Two Innings

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer was hit hard yesterday in his first exhibition game since 1984, leaving room to wonder just how much longer his improbable comeback attempt will last.Even Palmer wondered aloud after the Boston Red Sox had him up to his ears in line drives for two innings in the early stages of the Baltimore Orioles' 3-2 Grapefruit League victory at McKechnie Field. He gave up two runs, five hits and a number of hard outs, but he vowed to keep going despite growing evidence that his legs are not up to the challenge.

The current Orioles treated a sellout crowd at Camden Yards to yet another extra-inning victory Sunday afternoon. The few fans that remained in the ballpark's lower bowl for the Brooks Robinson All-Star Game, however, caught a glimpse of the club's future. Left-hander Josh Hader (Old Mill) dazzled as the starting pitcher for the state's high school South All-Stars, fanning three batters in two innings. He gave up just one hit in the brief appearance before surrendering the rubber to allow more of the South's pitching staff to throw.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Mike Mussina wanted to get his pitches over for strikes yesterday. He did that. He wanted to make it through his two innings without injury. He did that, too.The rest was just details.Mussina allowed two singles and a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a one-out homer to George Williams in the second before being replaced by left-hander Terry Burrows in the Orioles' 8-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium.The right-hander could have dodged trouble in the first if a call had gone his way. Brent Gates was ruled safe at third base on Corey Koskie's single, though the throw from B. J. Surhoff easily beat him to the bag. Brian Buchanan then lifted a fly ball to medium right field, and Gates scored the game's first run.Mussina retired Matt Lawton to open the second, but Williams worked the count full and drilled a homer to right for a 2-0 lead.

Chris Davis hadn't thrown a pitch in nearly six years, dating to his days as a draft hopeful playing at a small junior college in Corsicana, Texas. But more than five hours - and 15 innings - into the Orioles' series finale with the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon-turned-evening, manager Buck Showalter turned to Davis, the club's everyday first baseman, in the visiting dugout and directed him toward the bullpen to warm up. The Orioles had exhausted all other relief options - eight relievers combined to allowed one run over seven innings - in a game tied at 6. Davis shrugged.

BOSTON - The more important the games become in the postseason, the more New York Yankees manager Joe Torre leans on his skinny closer. Mariano Rivera went two innings again yesterday and allowed his first run since Aug. 20. It came in the eighth with the Yankees leading 4-1, and Rivera finished up for his 29th career save in the playoffs. While Boston Red Sox manager Grady Little has sorted through his bullpen all season for a late-inning stopper, Torre continues to rely on Rivera while expanding the pitcher's role.

Mike Mussina strode into an interview room to face the cameras, microphones and note pads and said he was pleased with his night's work.It had not been much. Mussina, the Orioles right-hander who's recuperating from a strained muscle below his right shoulder blade, went the first two innings in the Bowie Baysox's 9-8 win over the Canton-Akron Indians last night and gave up two runs in two innings. The Memorial Stadium crowd of 12,460 was a Baysox record.The Orioles put a 50-pitch limit on the first start of his rehabilitation assignment.

First, the Orioles lost their starting pitcher to a blister. Then, their shortstop lost a line drive, which looked to be an out, in a white background. Then, the New York Yankees did what they seemingly always do, seize upon a small opportunity to create something big - in this case a 4-3 win over the Orioles in front of a sold-out Independence Day crowd of 47,355 at Camden Yards. The surging Yankees used designated hitter Paul O'Neill's two-out, three-run homer off emergency reliever Calvin Maduro to give Roger Clemens (12-1)

2982 Last night: Played last two innings but had no at-bats against Blue Jays Tonight: 7:07, vs. Blue Jays (Walker 2-0)

Two county pitchers combined on a perfect game yesterday to lead Arundel past Frederick, 2-0, in the finals of the Babe Ruth 14-year-old state tournament in Clinton.Severna Park resident Bill McGuire pitched the first five innings before giving way to Odenton's Russ Allen, who finished up with two innings. The duo had six strikeouts.McGuire, who pitched two innings the previous day, was forced to leave yesterday's contest because of a league rule prohibiting a player from throwing more than seven innings in two games.

Unranked and No. 4 seed Archbishop Spalding rallied from a 6-1 deficit and defeated top-ranked Mount St. Joseph, 7-6, in eight innings yesterday in the MSA A Conference baseball tournament.The Cavaliers (12-10), who got hammered by Calvert Hall, 14-2, in the first round of the double-elimination tournament on Wednesday, trailed the top-seeded Gaels 6-1 after two innings, but tied the score at 6-6 in the fifth inning after a two-run double by senior Jeff Paxson.John Hall scored the winning run on Brian Barth's squeeze bunt in the top of the eighth.

SARASOTA, Fla. - In what has been a spring of watching the Orioles deal with injuries, one player that's on the mend had a nice moment Friday in the team's 6-5 win over the Boston Red Sox. Right fielder Nick Markakis who had just one extra-base hit in his first 12 spring at-bats, hit a wind-aided, two-run homer against right-hander Clay Buchholz in the third inning to break a tie and give the Orioles a lead they didn't relinquish. It was the first spring homer for Markakis, who is coming back from January abdomen surgery.

Buck Showalter thought Orioles left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada would carry some adrenaline onto the mound with him for his much-anticipated Grapefruit League debut against the Braves on Sunday afternoon at Champion Stadium. But when the Orioles manager looked at the stadium scoreboard radar gun on Wada's fourth pitch of his outing and it clocked Wada's fastball at 94 mph, he did a double take. Wada, known in his native Japan more for his deceptive delivery and pinpoint control than any blistering fastballs, had already struck out Braves second baseman Martin Prado on three pitches.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta looked very impressive in his 2012 Grapefruit League debut Friday afternoon, throwing two hitless innings against the Tampa Bay Rays and displaying terrific velocity. His fastball was clocked by the Charlotte Sports Complex radar gun as high as 97 mph, and it averaged 96 mph over the course of a 24-pitch outing during which he threw 17 strikes and allowed just one walk. Though Arrieta still has to prove that his surgically repaired elbow is strong enough to pitch late into ballgames, he had to be very encouraged with how strong he felt the first time out. He is just seven months removed from the procedure that extracted a large spur from his pitching elbow.

Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel graded out his first Grapefruit League outing with his new team Thursday afternoon - in which he tossed a pair of scoreless innings in a 2-1 win over the Atlanta Braves at Ed Smith Stadium - as a "B, C-plus. " Hammel, acquired from the Rockies last month in the trade that send Jeremy Guthrie to Colorado, initially struggled with his control against the Braves, walking leadoff hitter Luis Durango on four pitches, but rebounded to strike out Martin Prado and inducted a pop-up to short from Freddie Freeman . He then overcame back-to-back one-out singles in the second inning by inducing a 4-6-3 double-play ball from third baseman Joey Terdoslavich . "Honestly, for the first time out, considering all things, the results were good," Hammel said, "I struggled with the fastball, I was a little erratic today.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Taiwanese left-hander Wei-Yin Chen said he struggled with adjusting to a new mound and a new atmosphere in Saturday's intrasquad game, in which he threw 31 pitches and lasted only two-thirds of an inning. But Chen, 26, expected to be a member of the Orioles' starting rotation this year, was a different pitcher in his Grapefruit League debut Wednesday against Minnesota, throwing two scoreless innings and striking out the side in the second inning in the Orioles' 6-0 win over the Twins at Ed Smith Stadium.

For weeks, they promised that an offensive outburst like this one was coming. Even as the scoring opportunities vanished amid ill-timed strikeouts and double-play balls, the Orioles maintained that they were a good offensive club and it was only a matter of time before they showed it. The long-awaited offensive breakout arrived Monday night, when the Orioles scored five runs in the first and knocked out overmatched Pittsburgh Pirates starter Charlie...

On the field: Cleveland and the Orioles rank No. 1 and No. 2 in homers, respectively, in the American League. But there were no explosives in the first two innings, and one reason may have been the unusual shadows that crept across the field as the sun set. Starting pitchers Kevin Brown and Charles Nagy pitched the first two innings in sunlight, while the hitters were standing in shadow, making for very difficult hitting conditions.In the dugout: The batting average of catcher Chris Hoiles fell to .191 after he struck out twice and grounded out, and in the ninth inning, Orioles manager Phil Regan replaced him with pinch hitter Kevin Bass -- the first time this year Regan has yanked Hoiles.

NORWICH, Conn. -- Kevin Loman allowed just four hits over seven innings, striking out eight last night as the Norwich Navigators beat the Bowie Baysox, 4-0, in the first game of a Double-A Eastern League doubleheader.The Baysox prevailed In the second game, 5-1, scoring all five times in the first two innings.In the first game, Loman walked four and pitched out of several jams to earn his first win of the season. He was returning to the team after spending the weekend in Oklahoma, where he attended the funeral of his mother.

When he was demoted to the minor leagues May 28 for the fourth time in less than two full seasons, Brad Bergesen was given two specific things to work on: limiting his pitch count and improving his slider. The 25-year-old right-hander apparently made enough strides in those areas to be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on Saturday in place of reliever Jeremy Accardo , who was designated for assignment after another poor outing Friday. Bergesen pitched two scoreless innings in relief in the Orioles' 4-2 loss to the Washington Nationals, allowing one hit and striking out one. His performance was an important one for a bullpen that has been taxed in recent games.

The Orioles finally broke their seemingly interminable losing streak at Rogers Centre with a 4-3 win on Thursday afternoon, but they may have lost their rotation leader to injury. Orioles right-hander Jeremy Guthrie was pitching superbly, allowing just one hit and one walk through five innings. He struck out five batters and had thrown an economical 64 pitches, 41 for strikes. But he didn't come out for the sixth inning because of a back strain. The severity of the strain was not announced during the game.