Slider

BOWIE -- Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman has hit some rough patches through the first few weeks of his first full professional season while pitching at Double-A Bowie, but the 22-year-old right-hander's steady development continues to be more important than any pitching line. Gausman, who is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Orioles' organization and No. 26 in all of baseball by Baseball America, will enter his fifth start of the season on Sunday against Harrisburg with a 1-2 record and a 4.74 ERA and has allowed four or more earned runs in two of his four starts.

BOWIE -- Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman has hit some rough patches through the first few weeks of his first full professional season while pitching at Double-A Bowie, but the 22-year-old right-hander's steady development continues to be more important than any pitching line. Gausman, who is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Orioles' organization and No. 26 in all of baseball by Baseball America, will enter his fifth start of the season on Sunday against Harrisburg with a 1-2 record and a 4.74 ERA and has allowed four or more earned runs in two of his four starts.

The Orioles will send their hottest pitcher - left-hander Brian Matusz - to the mound tonight with the opportunity to sweep the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Yes, Matusz, who entered the season possessing the longest personal losing streak in baseball, seems to have things figured out of late. Matusz (5-5), who is going for his fifth win in his past six starts, is 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA and he's coming off his best outing of the season, a season-high 7 1/3-inning start at Tampa Bay in which he allowed just two hits and one run while striking out seven.

In his second outing of the spring, Orioles lefty Wei-Yin Chen struggled occasionally with his command Friday night, but overall he continued his progression for the regular season. Starting in a 6-3 Grapefruit League win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chen allowed one hit and two walks in 2 1/3 innings. He gave up two runs (one earned) and struck out four. He threw 54 pitches, 33 strikes, hitting between 89 and 91 mph on his fastball, 73 to 75 on his curve and 79 to 82 on his slider - just slightly below his in-season marks.

WASHINGTON -- Bill Simmons is about to get on a riff. The ESPN.com writer makes hay of commenting on the whole spectrum of sports and pop culture, but he can't really critique ESPN, a frustration he alludes to frequently in his "Sports Guy" column, read by some 500,000 people a month. His buddy Joe House, an occasional character in the column and his tablemate at a Starbucks in Washington, smiles knowingly as Simmons works into a metaphor. "I guess we're like T.O. and Donovan McNabb," he says of himself and ESPN.

Famed "Jersey Shore" cast member Snooki gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday . To commemorate the occasion, BGR the Burger Joint is bringing back its famous Snooki Burger -- with a baby burger slider on the side. The Snooki Burger features a beef patty topped with fresh, split and grilled jalapenos, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, and BGR's signature mojo sauce. The whole meal costs $11.99  BGR is known for creating over-the-top gourmet burgers, such as their famous 9 Pounder burger, as well as sandwiches inspired by newsworthy figures like Snooki, Sarah Palin, and Rod Blagojevich.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Manager Phil Regan wouldn't speculate on how he might split bullpen duties between John Franco and Armando Benitez if the Orioles do sign Franco, a free agent. But he did offer this assessment of the left-hander: "I've seen him a lot. We had him with the Dodgers, but we didn't teach him a slider and then we traded him. He came up with a slider and he became a great pitcher."He takes the ball; he's got a really good circle changeup, a good slider and a good sinker. He's got a pretty good track record, and he's saved a lot of games.

In his first appearance since giving up a grand slam and nearly starting a bench-clearing brawl, Armando Benitez returned to Camden Yards last night -- and did not pitch his way into any controversy.Benitez -- who was called up with right-hander Jimmy Myers on Thursday from Triple-A Rochester -- struck out two and walked one in his eighth-inning appearance."I thought he threw the ball well. [His fastball] was clocked at 92-93 miles per hour," Orioles manager Phil Regan said.But it wasn't Benitez's fastball that enabled him to have a good outing, it was his confidence in his slider.

A pitching coach has to be a salesman as well as an instructor.So, after Orioles coach Dick Bosman taught Ben McDonald how to throw an effective slider, his mission was only half accomplished.Bosman then had to sell McDonald on the merits of using the pitch in the right situations."We fooled around with it for about half the year, and when I thought he had it down sufficiently, I told him to try it," said Bosman."So he threw one one night and struck out a guy. He came into the dugout and said, 'I could do this all night.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Orioles right-handed reliever Mike Fetters has been getting some strange looks lately. A pitch leaves his hand, hits the catcher's mitt and defies logic. Typecast as a sinkerball/forkball pitcher, Fetters began experimenting with a slider about two weeks ago. Anything to keep the nightly battles from getting too one-sided. "Lefties always look for me to throw them away, and righties look for me inside," said Fetters, 34. "If I can get that slider on the other side of the plate, that's another half of the plate they just gave me, so it'll make my sinker even more effective because they're leaning out a little bit. I can throw that sinker in and get a little bit more on their hands, and instead of a base hit, it's a ground ball to my shortstop."

Famed "Jersey Shore" cast member Snooki gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday . To commemorate the occasion, BGR the Burger Joint is bringing back its famous Snooki Burger -- with a baby burger slider on the side. The Snooki Burger features a beef patty topped with fresh, split and grilled jalapenos, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, and BGR's signature mojo sauce. The whole meal costs $11.99  BGR is known for creating over-the-top gourmet burgers, such as their famous 9 Pounder burger, as well as sandwiches inspired by newsworthy figures like Snooki, Sarah Palin, and Rod Blagojevich.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - The first and only time Chris Tillman had pitched at Rangers Ballpark back in July 2010, the Orioles right-hander turned in what might have been his signature performance as a major leaguer, taking a no-hit bid into the seventh against a club that eventually made it to the World Series that year. Tillman wasn't that unhittable Tuesday night, but he was plenty good enough as the Orioles picked up a 5-3 victory to set up a series rubber match with the Rangers tonight.

The Orioles  won, 5-3, Tuesday night. Chris Tillman pitched great. Nate McLouth homered. Manny Machado had a key triple. Jim Johnson picked up his 38th save. Those are the box-score highlights. But the biggest moment of the game came in the seventh inning. Tillman was pulled with two outs and the usually reliable Darren O'Day allowed a single and a walk to the only two batters he faced. Josh Hamilton who is second in the American League in home runs (32) and RBIs (102) was up, so right-hander Pedro Strop was summoned to face the imposing, left-handed-hitting Hamilton.

All Orioles left-hander  Wei-Yin Chen could do was watch from the visiting dugout as the best start of his big league career - an effort so worthy of a win --  faded into a no-decision. Reliever Pedro Strop, who allowed three singles, hit a batter, walked in a run and threw a wild pitch in the Mariners' three-run eighth - couldn't preserve Chen's lead. Chen had a perfect game going through 6 1/3 innings, just eight outs away from throwing the 23 rd perfect game in baseball history and the first Orioles pitcher to do it. But after the Orioles' nailbiting 5-4 win -- Robert Andino's solo homer with two outs in the ninth was the difference -- Chen shrugged off not getting a win despite tying a career-low for hits allowed and setting a new career high for strikeouts.

The Orioles will send their hottest pitcher - left-hander Brian Matusz - to the mound tonight with the opportunity to sweep the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Yes, Matusz, who entered the season possessing the longest personal losing streak in baseball, seems to have things figured out of late. Matusz (5-5), who is going for his fifth win in his past six starts, is 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA and he's coming off his best outing of the season, a season-high 7 1/3-inning start at Tampa Bay in which he allowed just two hits and one run while striking out seven.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Orioles needed a starting pitching performance to remember Saturday night. They needed something to restore faith in their rotation, something to help stop their sudden swoon. Brian Matusz was up for the challenge. The 25-year-old left-hander turned in his best performance of the season Saturday at Tropicana Field, throwing a season-high 7 1/3 innings of two-hit ball in a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay, lifting the Orioles back into a first-place tie with the Rays atop the American League East.

When this season ends, and Orioles rookie Rocky Coppinger has time to relax and reflect on his whirlwind introduction to the majors, he'll think about many things.Coppinger will recall the lightning pace that shot him from Class A in April 1995, to starter in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, but he'll undoubtably think a long time about how he'll pitch to the Yankees' Darryl Strawberry.In three career at-bats off Coppinger, Strawberry has three hits -- two home runs and a single.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- After successfully fighting bureaucratic indifference and a lack of funding, Iraqi skeleton slider Faisal Faisal found one condition impossible to overcome in his quest to become his country's first winter Olympian: snow. Faisal narrowly missed qualifying for the Games yesterday at the Challenge Cup in Konigssee, Germany, an event for athletes from smaller nations. Twenty-nine competitors from 20 countries vied for eight spots. After Saturday's two runs, Faisal was in 10th place.

The consensus in the Orioles' clubhouse after Friday night's loss to the Los Angeles Angels is that Brian Matusz is making strides - his slider is sharper, he's throwing his fastball in the low 90s, his command is improving some.     Here's what manager Buck Showalter had to say: “I thought he was better. A little better each time he has pitched since the first one. A little crisper, the command was a little better. It got away from him there a little bit at the end.”      And here's what Matusz had to say: “I definitely made some improvements in this start over the last.

The Orioles couldn't have asked more from Jake Arrieta in his first Opening Day start. The 26-year-old right-hander allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out four batters in seven scoreless innings. Only two runners reached second base against Arrieta - and both were with two outs. He threw 97 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. He consistently hit in the mid-90s with his fastball and his slider was particularly sharp. Matt Lindstrom is in to pitch the eighth, making his Orioles' debut.