Stretch

The stretch of foggy mornings this week continues Thursday, and it will on Friday, too. A weak high pressure system that has kept weather nice in the afternoons for the most part is keeping winds light. That, coupled with high dewpoints overnight, is making the fog build up as temperatures fall into the early morning hours, said Kevin Whitt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. Dewpoints at BWI Airport have virtually matched the temperature as it drops overnight, with both at 58 degrees as of 8 a.m. Visibility had been as short as 1/16 of a mile in some parts of Maryland and Virginia, but it grew to about a mile at BWI as of 9:30 a.m., Whitt said.

For quite some time now, enthusiastic volunteers have been whacking brush, clearing debris and replacing ties and rails on the old Pennsylvania Railroad's Northern Central Division, one of the nation's most historic stretches of railroad, which courses 10 miles northward from New Freedom, Pa., to Hanover Junction. This work has been done under the guidance of Steam Into History Inc., a nonprofit that has returned the sights and sounds of steam railroading to York County just in time to observe the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Stop me if you have read this before. OK, don't stop. Because you have read this before. About five times before. But this next stretch is a real test for the Orioles. Maybe the most important of this surprising season. I know, I'll pause to duck the flying fruit. The Orioles keep passing tests. Or they fail them and we expect them to go away and they rally again. This past eight-game road trip to Minnesota and Cleveland didn't look particularly daunting. Minnesota is struggling and the Indians had been playing over their heads in the first half.

Jim Southward, captain of the Harbor Queen, warned his passengers politely and then sounded one long and three short blasts of his very loud horn. "Draw up the gangplank. Cast off," he called to the crew. Yoga classes don't usually start this way. This was yoga on a boat. A very large boat. The double-decker Harbor Queen, celebrating its 41st birthday this year, makes several 40-minute circuits of the Annapolis harbor each day in the summer. But it is usually filled with tourists or schoolchildren on a field trip.

As landscaper Bill Akehurst said in Thursday's front-page story on developing drought conditions , "This is 'April showers bring May flowers' and we haven't seen it. "If there's no April showers, May flowers are going to suffer. " A 15-day stretch of dry weather that ended with Wednesday's drizzle shows just how unusual the lack of April showers has been. Baltimore had a stretch of 15 days without measurable rain, meaning a trace or nothing. That ranks as Baltimore's fourth-longest stretch on record> without precipitation in the month of April, according to the National Weather Service.

Wednesday's high at BWI Marshall Airport was 90 degrees, starting a stretch of potentially seven days or more with temperatures above the 90-degree mark, if forecasts hold up. It would take a much longer stretch to set a record, however. The National Weather Service has placed central and southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore under a heat advisory 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, canceling an earlier excessive heat watch. The advisory cautions of heat indices up to 105 degrees. The weather service is calling for highs to approach 100 degrees for the next five days, through Tuesday at least.

On Sunday, the Orioles escaped Oakland - their house of horrors - and avoided a three-game sweep. Two of three would have been nice, but not getting swept was paramount. Now the Orioles step into a stretch in which they have to dominate. Their next dozen games are against sub.500 teams. That span (of 13) started Monday, when they pounded the Seattle Mariners, 10-4. They have two more here at Safeco and then travel to Boston (66-81) for three games against the worst roster ever, to paraphrase Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine.

[ Editor's note: Down the stretch is a new daily Orioles Insider blog that will set up the coming night for the O's and their American League competition as the push for the postseason intensifies. ] About last night Orioles thrash Jays 12-0, pull into a tie for first place Peter Schmuck: It's no joke, the Orioles are in first place Brooks Robinson on the O's playoff chances: 'Oh sure' Tuesday's full scoreboard   AL East Standings BAL        76-59     -- NYY        76-59     -- TB          75-61    1.5 AL Wild-Card Standings BAL/NYY  76-59     -- OAK        76-59      -- TB          75-61    1.5 DET        72-63     4 LAA        73-63     4 Today's game Orioles at Blue Jays, 7:07 p.m. RHP Miguel Gonzalez (6-3, 3.31 ERA)

"Stretch for success" should be the motto for a lot of the fashion business today. Look at the way leggings and tights have almost become basic necessities for women from infancy to old age.For example, no one was surprised this fall when the stretchy body suits, tops, skirts, jeans and pants sold out first in Anne Klein Co.'s new A Line sportswear collection.In fact, the presence of a certain amount of stretchability woven into any kind of fabric is so pervasive today that it helps shape fashion from the heights and prices of Paris's Azzedine Alaia and New York's Donna Karan to the lowliest goods sold by a street vendor.

The Baltimore and Annapolis Trail in Pasadena is likely to remain detoured for at least another 11 months. County spokesman Matthew Diehl said Friday that he expects construction on the project to be finished by late December. The project, which will replace culverts and trail pavement washed out in last winter's blizzards, is 90% of the way through the design process, Diehl stated, mentioning that permit applications have been submitted for wetland-related construction. The county is expecting to solicit bids this summer for the physical work, according to Diehl.

Orioles reliever Pedro Strop had allowed just one earned run in his last 13 appearances for a 0.79 ERA in his last 11 1/3 innings heading into Monday night. That's a dramatic improvement over his early season struggles when he allowed seven earned runs in his first seven appearances. “When you are struggling it's hard to have confidence in your pitches,” Strop said. “I've been able to get my confidence back. That's come through all the work I've been doing, fixing whatever I was doing wrong.” On Monday night, his strong run came to an end when he gave up consecutive doubles in the 10th to Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells.

Graham Peck, a 23-year-old from Baltimore, won the "Down the Stretch for SGK" Preakness 5K on Saturday morning at Pimlico Race Course , finishing in 17 minutes, 41 seconds. Jason Farber was second, 10 seconds back. Peck's father, Henry, finished 16th overall in 20:57 and his sister, Kaylyn, was the female runner-up. "It was a family affair. Running on the track was really fun, but it was wet, so it slowed us down," said Graham Peck, who ran track and cross country at Dulaney.

It has been a year since the climate pattern known as La Nina ended, the longest period of so-called "neutral" conditions since 2004. And there is no sign of the phenomenon, or its counterpart El Nino, through summer, climate forecasters say. La Nina, known for bringing mild winters to the mid-Atlantic, was last active from August 2011 through April 2012. The phenomenon is marked by warmer-than-average Pacific Ocean surface temperatures around the equator. But since May of last year, those water temperatures have been in "neutral" territory, too cool for a La Nina but not cold enough for El Nino.

Marylanders will face a couple more days of gloomy weather before things brighten up again toward the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service. On the plus side, the stretch of drizzle and rain should wash away some of the masses of tree pollen that have afflicted allergy sufferers for the past few weeks, weather service meteorologist Greg Schoor said. Schoor said a high-pressure weather system near New England is responsible for the rain and high temperatures in the 60s. "If you can manage through today and tomorrow and even into Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be a little improvement," Schoor said Monday.

Between errant shots, shaky decisions or a growing sense of uneasiness, No. 13 Johns Hopkins appeared vulnerable to yet another late-season loss to Navy on Saturday. Then the second half arrived. The Blue Jays scored 11 straight goals to close the game, routing the Midshipmen, 15-4, before 3,646 at Homewood Field. Mike Poppleton won 15 of 17 faceoffs, Brandon Benn scored five goals and John Kaestner added three goals and three assists for Hopkins (8-4), which lost to Navy in two of the previous three years.

The biggest week of the No. 4 Maryvale lacrosse team's regular season began with Monday's non-league matchup at Baltimore County power Dulaney. Maryvale fought off a determined Dulaney squad for a 13-9 victory, kicking off a crucial stretch that continues Tuesday against Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland rival St. Mary's and then Thursday against top-ranked McDonogh. "We're going literally one day at a time," said Jessica Randisi, Maryvale's second-year coach. "There's no other option.

Just another day at Camden Yards, right? Another ho-hum, garden-variety 5-2 win Sunday, this time over the Oakland Athletics? OK, maybe not. Say what you will about this team and where it'll end up at season's end. But right now, you can't deny this: The Orioles sure have been fun to watch. "It was fun there in the ninth inning," manager Buck Showalter said in his typically understated way. Fun in the ninth? Yeah, kind of. Let's play it back: With one out, Matt Wieters doubles off A's closer Grant Balfour, a shot to the base of the left-field wall to tie the game at 2. Two batters later, Wilson Betemit smacks a walk-off homer.

One game does not define a team, but the next four will. It's crunch time in the NFL, the final month of the regular season where serious contenders start to pull away and pretenders bow out. The Ravens (9-3) have one of the best records in the NFL, but few take them seriously. They seem to have the right characteristics, but not the consistency. With the Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals left on the schedule, the Ravens can silence their critics and go into the postseason pounding on their chests.

A spell of cold mornings in the Baltimore area set at least one weather record, and was close to matching others with three consecutive days dropping into the 20s overnight. On Tuesday, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport dropped to 28 degrees, missing the record low of 23 degrees in 1907, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday, it got even colder at BWI, with a low of 27 tying a record mark most recently reached in 1985. Thursday morning appears to have been the coldest of all, with a low of 25 degrees early this morning, according to preliminary data.

Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta made a huge push toward solidifying his case for the team's fifth starter spot on Thursday night, tossing six shutout innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates -- his third straight scoreless Grapefruit League outing -- at Ed Smith Stadium. Arrieta hasn't allowed a run over 14 2/3 innings in his past three spring outings. He allowed an unearned run in an exhibition start against Spain's World Baseball Classic team in the outing before that stretch. In five Grapefruit League outings, Arrieta has allowed just three earned runs and 11 hits, recording a 1.56 ERA with 16 strikeouts and eight walks.