Minnesota Twins

Despite their first four-game sweep in more than a year, one that culminated with Thursday's 6-1 victory against the reeling Minnesota Twins, the Orioles seem to understand life isn't about to get any easier as they return home Friday. They're scheduled to play five games in four days against the mighty New York Yankees in a series that might be interrupted by Hurricane Irene's rampage. They'll also be dealing with another type of storm, a swirling, emotional one that struck in the middle of Wednesday's game when news broke that MASN broadcaster, former Orioles pitching great and team executive Mike Flanagan had died -- and one that is sure to resurface again Friday as the city collectively mourns the loss of one of its favorite sons at Camden Yards.

With the Orioles limping toward the finish line of another lost season, the small victories that can be had in late August revolve more around the future than anything involving 2011. Case in point: left-hander Zach Britton, the rookie who took the American League by storm in April only to make dubious baseball history in July. On Monday, in a 4-1 victory against the Minnesota Twins that broke the Orioles' five-game losing streak, Britton was back pitching in the majors after a stint on the disabled list with a strained left shoulder.

The Orioles' new shortstop, with the movie star looks and the West Coast ease, hasn't been hard to find the past four weeks. On most mornings, he turns his chair around at his corner locker and faces a roomful of new teammates. He interacts with fellow infielders, accepts challenges at the pingpong table and takes in the culture in his third big league clubhouse in as many years.  This is J.J. Hardy in his element. This is also in stark contrast with the person he became seven years ago when a shoulder injury jeopardized a promising career before it had really even started.

April 28, 1988: The Orioles lost to the Minnesota Twins to fall to 0-21 on the season. They finally got their first win the following day against the Chicago White Sox.

MINNEAPOLIS - - Even in their losses recently, and there have been plenty of them, the Orioles have played pretty good baseball. But in Tuesday night's deflating 7-6 defeat to the Minnesota Twins before an announced 23,690 at the Metrodome, they did just enough to make sure that they wound up with the loss. The Twins scored three times in the sixth inning to tie the game and then won it in the ninth on Delmon Young's RBI single to right field off Kam Mickolio, his fourth hit of the night.

The Minnesota Twins are barely hanging on in the playoff race as they've struggled to compensate for an injury-ravaged rotation and a pitching staff that has the fourth worst ERA in the American League. Kevin Slowey (right wrist surgery) is out for the season, while Glen Perkins (left shoulder tendinitis) and Francisco Liriano (left arm fatigue) are also both on the disabled list. The Twins do have superstar catcher Joe Mauer, one of the front-runners for the AL Most Valuable Player award.

WIGGINTON AT WORK Ty Wigginton has been impressing the coaching staff with his bat all spring, but he had a particularly productive afternoon. He doubled home the first run in the first inning, singled in another in the second and broke a tie at 3 with a run-scoring single in the seventh. He's batting .308 in 39 at-bats and leads the Orioles with 10 RBIs. JONES STAYS HOT Center fielder Adam Jones had two hits and scored two runs. He has been one of the most productive hitters of the spring, raising his average to .342.

At the outset of this season, one of the Orioles' primary goals was to identify younger players for the future. The losing record and last-place finish would be tolerable if proper building blocks were established. So the frustration level of Orioles manager Dave Trembley boiled over the past few weeks, not because of the continual losses, but because borderline major leaguers were getting ample opportunities and few were seizing them. Yesterday, after the Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-3, to avoid a home sweep, Trembley saw some glimpses of what could be. "I think today was a game that gives us something to be excited about for the future," Trembley said.

People accuse us old liberals of smarmy self-righteousness, and God knows they are right. Four of us had lunch the other day and we agreed before we sat down: no politics. We know what we're going to say, so why say it? Self-righteousness is a good old American vice, and we have it, and though preferable to cruelty and cynicism and deliberate dumbheadedness, nonetheless remind yourself: You are not so different from the others. So when we got onto politics halfway through my tuna sandwich, I said a deliberate unself-righteous thing: "I don't think any of us believes what we say we believe.

Blogging about the Orioles isn't for the faint of heart. The team, which opens the 2008 season tomorrow, used to have about 30 blogs focused on it, according to baseballblogs.org. That was on a par with the San Francisco Giants (30 blogs) and Seattle Mariners (31), but well below the rabid followings of the Boston Red Sox (145) and New York Yankees (112). Even some teams without the Orioles' pedigree or in smaller markets had more blogs about them, such as the 3-year-old Washington Nationals (34)