Night Game

The Ravens will play in three nationally televised games during the 2000 season, and five of the team's first seven games are on the road, including three against AFC Central rivals. The NFL yesterday released the Ravens' 16-game schedule, which includes opening the season on the road against Pittsburgh after playing their final two preseason games away from home. The Ravens have a three-game road stint to open October against Cleveland, Jacksonville and Washington. But the team will end the season by playing four of its final five games at PSINet Stadium.

WBAL-TV says it has gained the rights to simulcast two Baltimore Ravens "Monday Night Football" games this year with ESPN, the cable channel that produces the prime-time telecasts. The deal the station is scheduled to announce Wednesday is for three years, according to the Hearst-owned station, and will make WBAL the Baltimore partner for all ESPN "Monday Night Football" games involving the Ravens during that time. One of the Monday night games is Aug. 22, a preseason contest against the Carolina Panthers, while the other is Dec. 16, a regular-season matchup with the Detroit Lions at a key time in the season.

To Bruce Kison, the importance of the moment was the event itself, not the shade of the sky. It lay in the stakes, not the stars. A reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kison appeared in Game 4 of the 1971 World Series against the Orioles, becoming part of a historical night at Three Rivers Stadium, but only because he was pitching at night. Kison had no idea of its magnitude. Nor did he care. "The big deal was the fact that we were playing in a World Series," said Kison, a Florida-based scout and former pitching coach with the Orioles.

The four-run lead that Orioles right-hander Freddy Garcia took into the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday seemed safe enough, especially given the relative ease in which Garcia had held the Angels hitless through the game's first six frames. “We were on cruise control,” first baseman Steve Pearce said. “And then, boom.” The calm suddenly turned chaotic as the Orioles blew their lead and lost momentum until Pearce - who was 3-for-4 starting at first base in place of the injured Chris Davis - slapped a game-winning single with two outs in the 10th inning to give the Orioles a 5-4 win over the Angels in front of an announced crowd of 32,136 at Angel Stadium.

Conspiracy theorists can take a break. For once, the Ravens got everything they wanted from the league office regarding their schedule - and maybe even a little more. The NFL released the regular-season schedule yesterday and gave the Ravens their requested early-season Monday night game, a bye in October and three other nationally televised night games. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti asked the league to grant his team a Monday night game during the first four weeks of the season to avoid a conflict with daytime Orioles home games on Sept.

The Orioles' scheduled interleague series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, which was postponed by rain, will be made up as part of a split-doubleheader on Saturday. Games will be at 1:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. After a one-hour, 48-minute delay that included constant showers and intermittent lightning, the Orioles announced they would postpone Friday's contest. The Dodgers are making their first visit to Camden Yards since 2002. Tickets for Friday's game can be used for admission to the first game of the doubleheader.

Not everyone is thrilled with the Ravens' front-loaded 2012 schedule in which the first three home games will be played at night. That's a drag. The season opener is a Monday night game against the Bengals. Two weeks later, the Patriots come to town for a Sunday night game, and four days later, the Browns show up for a Thursday night game. Who schedules a Thursday game after a Sunday night game? If it sounds rough on a Raven, it's no picnic for the teams faithful tailgaters, who are lamenting a home season without a single golden September days for tailgating.

Mount St. Mary's (0-4) at Delaware (1-1) Site: Rullo Stadium, Newark, Del. Time: 7.30 p.m. Outlook: Maybe a winless Mount team will fare better in its only night game of the season after four defeats during daylight. Delaware bounced back from an opening-game loss to Loyola by beating Rutgers on Saturday behind three second-half goals from junior midfielder Brad Downer (Annapolis).

Rickey Henderson, who has a strained calf muscle, is not likely to get a chance at breaking Lou Brock's stolen-base record until next week.The Oakland Athletics outfielder is within one of Brock's career total of 938 but hasn't played since April 11.The Athletics termed Henderson "very doubtful' for last night's game against the California Angels and doubtful for the weekend series against the Seattle Mariners.* EXPANSION: The Washington-Baltimore area could support two major-league teams, Douglas Danforth, chairman of the National League expansion committee, told The Washington Post."

MINNEAPOLIS -- Shortstop Cal Ripken hasn't been the only Iron Man up the middle for the Orioles this season.Catcher Chris Hoiles has started all but two of the team's 33 games. After catching six innings last night against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome, he had caught 272 of the team's 294 inings.The Orioles play a day game today after a night game, but manager Johnny Oates said he will not use that as an opportunity to rest Hoiles and give Jeff Tackett some work."When you can go five weeks needing a fifth starter only three times, that tells you you have a lot of days off," Oates said.

In the aftermath of No. 13 Johns Hopkins' devastating 8-4 loss to then-No. 7 Loyola last Saturday, senior defenseman Tucker Durkin said the week of practice leading up to Friday night's contest at Army would be the most important one of the season. Coach Dave Pietramala said he has been pleased with the players' effort and attention to detail Monday and Tuesday. But one thing the Blue Jays are not paying attention to is their tournament profile. “We don't really talk about it because we can't control that,” Pietramala said Wednesday morning.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Orioles opened their 11-game road trip with a 10-2 win over the Oakland A's on Thursday night . Here's what some of the key figures had to say about the victory: Chris Davis on the first few innings malaise: “The first couple innings I felt like we had a little jet lag working. So I think it was huge for us to get a bunch of hits and everybody kind of get that monkey off  their backs after traveling across country.” Davis on the HBP that wasn't: “It hit the top of my foot.

The Orioles' scheduled interleague series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, which was postponed by rain, will be made up as part of a split-doubleheader on Saturday. Games will be at 1:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. After a one-hour, 48-minute delay that included constant showers and intermittent lightning, the Orioles announced they would postpone Friday's contest. The Dodgers are making their first visit to Camden Yards since 2002. Tickets for Friday's game can be used for admission to the first game of the doubleheader.

The final score was a bummer for the Orioles: Yankees 3, O's 0 in the rubber match of the three-game series. And the weather in Yankee Stadium was chilly and breezy, better suited for football. But the Orioles had so many nice things said about them in their first nationally televised Sunday night game in five seasons that they probably hated to leave the Bronx. As The Baltimore Sun's Ed Encina reported, Orioles such as center fielder Adam Jones made it clear they understood this was not just another game . "It's 'Sunday Night Baseball,'" Jones said.

Under manager Buck Showalter, the Orioles enjoy being a team that few take notice of on the national stage. They will be front and center in the baseball spotlight for their first nationally televised Sunday night game in five seasons. Tonight's ESPN-televised game against the Yankees is first time the Orioles have appeared on Sunday Night Baseball since Sept. 21, 2008, which was the final game at the old Yankee Stadium. All other games will be completed by the time the Orioles and Yankees start play tonight at 8:05.

Maryland coach John Tillman has already voiced his intention to go with Wednesday night's home contest against UMBC as planned despite the impending approach of a storm forecast to dump as much as eight inches of snow on the Washington, D.C. area. Retrievers coach Don Zimmerman feels the same way. “We scheduled to play this game, and the guys want to play,” Zimmerman said Tuesday afternoon. “When you have a chance to play the No. 1 team in the country in a venue like Byrd Stadium, that's what kids dream about.

The final score was a bummer for the Orioles: Yankees 3, O's 0 in the rubber match of the three-game series. And the weather in Yankee Stadium was chilly and breezy, better suited for football. But the Orioles had so many nice things said about them in their first nationally televised Sunday night game in five seasons that they probably hated to leave the Bronx. As The Baltimore Sun's Ed Encina reported, Orioles such as center fielder Adam Jones made it clear they understood this was not just another game . "It's 'Sunday Night Baseball,'" Jones said.

Tony Gwynn was put on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with a sore left knee that has contributed to his .186 batting average. The San Diego Padres star, a lifetime .339 hitter, thinks the rest will help the inflammation settle down, but acknowledged that the knee might bother him all season. Gwynn, who turns 40 on May 9, has had fluid drained from the knee at least five times since spring training, most recently on Thursday after playing on the artificial turf in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Patterson Mill hosts Harford Tech at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, in one of the Week Six of the 2012 Harford County High School football season. C. Milton Wright travels to Fallston in another key Bel Air area high school football game. Bel Air hosts North Harford. And John Carroll travels for an MIAA game at St. Mary's. All games are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. Inky Webb, the long-time high school football prognosticator for The Aegis , predicts Fallston, John Carroll, Patterson Mill and North Harford.

The Ravens will be playing their second game in a five-day span tomorrow night against the Cleveland Browns, but they'll go into it mostly at full strength. On the final injury report which came out today, cornerback Lardarius Webb (knee) and reserve linebacker and special teams ace Brendon Ayanbadejo (knee) are both listed as probable. Both were full participants in the Ravens' practice today. Ayanbadejo said yesterday that he felt good and expected to face the Browns.   Second-year guard/tackle Jah Reid (calf)