Jake Arrieta

Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel was not particularly good on Thursday night. He struggled with his command, at one point throwing half of his 28 pitches for balls. He ended up with 104 pitches -- and only 59 for strikes. And yet he allowed just three hits, two runs (none earned) and two walks in six innings against the Oakland Athletics -- who led the majors in runs scored and on-base percentage heading into Thursday -- without being on the top of his game. Hammel may not be an ace, but he is the Orioles' No. 1 pitcher.

The Baltimore sports scene is blessed with a bunch of talented bloggers who bring their unique perspective to the conversation. Each week, I hope to chat with one of them in a regular feature called Blogger on Blogger. This week, I exchanged emails with Daniel Moroz, who blogs about the Orioles for his blog, Camden Crazies . MV: Why hasn't Jake Arrieta developed into the pitcher the Orioles hoped he would become, and at this point, is there anything more they can do as an organization to help him get the most out of his talent?

It's never a pleasant experience for major league ballplayers when one of their struggling teammates gets sent to the minors. In close clubhouses, most of these guys are friends, or friendly anyway. And, frankly, many of them have been through the same situations. It's possible no one in an Orioles uniform has a better understanding of what Jake Arrieta is going through right now than fellow right-hander Jason Hammel. Arrieta, 27, was sent to Triple-A Norfolk on Monday after posting a 6.63 ERA in four starts.

Jake Arrieta spoke for a few minutes about being sent down to Triple-A Norfolk on Monday. He expects to start Friday for the Tides. Here is what he said: "I wasn't doing my job well enough. That's the bottom line. The team needs me. They need me to be better. That's the bottom line, really. I wasn't good enough right now. " What will you work on at Triple-A? "It's pretty obvious. I talked to Buck about a few things. We talked about things as far as high anxiety situations, and he pretty much asked me, 'Why do you have high anxiety in any situation with the stuff that you have?

The Orioles recalled right-handed pitcher Alex Burnett from Triple-A Norfolk, and he is in the clubhouse for tonight's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. In a corresponding move struggling right-hander Jake Arrieta was optioned to Norfolk. Burnett hasn't been told about his role, but he could serve as the team's long reliever for the next two days before the Orioles need a starter for Wednesday's afternoon game. The 27-year-old Arrieta, who is vastly talented but has been inconsistent throughout his big league career, has a 6.63 ERA after four starts this season.

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.

As expected, most of today's pregame interview session with Orioles manager Buck Showalter revolved around right-hander Jake Arrieta, who was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk this afternoon. Arrieta will join the starting rotation in Norfolk -- there's no talk of moving him to a relief role because the Orioles still believe his arsenal of pitches is best utilized as a starter -- and Showalter said he mentioned some things to Arrieta privately that he'd like for him to work on. Showalter expressed that he still has faith that Arrieta can help the Orioles get to the playoffs, but “when will be up to him.” He added that he believes Arrieta's issues are entirely mental.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta stood stonefaced at his locker Sunday afternoon and placed the Orioles' 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers - and a missed chance at the club's first series sweep of the young season - squarely on his own shoulders. “I really didn't feel like the Dodgers beat us today. I beat us. I put us in a tough situation,” said Arrieta, who lasted just four-plus innings, giving up two hits, five walks and five earned runs. “Not giving up many hits at all, just making their job a lot easier by putting them on base for free.

For the fourth consecutive time this season, Orioles starter Jake Arrieta couldn't make it to the sixth inning. Arrieta allowed five runs, all of them earned, against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. He was pulled from the game with the Orioles leading, 4-3, in the top of the fifth inning at Camden Yards. The Dodgers had runners on the corners and no outs when he left. Those two runners scored after T.J. McFarland entered the game, but they were credited to Arrieta, who is in line for the loss if the Orioles don't erase this one-run lead.

For those of you who get all worked up about how Pedro Strop wears his cap - and I hear about this every time he takes the mound - you may want to start worrying about another Orioles pitcher right now. Yes, I'm talking about Jake Arrieta, who has issues that go well beyond wearing his cap at a crazy angle. In his fourth start of the season, the 27-year-old righty had another rough outing in the Orioles' 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday. And it was a major reason why the Orioles couldn't sweep the inter-league series against a Dodgers team with a $216 million payroll that seemed ripe to be put away in the first few innings.