Matt Wieters lauded in Peter King's 'Monday Morning Quarterback' column

With the Ravens storming to a confidence-building win and the Orioles stumbling to another  listless loss on Sunday afternoon, it sure feels like summer has turned into fall in these parts.

But amid the Orioles' myriad issues, it's hard to not laud Matt Wieters' for spending as much time as he did behind the plate this past week.

Even Sports Illustrated football guru Peter King had to pay tribute to the Orioles catcher, dedicating a chunk of his popular Monday Morning Quarterback column to Wieters' work week.

Here's what King wrote:

Also hard to not have admiration for Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters (who has sat 20 games all season) after his four-day stretch in Boston and St. Petersburg last week. Wieters caught four days in a row (big deal) and four full games—two nine-[inning] games, as well as 12-, and 18-inning games. He never came out. All on the road, all with wild-card-race pressure, and the 18-innning job after the Orioles arrived at their St. Petersburg hotel after 3 a.m. Friday from Boston. The totals:

Innings caught: 47.

Hours between first pitch of Game 1 and last pitch of Game 4: 79.

Batters faced: 190.

Pitches called: 748.

Different pitchers: 14.

Passed balls: 0.

Errors: 0.

As Wieters told Dan Connolly this weekend, apparently the first 13 or 14 innings are a cakewalk -- it's just after that when it starts to get to a catcher.

"You don't really feel any different in the first 13 or 14 innings than you would in a normal game," Wieters said. "Then when your hips start tightening up, the matter of getting out of the crouch is a little bit tougher. It just becomes a matter of the muscles staying loose so you can move."