Bullpen

SEATTLE -- The Orioles snapped their brief, two-game losing streak with a 7-2 win over the Mariners on Tuesday night . Here are some quotes from the clubhouse after the game: Jason Hammel on his start: “Pleased but not pleased. I'm still throwing way too many pitches in the innings. 100 pitches through five innings is way too many. The walks, the walks are bothersome to me. I made really good pitches before that early in the game. I was spotted to a nice lead again and that is always helpful.

SEATTLE - Before Tuesday night's game against the Seattle Mariners, the Orioles demoted their previous night's starter, Zach Britton, and called up another arm for their bullpen. Cycling in fresh relievers has become a necessity for a club that continues to rely on a superb relief corps to keep them going. In a 7-2 win over the Mariners on Tuesday night, the Orioles posted four runs in the first, had a 13-hit attack and were in control all game. And yet manager Buck Showalter again had to ask his bullpen to pitch four full innings - using four relievers  - to secure the victory, which snapped the club's modest two-game losing streak.

The Orioles bullpen had a - pardon the pun - bird's-eye view of center fielder Adam Jones' two-run homer on Wednesday night. When Jones smoked a line drive to left-center field that hit off the a metal railing over the fence and bounced back in, the Orioles relievers were just feet away from where the ball landed. “There are very few people who could have seen it besides us,” said rookie reliever T.J. McFarland, who had crouched down preparing to field the ball as it reached the fence.”We saw it right there, because the railing is slightly lower than the fence.

One of the key questions for the Orioles this season is whether their bullpen can repeat its success from 2012. Bullpens could actually be a deciding factor in a taut American League East. Hall of Fame pitcher and TBS MLB analyst Dennis Eckersley joined us for a quick Q&A the other day where we discussed bullpens and his expectations for the division. Eckersley - who also works as a studio analyst for NESN, the regional cable network that carries Red Sox games - also gave a brief scouting report of Boston's team as the Orioles begin a three-game series at Fenway Park this afternoon.

Through the opening week of the new season, the Orioles have delighted their fans with an offensive cornucopia and a handful of exciting victories over the Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins, which is just the kind of first impression they were hoping to make after last year's uplifting playoff run. It was also just what they needed to overshadow what has not exactly been a smooth start for the pitching staff that was primarily responsible for...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - One of the major reasons the Orioles were able to outlast the Tampa Bay Rays - a team built on a foundation of strong pitching - for a postseason berth last season was because of the strength of their bullpen. The first two games of the season opening series between these two teams at Tropicana Field have had a playoff feel to them - with dramatic swings of momentum throughout every inning. On Wednesday night, that was evident as the Orioles silently walked off the field as the Rays celebrated an 8-7 walk-off victory on Matt Joyce's solo homer off reliever Tommy Hunter.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Before Jason Hammel could become an Opening Day starter, he had to revisit his simpler days of pitching. Before the crowds, before the expectations, before worrying about his career and where he fit in, he needed to go back to the time when the game was free of distractions, when baseball wasn't much more complicated that throwing a ball through a tire in his backyard as a kid. The 30-year-old right-hander will start the...

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Veteran right-hander Freddy Garcia, who was signed to a minor league deal on Friday, arrived at the Orioles' minor league facility at Twin Lakes Park on Sunday morning, passed his physical and threw a bullpen session in front of Orioles coaches. Wearing a No. 9 jersey without a name on the back, the 14-year veteran said he feels ready for the season - he threw five innings and about 80 pitches in last Saturday in his final start with the Padres before his release - and hopes he can get back to the big leagues with the Orioles.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Even though left-hander Brian Matusz will open the season pitching out of the Orioles' bullpen, where he flourished in the final five weeks of the season, manager Buck Showalter said he still sees Matusz as an option to start. "He's still considered a guy who can do both," Showalter said Saturday. "I still feel like he's got a chance to be a quality starting pitcher for us. This is right move right now for this club. Obviously if we get a long way away from where he is innings-wise, then he'd probably need to make a start or two [at Triple-A Norfolk]

SARASOTA, Fla. - Brian Matusz's roller-coaster season had landed him in Triple-A Norfolk last August, and he was walking along the city's harbor in the shadows of majestic naval battleships with his father, Mike. Days earlier, the Orioles left-hander was told that the organization was moving to the bullpen. He initially saw it as another demotion, and two relief appearances in, the results were unspectacular. He called home to Arizona and asked his father to visit him in Virginia.