Arrieta

You've seen it before. Way too many times before. Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta has an outing in which he looks great in spurts and terrible in spurts. It happened again Sunday in a 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had three perfect innings. The other two were disasters. And he ended up coughing up the lead in the fifth. Arrieta shouldered the blame. And that's not a problem. Arrieta's not afraid to point the finger at himself. He's also not afraid to work hard, to try and turn things around.

The Orioles recalled right-handed pitcher Alex Burnett from Triple-A Norfolk, and he is in the clubhouse for tonight's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. In a corresponding move struggling right-hander Jake Arrieta was optioned to Norfolk. Burnett hasn't been told about his role, but he could serve as the team's long reliever for the next two days before the Orioles need a starter for Wednesday's afternoon game. The 27-year-old Arrieta, who is vastly talented but has been inconsistent throughout his big league career, has a 6.63 ERA after four starts this season.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta stood stonefaced at his locker Sunday afternoon and placed the Orioles' 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers - and a missed chance at the club's first series sweep of the young season - squarely on his own shoulders. “I really didn't feel like the Dodgers beat us today. I beat us. I put us in a tough situation,” said Arrieta, who lasted just four-plus innings, giving up two hits, five walks and five earned runs. “Not giving up many hits at all, just making their job a lot easier by putting them on base for free.

For the fourth consecutive time this season, Orioles starter Jake Arrieta couldn't make it to the sixth inning. Arrieta allowed five runs, all of them earned, against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. He was pulled from the game with the Orioles leading, 4-3, in the top of the fifth inning at Camden Yards. The Dodgers had runners on the corners and no outs when he left. Those two runners scored after T.J. McFarland entered the game, but they were credited to Arrieta, who is in line for the loss if the Orioles don't erase this one-run lead.

For those of you who get all worked up about how Pedro Strop wears his cap - and I hear about this every time he takes the mound - you may want to start worrying about another Orioles pitcher right now. Yes, I'm talking about Jake Arrieta, who has issues that go well beyond wearing his cap at a crazy angle. In his fourth start of the season, the 27-year-old righty had another rough outing in the Orioles' 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday. And it was a major reason why the Orioles couldn't sweep the inter-league series against a Dodgers team with a $216 million payroll that seemed ripe to be put away in the first few innings.

It depends on which line you want to consider before truly assessing Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta's performance in the club's 5-4 win against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night. Arrieta's pitching line wasn't pretty: He lasted only five innings for the third consecutive start in this young season. He walked five, gave up three hits and threw 112 pitches, only 63 of them for strikes. Then there's the silver lining: Arrieta allowed just one run, thanks, in part, to his seven strikeouts.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter often is tough on pitcher Jake Arrieta, pointing out things the 27-year-old right-hander didn't do well when he turns in a strong performance. Tuesday was another adequate but uninspiring start this season from Arrieta, who allowed one run on three hits and five walks in five innings. He threw 112 pitches, 63 strikes, and couldn't record an out in the sixth. Showalter wasn't too critical of Arrieta this time, though. In fact, he seemed annoyed by the line of questioning afterward - basically saying that Arrieta needs to have better control and go deeper in games, but he won Tuesday and that should be the main point of emphasis.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Wednesday's 43-minute rain delay was too long to allow starter Jake Arrieta to continue his outing when the game resumed in the sixth inning. Instead, he went to right-hander Tommy Hunter, who struck out the first two batters he faced, then gave up back-to-back solo homers to Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. “It would have been around 50 minutes before he threw his first pitch,” Showalter said of Arrieta. “I think that was a little too much, especially with the weather and the time of the year.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Despite pitching with a blister on his middle finger that prevented him from throwing breaking balls, Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta felt good about his final tune-up before Friday's regular season home opener against the Minnesota Twins. Arrieta threw five innings against a collection of Orioles minor leaguers, throwing fastballs and changeups exclusively. Arrieta said the blister should be fine by Friday. “Just didn't throw the slider or the curveball today because those two pitches put pressure on the inside of my middle finger and it needs a couple days for that nail to grow out and let that skin to generate, but I'm all good to go,” Arrieta said.” Just fastball changeup [today]

Right-hander Jake Arrieta came into spring camp as one of a host of candidates for an open spot in the Orioles' starting rotation.  There was no question is his mind, though, on who would win the competition: Him. “No, absolutely not. Whether that's cockiness or overconfidence, whatever you want to call it. that's just the way that I personally had to approach the situation, with that mindset," he said. "Knowing that I had to go out and actually show it and not just know it in my mind.