Fastball

Orioles pitcher Tommy Hunter is undoubtedly well-regarded by the club's organizational brass. Even though he's only 25, he's pitched in big games and played in the postseason while he was with the Rangers. He's a guy who the Orioles would like to be a part of their rotation for years to come. Hunter is not going to overwhelm batters with his stuff. Instead, he relies on his fastball command to work hitters. But over his past two starts, Hunter has struggled. In an eventual 7-5 win at Toronto last week, he allowed four homers, tying a career high.

As the Orioles went 5-1 on this week's six-game homestand, it's been an eventful week for right-handed reliever Pedro Strop. Earlier this week, with closer Jim Johnson hospitalized with food poisoning, Strop had the opportunity to step into the ninth-inning role and earned his first two career big-league saves on back-to-back nights Tuesday and Wednesday against Toronto. Strop, who has spent most of the season pitching in an eighth-inning set-up role, thrived under the late-inning pressure, throwing 98-mph two-seam sinking fastball that cuts off the corners of the plate.

With her diminutive stature and cherubic appearance, Alison Kleiner doesn't look very imposing on the mound.But don't be fooled by appearances.The 5-foot Owings Mills sophomore is one of Baltimore County's hardest throwers."

Dylan Bundy, the Orioles' 2011 first-round draft pick, extended his season-long no-hitter Tuesday night with four perfect frames in Delmarva's 4-2 win against Greenville (BOS). Bundy struck out six batters, including two in his first foray into the fourth inning of the season, and needed just 44 pitches to retire all 12 Greenville batters he faced. After the game, pitching coach Troy Mattes said Bundy was “pretty much overpowering” with his fastball, which sat at 96 and 97 mph and touched 99 mph later in the outing.

Throughout the season, Jim Henneman of The Sun's sports staff will offer his inside pitch -- an analytical look at the turning point in a particular Orioles game, a trend affecting the team or an important aspect of a player's performance. There was an obvious key to Mike Mussina's success yesterday. It arrived early, and at about 90 mph.And if there are any lingering doubts about the right-hander's arm strength, he went a long way toward dismissing them in the first three innings. Until Mike Macfarlane broke the spell with a fourth-inning home run, just about every meaningful pitch Mussina made was a fastball.

NEW YORK -- The theories as to why Chris Ray has been such a rousing success in his first month as a major league closer flew all around both clubhouses at Yankee Stadium this past weekend. That will happen when a not-yet-well-known 24-year-old reliever goes into one of the toughest environments in sports and challenges reigning American League Most Valuable Player Alex Rodriguez with four straight fastballs with a one-run lead and two men on in the ninth inning. That will happen when a closer armed with a fastball in the high 90s eschews conventional baseball wisdom and strikes out Hideki Matsui by throwing a full-count, two-out slider with the bases loaded and the game hanging in the balance.

Now the mood is sympathetic, generally followed with words of remorse, to Leon Day and the legion of black baseball players who had the ponderous doors of prejudice slammed in their faces before R&R (Rickey and Robinson). Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the game's emancipator, signed Jackie Robinson as the first black to a major-league contract.In tandem, they, in 1945, changed an all-white establishment to a sport where it wasn't the color of a man's skin that was important but how well he got around on the fastball or fought off a sliding baserunner.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - When John Stephens takes his last steps from the bullpen area tomorrow and pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers, hide the radar guns and just watch the ball. See how it sneaks past hitters who must wonder how they're missing something that looks the size of a cantaloupe. See their heads shake as they return to the dugout, certain that they won't be fooled again. His fastball might exceed 84 mph if he reaches back far enough and lets it rip. It's not exactly batting-practice speed, but he's a long way from the kind of heat most of the Orioles are packing this spring.

MONTREAL -- The re-education of Pete Smith continues. Smith may be a 12-year veteran, but he is still adapting to American League ways as well as rediscovering confidence in a fastball once diminished by recurring shoulder problems.On Wednesday at Camden Yards against the Florida Marlins, Smith will make his fourth start since being acquired from the San Diego Padres. He hopes to receive his first positive return on a more aggressive approach suggested by pitching coach Mike Flanagan, broadcaster and Hall of Famer Jim Palmer and former Atlanta Braves teammate Tom Glavine.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The education of Eric the Oriole enters its second week today. His course load includes the hard lessons of a National League crossover.Eric Davis began the season as the Orioles' cleanup hitter but by no means considers himself the club's most potent power source.Once capable of 124 home runs in four seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, he is only two years removed from a full season's hiatus. As for the peculiarities of American League pitching well, Davis often finds himself thinking backward at the plate.

Orioles pitcher Tommy Hunter is undoubtedly well-regarded by the club's organizational brass. Even though he's only 25, he's pitched in big games and played in the postseason while he was with the Rangers. He's a guy who the Orioles would like to be a part of their rotation for years to come. Hunter is not going to overwhelm batters with his stuff. Instead, he relies on his fastball command to work hitters. But over his past two starts, Hunter has struggled. In an eventual 7-5 win at Toronto last week, he allowed four homers, tying a career high.

The Orioles couldn't have asked more from Jake Arrieta in his first Opening Day start. The 26-year-old right-hander allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out four batters in seven scoreless innings. Only two runners reached second base against Arrieta - and both were with two outs. He threw 97 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. He consistently hit in the mid-90s with his fastball and his slider was particularly sharp. Matt Lindstrom is in to pitch the eighth, making his Orioles' debut.

This was only Brian Matusz 's second Grapefruit League outing of the spring, but the results had to have Orioles fans optimistic. Matusz, trying to rebound from a poor 2011 season, threw four scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Bright House Field on Saturday. Matusz, whose velocity dropped into the mid-80s last season, had radar guns behind home plate consistently showing him in the 90-91 mph range, and his fastball peaked at 94 in the fourth inning.

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.

Nearly a week ago, the Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays faced off in a battle of the Jeremys at Camden Yards. In that one, Rays rookie Jeremy Hellickson was wild but effective while Orioles veteran Jeremy Guthrie was downright awful in one of the worst statistical outings of his career. On Friday night at Tropicana Field, Guthrie pitched much better, but the end result was the same, another Orioles' loss, 3-0, to the red-hot Rays in front of an announced crowd of 20,476. After sweeping them in the season-opening series in April, the Orioles (17-20)

New closer Mike Gonzalez wants to make one thing clear -- no matter what the radar readings say, no matter how he has looked during his first two outings, his arm feels fine. Gonzalez was able to face just two hitters in an Orioles "B" game on Saturday versus the Florida Marlins at Ed Smith Stadium. However, his abridged outing was a result of some soreness in his lower back and not anything related to his arm. "My arm feels great and everything else," Gonzalez said. "I just had a little tightness in my lower back.

WASHINGTON -- Sometimes, well-placed fastballs speak louder than words. New York Mets ace Pedro Martinez has been known to throw his share directly at the enemy, sending the message: "I own that plate." Washington Nationals slugger Jose Guillen has been known to absorb his share of hit-by-pitches, and then relay his own message with steps toward the mound and a menacing glare that says: "I can hurt you." The two collided last week, when Martinez twice plunked Guillen, and the Nationals outfielder reacted by walking toward the mound with his bat in hand before the potential dustup was calmed.

- If there was any lingering concern about Chris Tillman 's back, he erased it Friday night by pitching two perfect innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates in his Grapefruit League 2010 debut. Tillman, relying mostly on his fastball but mixing in a few off-speed pitches and one cutter, struck out three and threw 22 of his 33 pitches for strikes. "I think it went well," Tillman said. "I just wanted to locate my fastball tonight, and they made me do that a little bit. For the first one in four months, it felt good.

Kyle Farnsworth enters his 12th big league season, somehow still a project. His tools belie his consistently disappointing results, a fact Cubs fans won't forget after his work against the Marlins in the 2003 NLCS after he replaced Mark Prior in the eighth inning of Game 6 and followed Kerry Wood into Game 7. And that didn't go so well. But it's going to be interesting to see how he does at his latest adventure. The 33-year-old Farnsworth, who still looks as intimidating as almost any pitcher in the majors, will get a chance to start for the Royals, who must figure they have nothing to lose.