Homer

It took reliever Chris Ray all of two innings to get over the disappointment of his 2009 debut. As he sat in the dugout Monday after allowing a two-run homer to the New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui and issuing a walk to Jorge Posada, Ray watched Dennis Sarfate induce a clutch double play and Cesar Izturis extend the Orioles' lead with a two-run homer. "After that, I had already forgotten what happened," Ray said. It was the first appearance since July 2007 for the former closer, who missed all last season after having ligament-reconstruction surgery on his right elbow.

Uehara excels The Orioles' Koji Uehara saved his best performance for last this spring against the Washington Nationals in Norfolk, Va. Uehara dominated in six innings, allowing just one hit - a two-run homer that Ryan Zimmerman golfed around the left-field foul pole. Uehara retired 10 straight to start the game, walked Nick Johnson and allowed Zimmerman's homer before setting down the final eight. He struck out three, throwing 73 pitches, including 15 of 20 first-pitch strikes. Afterward, the club presented him with a cake to celebrate his 34th birthday.

Running away The Orioles must have liked starter Joe Blanton's delivery. Or they were just in a hurry to score. They stole five bases yesterday, including three by Corey Patterson. Two of Patterson's swipes came in the sixth inning, and he was part of a double steal with Brian Roberts. Both men scored on Nick Markakis' three-run homer. Jay Payton had the other steal for the Orioles, who began the day fourth in the American League with 36 thefts, one fewer than the Texas Rangers. Muscling up When the Orioles weren't outrunning balls thrown by Oakland catcher Adam Melhuse, they were crushing the ones delivered by Blanton.

Huff homer? With two on and two out in the first inning, Aubrey Huff drilled a ball to deep right-center field that bounced high into the air after appearing to hit the top of the wall, but video replays were inconclusive. It was initially ruled a three-run homer, which would have been Huff's first this season, but the umpires changed the call, making it a two-run ground-rule double. Huff, who entered the game batting .220, went 2-for-4 and scored a run. No doubter Nick Markakis hit his first career grand slam in the eighth inning on the 11th pitch of his at-bat against Royals reliever Todd Wellemeyer.

NEW YORK -- Buddy Bell, the 55-year-old Kansas City Royals manager, was standing behind the batting cage before the game Sunday, discussing why he is stepping down after the season to spend more time with his family. Bell, who had a health scare last year when it was discovered he had a cancerous tonsil, talked about his daughter, who has Down syndrome, and his 80-year-old mother as primary reasons for wanting to go home to Cincinnati and get out of the all-consuming managerial rat race.

The baseball season is no longer young. That can be a hard thing to accept for fantasy players, who've spent the past few weeks thinking their bad choices from draft day will become good ones based on a few twists of fortune. But we're about one-third of the way into the season, and if your team is mediocre or just lousy at this point, it may actually be mediocre or lousy. On the bright side, with more than four months left, few teams are beyond fixing. To begin repairs, we must decide how to value players who have either exceeded or undershot preseason expectations.

When the Orioles signed Jamie Walker to a three-year, $12 million deal this offseason, there were eyebrows raised around baseball. To some, it seemed a high price tag for a pitcher primarily known as a left-handed specialist. But in his first season as an Oriole, Walker has been so much more. He has gotten key outs against both left-handed and right-handed hitters and converted all four of his save opportunities when Chris Ray went to the disabled list. Last night, the Orioles needed him to get out a key left-hander in the seventh inning, Walker's specialty.

1974: Ali tops Foreman in 'Rumble in Jungle'1975: Fisk waves homer fair1977: Guthrie first woman to qualify at Indy 500

A ruddily astringent Michael Caine delivers a memorable performance in "The Cider House Rules," the first adaptation of a John Irving novel to be written by the author.Readers of the 1985 best seller will find a pared-down and compressed version of the book, but Irving has taken care to preserve its most crucial story lines, philosophical elements and tone.In this handsome production, brought vividly to life by Lasse Hallstrom ("My Life As a Dog"), Irving finally seems to receive the screen treatment his books deserve.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Their third baseman was in Baltimore, their left fielder was at third base and the bench still wasn't at full capacity. They hadn't won in five days. And don't even mention the wild card.The Orioles were in desperate need of some good news last night, a diversion from the nasty intrusion of reality.They expected to find it in a logical place -- the right arm of Scott Erickson. But they no longer can depend on anything.Given an early lead, Erickson handed it back in the second inning and lost for the first time in two months, 7-1, to the Oakland Athletics before 10,178 at Network Associates Coliseum.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - -They led by three runs and had only nine outs to get to end a 10-game losing streak that added even more heartache to a season that had already been miserable enough. The Orioles received a quality start from Mark Hendrickson, a two-run homer from Brian Roberts and two rare two-out RBI hits. With the way things have been going, it was probably far too much to ask for the bullpen to protect a lead. Continuing the one-bullpen-implosion-per-night theme of the road trip, Matt Albers served up a game-tying three-run homer to pinch hitter Willy Aybar with two outs in the seventh inning, one of four Tampa Bay Rays' home runs.

It wasn't exactly how Matt Wieters envisioned the first game-ending home run of his big league career. With barely 100 people in the stands after a long late-game rain delay, Wieters launched the first pitch he saw from Russ Springer into the left-field seats. His two-run, ninth-inning homer pushed the Orioles to a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays before what remained of an announced 10,548 at wet Camden Yards. When the game finally ended, there were seemingly as many Orioles at home plate to greet and pound on Wieters as there were fans in the crowd.

The night had already been shaping up as a trying one when Chris Ray's full-count slider hung right over the plate, just where Andy Marte wanted it. After a rain - or perhaps more appropriately - a drain delay of one hour, 37 minutes, the Orioles' misery was extended and their one-run lead was gone in less than an inning. Ray, who had given up a run in just one of his past 15 outings, served up a three-run homer to Marte in the Cleveland Indians' 5-3 victory over the Orioles in front of an announced 24,358 at wet Camden Yards.

He hit the first Orioles home run in Camden Yards history in 1992, but that poke is long forgotten. What Baltimore fondly recalls of Mike Devereaux is his game-winning homer in the summer of 1989 during the Orioles' improbable push for the American League East pennant. By the All-Star break, those Birds seemed a team of destiny, a ragtag bunch that could do no wrong. Devereaux proved that. On July 15, in a game fixed in the minds of Orioles fans, the rookie slammed a walk-off two-run homer that curled around the left-field foul pole at Memorial Stadium and gave the home team an 11-9 comeback victory over the California Angels.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- On a night when the Orioles' young phenom pitcher was at his most effective, their veteran second baseman hit a grand slam and their sleep-deprived closer had to hold on for four outs, it was perhaps baseball's most understated offensive weapon that halted the Orioles' five-game losing streak in an 8-7 win against the Tampa Bay Rays. A two-out walk. A two-out walk by the free-swinging Felix Pie, who had two strikes against him before shifting into patient zone, watching four consecutive pitches go by and trotting to first to load the bases in a 1-1 game in the sixth.

WASHINGTON -Long after his team had fallen way behind and swaggered all the way back-and later, after the fireworks had popped, the clubhouse music had died down and most of his teammates had showered and left-soft-spoken relief pitcher Logan Kensing reclined in his clubhouse chair and said, "Lately it just seems like we're alive." Comebacks are the best litmus test for life; they require vigor at the exact depths where it's tempting to have none. The Washington Nationals have life. Down six early, their starting pitcher gone after five outs, again forced to ride a tired bullpen, playing their 22nd consecutive game without a day off, the Nationals battled back for a 12-8 victory over the Florida Marlins at Nationals Park, winning their season-high fifth straight game.

DETROIT - -In a season in which little seemingly has gone right for Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie, the enigmatic right-hander posted one of his best outings of the year Wednesday night, cruising through seven innings while pitching the way he did much of 2008. Typically of Guthrie's 2009 campaign, however, it wasn't enough. Detroit's Edwin Jackson was even more dominant, and the Tigers broke through against the Orioles' bullpen in a three-run eighth for a 4-2 victory at Comerica Park.

Best wins Orioles 10, Yankees 5 (April 6): : With a sellout Opening Day crowd of 48,607 booing Mark Teixeira's every move, the Orioles pounded New York's new $161 million ace CC Sabathia for six earned runs and 13 base runners over just 4 1/3 innings. In his first game as an Oriole, Cesar Izturis connected for a two-run homer and Jeremy Guthrie turned in a quality start to out-duel Sabathia, his former Cleveland Indians teammate. Orioles 12, Blue Jays 10, 11 innings (May 27): : After being controlled for seven innings by Toronto ace Roy Halladay, the Orioles erased an 8-3 deficit by scoring five times in the eighth.

Melvin Mora was expecting an extra-base hit off the right-field wall in the 12th inning of Saturday night's 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays when the ball kept carrying. By the time he rounded first base, Mora realized he had just hit the second walk-off homer of his career and his first home run of any kind in 189 at-bats spanning a career-worst homerless drought of 51 games. "When I was running and I crossed first base, I just think, 'Oh my god, all the questions I have to answer today after the game,' " said Mora, who has three homers in 2009 after 23 last year.

Berken does his part Rookie Jason Berken held the Mets scoreless for five innings, walked none and recorded a career-high eight strikeouts. But he still left the mound with his club trailing. Berken allowed two runs in the sixth and then a two-out RBI double to Daniel Murphy before he was pulled. Danys Baez allowed an inherited runner to score, so Berken was charged with four runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings despite allowing one single through his first five innings. Andino hits first O's homer Shortstop Robert Andino's home run in the third against the Mets' Livan Hernandez gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.