SPORTS
By Matt Vensel and The Baltimore Sun | May 1, 2013
Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles. 29:1 -- Kevin Gausman's strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first five starts at Double-A Bowie. Kevin Gausman, the team's first-round draft pick in 2012, is settling in at Double-A Bowie. After consecutive starts in which he allowed just one earned run in each, the 22-year-old is 1-3 with a 3.77 ERA in five starts during his first full professional season. But most impressively, he has walked just one batter while striking out 29, including eight Sunday, his most recent start.
SPORTS
By Dan Connolly and The Baltimore Sun | April 29, 2013
The Orioles won three of four in Oakland, and most of the correspondence I received from fans Sunday was about how they blew the series finale. That's a good sign, I guess. You aren't content with any loss. Been a long time since that was the case (OK, so maybe in the past you weren't content, just resigned.) Anyway, as I flew to Seattle from Oakland after Sunday's game, a couple things stuck with me based on your tweets and emails. One: Many of you are unhappy with reliever Pedro Strop.
SPORTS
By Dan Connolly and The Baltimore Sun | April 28, 2013
Throwing a game away - literally - doesn't usually sit well with teams, especially when they are attempting to establish themselves as consistent winners. So when the Orioles dropped a 9-8, 10-inning loss to the Oakland A's Sunday afternoon on consecutive poor throws following sacrifice bunt attempts, it would be understandable if the players were chewing nails in post-game interviews. For the most part, that was not the case - not after the Orioles (15-10) took three of four in their personal pain chamber, the Oakland Coliseum, to kick off a brutal, three-city, 11-game West Coast swing.
SPORTS
By Eduardo A. Encina and The Baltimore Sun | April 24, 2013
Orioles reliever Pedro Strop said he's never lost his confidence even through some rough outings in the first three weeks of the season. And the Orioles' confidence in Strop to preserve a one-run lead in the eighth inning of their 4-3 win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night was rewarded in turn. “That was huge because that was the game right there,” Strop said afterward. “I've been struggling lately and that's good to have some confidence back, and I feel even better because I gave my team the opportunity to win. Who knows?
SPORTS
By Dan Connolly and The Baltimore Sun | April 22, 2013
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.
SPORTS
By Eduardo A. Encina and The Baltimore Sun | April 12, 2013
In the sixth inning of the Orioles' 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, Orioles manager Buck Showalter turned to bench coach John Russell in the visiting dugout of Fenway Park and made a prognostication in the middle of a tied game. Left-hander Brian Matusz had just overcome a 3-0 count to Jarrod Saltalamacchia to strike him out on a full-count pitch. Matusz came into the game with two on and one out in the sixth, relieving starter Chris Tillman after he threw 96 pitches.