First Inning

It would have been nice. It would have taken some of the sting out of a season turned sour.The Orioles were in a position to take a broom to the runaway New York Yankees last night and sweep them right out of Camden Yards. Instead, Orioles public enemy No. 1 Darryl Strawberry lowered the boom in a 5-3 Yankees victory that prevented the Orioles from taking sole possession of third place in the American League East.Strawberry hit the longest home run in the history of Oriole Park and left-hander Andy Pettitte gave up just two runs on six hits over 7 1/3 innings to remain undefeated in six career decisions in Baltimore.

Orioles starter Jason Hammel didn't do much to alleviate manager Buck Showalter's pregame concerns about playing a doubleheader Saturday against the Dodgers. Hammel allowed three runs -- all on a towering homer by right fielder Andre Ethier -- during a 32-pitch first inning in Game 1 against the Dodgers. He then allowed another run in the second on Mark Ellis' sacrifice fly. Of the first 10 batters Hammel faced, six reached base. He needed 51 innings to get through the second inning.

Visiting Centennial scored five first-inning runs and junior pitcher Kim May took care of the rest as the No. 3 Eagles blanked No. 10 Westminster, 12-0, in both teams' season-openers yesterday afternoon in Deer Park.The Eagles' first five hitters reached base and later scored. Marcia Kunkel and May both had doubles, drove in a run and scored in the inning.The Owls tried to answer in the bottom of the first with runners on first and second and one out, but May got clean-up hitter Gina Hughes to pop out to first and then struck out Kristen Stull to end the inning.

Joe Saunders talked Tuesday about how excited he was to pitch in a pennant race -- and to do it for the team he grew up following (he is from Springfield, Virginia). On Wednesday, things didn't go particularly well for the 31-year-old lefty. In the first inning against the Chicago White Sox, Saunders allowed four runs on four hits and a walk, putting the Orioles into a 4-0 hole before his new teammates had a chance to bat. Saunders made it into the sixth in his Orioles debut -- he was acquired Sunday from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Matt Lindstrom and a player to be named -- but was pulled with two runners on base; both scored.

The Orioles have devised a method that may help them break their annoying habit of falling behind in the early stages of a game.Noting that the club was quickly in arrears by three or more runs six times in the previous eight games, manager John Oates and pitching coach Al Jackson gave Jeff Robinson an extra five minutes of warmup time before yesterday's game with the Minnesota Twins."

COLLEGE PARK - -Senior pitcher Jordan Eades and the Franklin Indians began playing up to their potential during Saturday's Class 3A state title game against Northern of Calvert County. Unfortunately for the Indians, it began an inning late. Before the No. 6 Indians rid themselves of championship game jitters, the Patriots scored four first-inning runs. It was plenty for sophomore pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser, who lost her bid for a perfect game with two outs in the sixth and ended up with a one-hitter in Northern's 4-0 win over Franklin at the University of Maryland.

Centennial sophomore Brad Loveless admitted his first varsity start made him a little nervous yesterday. The short fences at Hammond and the Bears' home-run hitting lineup can give the most veteran of high school pitchers a case of jitters. But his offense treated him to a four-run first inning to ease his nerves, and the sharp-looking right-hander turned in a sound performance, leading the No. 8-ranked Eagles (2-0 overall, 2-0 league) to a key 8-5 victory over No. 12-ranked Hammond. Both teams had opened their seasons Thursday with no-hit pitching performances.

Opening night of the much-ballyhooed "Baseball: An Illustrated History": Let's put it this way. Ken Burns, driving force behind the 18 1/2 -hour undertaking on PBS, has his work cut out over the next eight innings. Someone drilled a three-run homer off him in the first inning . . . and it hit the warehouse on the fly.Maybe it was a case of expecting too much under the flood of advance publicity and the commercialization that no doubt will see Burns doing personal appearances on QVC and the rest of the home shopping network stops.

BOSTON -- Jason Varitek's three-run homer in the Boston Red Sox's crushing first inning last night soared over the Green Monster and landed in a parking lot beyond Lansdowne Street. Mike Lowell's towering fly ball in the sixth settled in the second row in the elevated left-field seats at Fenway Park, not as impressive as Varitek's clout, but a homer nonetheless. In between the two long balls, Garrett Olson did exactly what the Orioles needed. But the four straight scoreless innings he turned in couldn't undo a brutal first inning in which Olson reverted back to the form that he showed in September.

One day after allowing five unearned runs in the top of the seventh in an emotional loss to the Institute of Notre Dame, No. 9-ranked Franklin came back yesterday against host Liberty with just one thing on its mind.Said coach Rick Wiscott: "We needed a quick start."The Indians did just that, sending 11 batters to the plate, taking advantage of four errors, and scoring seven runs in the first inning en route to an 11-1, six-inning win over the Lions.Following Tuesday's late collapse in a 5-4 loss, mainly because of lapses in the field, Franklin (3-1)

 There may have been rust or jitters or simply a lack of recent familiarity with the American League.  Joe Saunders, however, chalks up his rough Orioles debut on Wednesday to one bad inning - the first, in which he allowed four runs on four hits and a walk.  “You always want to set a good impression your first time,” said Saunders, who was acquired Sunday from Arizona for reliever Matt Lindstrom. “It sucks that that first inning was the first inning. But you've got to turn the page quick and look forward to the next start.” Overall, Saunders, a Northern Virginia native, allowed seven runs (six earned)

Standing by his locker following the Orioles' ugly 10-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, rookie right-hander Miguel Gonzalez offered no excuses. “I've just got to get better,” he said. Up until Wednesday, Gonzalez had been good. In three previous major league starts, he gave the Orioles two quality starts and was just one out away from a third. But against the Rays, Gonzalez suffered through his worst outing in his young major league career. The Orioles trailed after just one pitch.

For 14 seasons, Camden Yards has been devoid of playoff hopes in September. Now, that malaise is spreading to the visitors' dugout. With a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night, the Orioles (62-88) have won four consecutive games against teams clinging to postseason dreams. They have one more game against the Angels on Sunday, then try to ruin the baseball lives of the American League wild-card-leading Boston Red Sox next week at Fenway Park. "I think it more so just shows the type of people we are as a team," said Orioles rookie left-hander Zach Britton, who allowed just three hits, two walks and a run over seven excellent innings.

NEW YORK - On a day in which the Orioles traded two of their more popular veterans for three young players, the club turned a doubleheader in Yankee Stadium over to two 23-year-old starting pitchers who are supposed to be part of the future. It's safe to say the future did not look particularly bright Saturday, as the New York Yankees beat the Orioles' 8-3 in the afternoon and then pummeled them 17-3 in the nightcap. The Orioles (42-62) have dropped eight games in nine tries against the Yankees (63-42)

There were options had the Orioles wanted to skip Jeremy Guthrie's start or, at the very least, push it back a couple of days to make sure the right-hander had recovered from a back strain. But Guthrie wanted the ball, and Orioles manager Buck Showalter decided there were worse things than having his Opening Night starter on the mound looking to extend a two-game road winning streak. That decision hung over the early innings Tuesday night as Guthrie was rocked for five quick runs and the Orioles never recovered in a 9-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of an announced 33,806 at PNC Park.

For weeks, they promised that an offensive outburst like this one was coming. Even as the scoring opportunities vanished amid ill-timed strikeouts and double-play balls, the Orioles maintained that they were a good offensive club and it was only a matter of time before they showed it. The long-awaited offensive breakout arrived Monday night, when the Orioles scored five runs in the first and knocked out overmatched Pittsburgh Pirates starter Charlie...

NEW YORK - Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson proudly eschews numbers and statistics for old-fashioned baseball sense. He has said repeatedly that he doesn't need a computer printout to know how his team and players are doing. He certainly didn't need to be told that the Nationals had scored in the first inning only twice in their first 16 games, and that they had won both times. Now, after pounding the New York Mets, 11-4, to avoid a sweep at Shea Stadium yesterday, the Nats are 3-for-3 when they grab a first-inning lead.

Even in this disaster of an Orioles season, it normally takes a couple innings, maybe half a game or more, before the evening's hope at Camden Yards disappears. Last night, against the Toronto Blue Jays, it took one pitch. Victor Zambrano's first fastball of the night plunked Blue Jays leadoff hitter Reed Johnson in the backside. It was enough to start a Toronto rally that left the Orioles down eight runs before they came to bat in an eventual 8-5 loss. And enough to give Orioles fans that here-we-go-again feeling in another here-we-go-again September.

Fifth starter candidate Chris Tillman gave up three runs in the first inning of his second exhibition start but said afterward that the results were not indicative of the quality of his performance in the Orioles' 6-5 split-squad loss to the Boston Red Sox at City of Palms Park. "I felt great in that first inning," Tillman said. "We made some minor adjustments in my last side session, and what better time to try them? ? I went out there with a game plan. I went out there to work on some things.

The pomp and circumstance of Opening Day at Ed Smith Stadium gave way to an Orioles hit parade as they connected for five homers in the first two innings en route to a 12-6 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays before a sellout crowd of 7,497. With Orioles owner Peter Angelos watching from a seat next to the dugout, Nick Markakis, Vladimir Guerrero and Adam Jones hit homers in the first inning off Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine. Jake Fox and Markakis added homers in the second, both off Sonnanstine, who allowed five homers while getting six outs.