Orioles Pitcher

A rocky marriage involving a former Orioles pitcher seems to be coming to a close ­ - for real, this time. Kris Benson, who pitched in Baltimore from 2006 to 2007, and his wife, Anna, have filed for divorce, according to an interview Fox News conducted with Anna recently . According to Anna, she caught Kris in an affair with one of her friends, who Kris was supposed to be advising financially. In 2006, during Kris' stint as an Oriole, Anna caught Kris cheating and decided to file for a divorce.

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.

Former Oriole lefty Dana Eveland has agreed to a one-year deal with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, according to an industry source. Eveland, who made $750,000 with the Orioles last season, will receive $675,000 guaranteed from the Eagles with another $225,000 available through performance bonuses, bringing the total potential package to $900,000. The 29-year-old lefty was 0-1 with a 4.73 ERA in 14 games, two starts, with the Orioles in 2012. He allowed 32 hits and walked 13 while striking out 18 batters in 32 1/3 innings.

It's one of those baseball statistics that's hard to believe. I checked it a couple times to make sure I hadn't missed anyone. And I really believe I haven't. According to baseball-reference.com, there are 44 active major league pitchers who have at least 80 career wins - a modest accomplishment, but impressive considering all who have played the game. Of that group of 44, none has played for the Orioles. Think about that for a moment. I'm not talking about none of the 44 plays for the Orioles right now. I am talking about ever.

Orioles pitcher Zach Britton went into his second throwing session today feeling optimistic about the left-shoulder inflammation that's been bothering him since August. Britton, 24, threw for this first time this spring Thursday in a long-toss session. He's planning to throw again today. If all goes well, he will throw on back-to-back days for the first time Monday and Tuesday, take Wednesday off, then throw Thursday and Friday. It seems like this is just the beginning of Britton's "throwing progression," as the club called it. He threw from a mound just once this offseason and doesn't figure to do so here in camp for about two weeks.  Britton couldn't seem to shake the pain in the shoulder, despite having gone on and off anti-inflammatory medication since returning from the disabled list in last August and shutting himself down for two weeks after his first offseason throwing session.

The 17-year-old Dominican boy who police suspect was shot in the right arm by Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon during a New Year's party told a reporter Tuesday that it was indeed Simon who had fired the shots that wounded him and killed his 25-year-old half brother. Simon, who is in custody pending charges, told police after turning himself in Monday that he had been firing celebratory shots into the air and that the death of Michael Esteban Castillo Almonte and the wounding of his sibling were accidents.

Alfredo Simon, a 29-year-old pitcher who became a key component of the Orioles' bullpen last season, is suspected of fatally shooting a man and wounding another during a New Year's Eve celebration in the Dominican Republic, police there said Sunday. Police in the northern coastal province of Puerto Plata obtained an arrest warrant for Simon and said they wanted to question him about the incident, which they said occurred as revelers gathered in a park in the resort town of Luperon.

What's certain is that Orioles right-hander Alfredo Simon is scheduled to start against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night before heading to his native Dominican Republic on Sunday. What's uncertain is what comes next for Simon. The team hopes Monday's hearing in the Jan. 1 shooting death of Simon's cousin will be the end of the case, but based on how things have progressed this year, the Orioles aren't sure what will happen. "We simply don't know. It's a legal process," Orioles director of player development John Stockstill said.

Jeremy Guthrie, Orioles pitcher Is it distracting to you when rumors start circulating about a manager's job status? For me, it's not a distraction. As players, we really don't hear a lot. Fans think we hear and read everything, but we don't know nearly as much as the people asking the questions or the fans think we know.

What was the hardest part about having a torn anterior cruciate ligament? Just being away from baseball for that long. It happened right about a year and two weeks ago. I missed a whole season of baseball. To try to sit there and watch it on the couch is next to impossible.

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.

Right-hander Miguel Gonzalez probably delivered the sharpest outing during the first spin through the Orioles starting rotation, but he will not pitch in the three-game series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. His regular turn would have come Tuesday, which is an off day after Boston's home opener Monday. So he'll be skipped initially and pitch at some point in the New York series next weekend. "We're going to have 20-something games in a row and we've got an opportunity here that's not going to come very often," Showalter said.

Bob Turley, a hard-throwing right-hander who won the Orioles' first home game, died of liver cancer early Saturday morning, according to his son Terry Turley. He was 82. Turley pitched one season for the Orioles in 1954, their first in Baltimore, and he started the first big league game at Memorial Stadium. He was traded to the New York Yankees, with whom he won the Cy Young Award in 1958. The April 15, 1954 opener at Memorial Stadium was a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox played in front of 46,354 fans.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta came into spring camp as one of a host of candidates for an open spot in the Orioles' starting rotation.  There was no question is his mind, though, on who would win the competition: Him. “No, absolutely not. Whether that's cockiness or overconfidence, whatever you want to call it. that's just the way that I personally had to approach the situation, with that mindset," he said. "Knowing that I had to go out and actually show it and not just know it in my mind.

Louis Mortimer Sleater, a standout high school athlete who ended his seven-year major league pitching career with the Baltimore Orioles and was later a steel salesman, died of lung disease Monday at his Timonium home. He was 86. A left-handed knuckleballer, he played for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics, Milwaukee Braves and Detroit Tigers before joining the Orioles in 1958. "He was the epitome of the journeyman left-hand pitcher in the 1950s," said Phil Wood, an MASN broadcaster who lives in Glyndon.

Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta pitched six scoreless innings Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He lasted longer than any Orioles pitcher this spring. He struck out a preseason-best nine batters. He threw 65 of his 88 pitches for strikes - that's a mind-numbing 74 percent of all pitches tossed for strikes. He said afterward that he believes he has done enough to earn the fifth spot in the rotation, but he knows that's up to manager Buck Showalter and his staff.

The widow of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler has filed a $600 million lawsuit against the maker of the ephedra-based diet drug and stimulant that was in his system when he died of heatstroke in February. New York attorney David Meiselman, representing Kiley Bechler, filed the suit Wednesday against Cytodyne Technologies, the company that produces Xenadrine RFA-1, and named New York-based manufacturer Phoenix Laboratories and Cytodyne president Robert Chinery as codefendants. The suit alleges the controversial nutritional supplement was directly responsible for Bechler's collapse during a spring training workout at the Orioles' training facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 16. Bechler lost consciousness and his body temperature rose to 108 degrees, causing his major organs to fail.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - As Orioles pitcher Tony Saunders packed for his trip to spring training, a friend wanted to make sure the left-hander hadn't forgotten any of the necessities. Or the importance of having a sense of humor. "He asked if I had all my syringes," Saunders said, the joke going over well for a player who otherwise hasn't laughed much lately. Saunders, 30, remains bitter at the accusations of steroid use that appeared in Jose Canseco's new book. They were teammates briefly with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999 - about six weeks before Saunders broke his arm for the first time while throwing a pitch.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Despite a rocky start, Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz continued to make a case for himself to be the team's No. 5 starter in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park Matusz allowed just one run on six hits through five innings, walking one and striking out two. His five-inning start is the longest of any Orioles pitcher this spring. Matusz threw 75 pitches, 58 strikes. Over his past two starts, Matusz has allowed just one run over nine innings with six hits, nine strikeouts and two walks.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Buck Showalter took a seat in the visiting manager's office after the Orioles' 3-1 Grapefruit League win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and flipped over his lineup card to reveal the notes he scribbled in red on the back. While Jake Arrieta threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings for his second straight scoreless spring outing, Showalter quickly pointed out that Arrieta had seven three-ball counts and threw just eight first-pitch strikes to the 19 batters he faced.