin with. As for his atrocious tie, let's just say that I hope it was given to him by a young relative for his birthday or something. I'm so catty!
3. Z got to even up Cabrera Bowl '08 with Danny's killer start. So many times I thought he was about to implode, but he manned up. Like a man. I hope Z kicks my ass at the game of Cabrera.
4. LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!
5. Luis Hernandez and Melvin Mora make some of the most God awful fielding mistakes you will ever see on the left side of our infield. Mora is turning into Derek Jeter, making a good amount of highlight reel plays and falling short on what should be the routine. But Mora also has the added boner factor of frequently wanting to throw the ball home when he should just go to second or first and not worry about the run. And then he makes his Melvin Face. You know the face. And Hernandez's arm is dubious.
6. Randor Bierd is just plain cool. You know what I mean?
7. Who would win in a fight: Brandon Fahey or Edwar Ramirez?
8. After all the talk about how Markakis is walking a lot and you don't want your 3-4-5 hitters to walk (despite that the plate discipline of Millar is really his greatest asset and it never ever ever ever ever ever hurts to get on base instead of making an out), it was refreshing to hear Jim Palmer say the following words: "He's going to walk a lot. And why not?" Jim, you have bested Buck. Markakis was 3-for-3 after walking in the first inning.
9. If you haven't noticed, ol' Brian Bob is in a 1-for-17 funk.
10. Yankee fans still talk about their lineup as being the best in baseball a lot of the time, apparently not noticing flaws like Jason Giambi now being exactly as good as the end of the line days of Jeremy Giambi, and only being able to score two runs against the Orioles, both off the bat of Chad Moeller. This is just picking at them while they're down, really. I'm aware that they're going to score their runs.
11. One extra. Even if he goes down as the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of cleats, Alex Rodriguez's ability and all the nice things he does for charity and things of that nature will probably not outlive how big of a tool he is. But I will root for him to break Bonds' home run record, regardless of his toolness. I was a big Bonds fan for a long, long time, and found him to be funny in many ways, but the dude got to be too much. Is baseball missing him or Roger Clemens right now?