Brian Matusz

Right-hander Jason Hammel had fluid drained from his sore right knee this week and says he believes he is improving - certainly enough to make Friday's scheduled start and stay on the active roster. "I really feel like just getting me out there every fifth day is going to help the team," said Hammel, who is 5-1 with a 3.12 ERA. "Obviously, I don't want to kill the [bullpen], but I think missing me for a couple of weeks right now is probably not in the best interest of myself or the team.

Right-hander Jason Hammel had fluid drained from his sore right knee this week and says he believes he is improving - certainly enough to make Friday's scheduled start and stay on the active roster. "I really feel like just getting me out there every fifth day is going to help the team," said Hammel, who is 5-1 with a 3.12 ERA. "Obviously, I don't want to kill the [bullpen], but I think missing me for a couple of weeks right now is probably not in the best interest of myself or the team.

The Orioles announced several changes to the front office staff Thursday, including the hiring of long-time Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson as a special assistant to executive vice president Dan Duquette. Anderson, 48, was a three-time all-star in his 15-season career as a big-league outfielder, which included 14 years with the Orioles. Anderson worked the past two years in an informal, ad hoc capacity helping with the conditioning and development of players such as Nolan Reimold and Brian Matusz.

During all the mounting losses, the short outings, the brutal beatings from the opposition that left-hander Brian Matusz endured last season, the Orioles faithful remained fairly kind, with only a smattering of boos for his worst performances. Matusz was, after all, considered a key to the club's future after a solid 2010, and the fan base was just waiting to embrace him again. So when he walked off the Camden Yards field Tuesday after throwing a two-hit gem in a 4-1 win against the Boston Red Sox, the announced crowd of 25,171 -- at least those there to cheer the Orioles -- showed its appreciation with a loud and long standing ovation.

Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz said he's put last season's struggles behind him and feels he's become a better pitcher having gone through them. Matusz looked impressive in his first public bullpen session Wednesday. Catcher Matt Wieters said it looked like Matusz's mechanics had improved and he regained his 2010 form. “I felt good,” Matusz said. “I felt nice and loose. The ball was coming out of my hand with no effort and it was coming out nice. I feel like the stuff is there.

Now that Orioles fans have had some time to digest left-hander Brian Matusz's 2012 debut, let's really take a look at the pluses and minuses of his outing against the Yankees, a 6-2 loss, on Monday night. Orioles manager Buck Showalter and catcher Matt Wieters both said emphatically that Matusz is leaps and bounds better than what he was last year. Matusz's velocity was there. He was mostly in the 91-92 range, the same as we saw during the spring, and nowhere near the mid-80s he dropped into last year. Even after the 90-pitch mark, he was still throwing 91.  So for now, let's put that to rest.

Pitching in the minor leagues and still struggling to get hitters out, Brian Matusz, who was thought to be the Orioles' best starting pitcher entering the 2011 season, admitted to Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday that he wasn't mentally prepared at the start of spring training. Down in Sarasota, the Orioles pitching brain trust of Mark Connor and Rick Adair -- Connor is no longer with the team -- tinkered with Matusz's mechanics, and the pitcher said it negatively affected his confidence.

After an abysmal start on Sunday in which he retired just three of the 13 batters he faced, Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz insisted that he was “100 percent healthy.” But he looked so out of sync in the 9-6 loss, Rays manager Joe Maddon said Matusz didn't look quite right. “He's not throwing as hard as he used to,” he said. Meanwhile, in the Baltimore clubhouse, Orioles manager Buck Showalter wasn’t sugarcoating Matusz’s performance, saying that he had hoped to see more improvement from his young starter upon returning from the disabled list.

Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz had plenty of help in his fourth Grapefruit League start Tuesday afternoon against the Phillies at Ed Smith Stadium. Coming off back-to-back scoreless outings, Matusz's outing Tuesday wasn't his best of the spring, but the 25-year-old took another step toward earning a spot in the Orioles' starting rotation. He threw a spring training-high five innings, allowing seven hits — including three hits to lead off innings —but yielded just one run. "It's going to happen over the course of a season, multiple times," Matusz said.

Dan Duquette had been out of a major league front office since 2002, the year he was fired by the Boston Red Sox after eight seasons as the team's general manager. The Orioles had been rejected by one candidate — and possibly more — in the team's month-long search to replace Andy MacPhail as the club's top baseball executive. On Sunday, Duquette found his way back to the big leagues and the Orioles found what they hoped was the man who would lead the team out of its 14-season abyss.

Second baseman Brian Roberts will play in his first baseball game today since sliding headfirst into the first-base bag at Fenway Park on May 16, 2011 - more than a year ago. Yes, it's only a minor league game at Double-A Bowie. And yes, he'll only play the field for a few innings and get a couple at-bats tonight and Thursday and will be exclusively the DH on Friday. Who knows what will happen, whether he can overcome his concussion symptoms and return to the Orioles after his 20-day rehab assignment is over?

Dana Eveland is starting tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays, meaning the Orioles have to make 40-man and 25-man roster moves. They are waiting until Dr. John Wilckens gets to the park and conducts an examination or two before a move will be announced, according to Orioles manager Buck Showalter. Basically, that means the club wants to see how starter Jason Hammel's right knee is progressing and whether he might have to go on the disabled list. Hammel said he is improving and he is optimistic he can make a start - whether it is Monday or Tuesday.

First, the good news for the Orioles: They won't have to play the Rangers again until August, and if their series then is still meaningful, the Orioles can consider that a small victory. More good news: The Orioles head into their weekend series with Tampa Bay tied for first place in the AL East with the Rays at 20-12. OK, now for reality. If things go wrong for the Orioles this weekend - and they don't figure out their suddenly struggling pitching staff - they could conceivably end the weekend in fourth place in the division.

On the heels of one of the most uplifting road trips in recent memory, the Orioles suddenly find themselves at their first critical juncture of the young season, but here's the reason that it might not suck all the wind out of their terrific start: For once, they weren't blindsided by it. Two bullpen-busting marathons in Boston forced the front office to make a series of roster moves this week, and the struggles of starters Tommy Hunter, Brian...

Following the Orioles' 17-inning win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday, Orioles manager Buck Showalter unfolded a piece of paper on his desk that showed the recent pitching schedule at Triple-A Norfolk. The Orioles' 9-6 extra-inning win was costly. The entire bullpen is taxed, with four different relievers - Jim Johnson, Matt Lindstrom, Pedro Strop and Kevin Gregg - going multiple innings. In the 15 th inning, Showalter sent left-hander Brian Matusz, who will start today's home game against the Rangers, to the bullpen.

Right-hander Tommy Hunter had his shortest outing of the season today in the Orioles' series finale against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Hunter lasted just 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs -- all earned -- on eight hits. He allowed four of those runs in the sixth inning, which included a game-tying grand slam by Will Middlebrooks, the third baseman's first big league homer. Hunter's outing was just the third time in 13 games in which an Orioles starter has not thrown a quality start (six or more innings, three or fewer earned runs)

Sarasota, Fla. -- Brian Matusz gave up three runs on six hits during his two-inning performance in the home exhibition opener at Ed Smith Stadium on Monday night, but the pitching line didn't tell the whole story in the Orioles' 10-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Matusz obviously wanted to get off to a good start after struggling through a disastrous 2011 season, but the baseball gods clearly weren't on his side. Of his six hits, one was a bloop single, one was a bunt single, one was an infield nubber and one was a 10-hopper through the infield.

Brian Matusz won't have to wait long to return to the Orioles' rotation. Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Saturday that the struggling left-hander will oppose the New York Yankees in Monday's series opener in New York. Matusz was originally scheduled to face the Tampa Bay Rays today before he was pushed back to get another bullpen session in before his next start. "I think there are some things that him and [pitching coach Rick Adair ] continue to work on," Showalter said.

The Orioles began their current six-game road trip with many believing it would tell us a lot about what we need to know about the 2012 Birds. Baltimore's early-season success could be discounted by a favorable schedule early on, but road series in New York and Boston would be better indicators of the Orioles' staying power. And then the Orioles took two of three in the Bronx, shutting the Yankees bats down to three combined runs. Now they go to Fenway, where they took three of four in their last trip, a precursor to their final-weekend demolishing of the Red Sox's postseason hopes at Camden Yards.

NEW YORK - On Opening Day at Camden Yards, Oriolesstarter Jake Arrieta talked about setting the tone for the season with a quality start. A month later at Yankee Stadium, it was Arrieta continuing to follow the lead of his rotation-mates, throwing eight shutout innings in a 5-0 win over the New York Yankees in what has become an impressive and, frankly, unexpected run of starting pitching.    Surprising, apparently, to everyone but those wearing orange and black. “Those guys have great stuff and great ability,” said Orioles catcher Matt Wieters, whose fourth-inning homer gave his team all the offense it would need.