Orioles Magic

Monday, June 29 - Wednesday, July 1

Boston Red Sox (46-29) at Baltimore Orioles (34-41)

Pitching Matchups

Monday: BOS - Jon Lester (6-6, 4.68)
BAL - Jason Berken (1-4, 6.32)

Tuesday: BOS - John Smoltz (0-1, 9.00)
BAL - Rich Hill (3-2, 6.03)

Wednesday: BOS - Josh Beckett (9-3, 3.48)
BAL - Brad Bergesen (5-2, 3.76)

Interleague play is over and after finishing a respectable 11-7 in Interleague play the Orioles move back to only playing the American League. They welcome the Boston Red Sox to town as Camden Yards prepares to turn into Fenway Park lite over the next three days. Red Sox fans take over the stadium and almost always get to see the Red Sox whoop the Orioles. Things figure to not be much different in this series.

The Red Sox are atop the AL East and their potent lineup has a lot to do with it. 1B Kevin Youkilis leads the team in hitting with a .312 average. LF Jason Bay has made it easy for Red Sox fans to forget Manny Ramirez. He has provided just as much production without any of the headaches. Bay leads team in home runs with 19 and RBIs with 69.

Boston just lost Daisuke Matsuzaka to the disabled list and have employed the aging John Smoltz to take his spot in the rotation. Smoltz was clubbed by the Washington Nubionals in his debut last week, and will look for better results when he takes the mound on Tuesday. Wednesday's pitching matchup should be a treat as Red Sox ace Josh Beckett takes on the O's new found ace, Brad Bergesen. The poo poo platter of Jason Berken and Rich Hill get the starts on Monday and Tuesday for Baltimore.

Orioles Magic

Tuesday, June 23 - Thursday, June 25

Baltimore Orioles (32-37) at Florida Marlins (35-36)

Pitching Matchups

Tuesday: BAL - Koji Uehara (2-4, 4.30)
FLA - Andrew Miller (2-3, 4.56)

Wednesday: BAL - Jason Berken (1-3, 6.84)
FLA - Ricky Nalasco (3-6, 7.15)

Thursday: BAL - Rich Hill (3-1, 5.18)
FLA - Sean West (2-2, 3.97)

It is a lot more fun to do these previews when the Orioles are winning so it is with great excitement that I bring you this edition of Orioles Magic. The Orioles just completed a series sweep of the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia. Baltimore has now won 5 in a row and is slowly climbing their way back to the .500 mark.

The Florida Marlins are just a game under .500 after taking 2 out of 3 at home against the New York Yankees. The Marlins started the year 11-1 but haven't played the Washington Nubionals in a while so their record has floundered since then. However, they are still just 3 games out of first in the pathetic NL East.

The Marlins have struggled offensively, with only SS Hanley Ramirez batting over .300. 2B Dan Uggla leads the team in HRs with 13 but is hitting just .213 on the season. 1B Jorge Cantu leads the team in RBIs with 44.

The Orioles are lucky to be avoiding the Marlins best pitcher in this series, Josh Johnson. As is the norm the Marlins are stacked with young pitchers. The O's face Ricky Nalasco on Wednesday, Nalasco got off to an awful start, but has not given up more than 2 earned runs in his last three starts. The Orioles face the Marlins rookie Sean West on Thursday, who has shown some early promise.

The Orioles pitching has improved as of late but they will be hard pressed to win this series with the arms they are throwing out there. Koji Uehara hasn't won a game since April, Jason Berken has been awful, and the O's never know what they are going to get out of Rich Hill.

Offensively, 1B Aubrey Huff has bumped his average up to .276. Like the Marlins, the Orioles only have one player hitting over .300, Adam Jones (.316), but have a bunch of guys hovering around .300; Luke Scott (.298), Nick Markakis (.292), and Brian Roberts (.291)

Orioles Magic

Friday, June 19 - Sunday, June 21

Baltimore Orioles (29-37) at Philadelphia Phillies (36-28)

Pitching Matchups

Friday: BAL - Rich Hill (2-1, 5.81)
PHI - Antonio Bastardo (2-1, 5.25)

Saturday: BAL - Brad Bergesen (4-2, 3.79)
PHI - J.A. Happ (4-0, 3.53)

Sunday: BAL - Jeremy Guthrie (4-7, 5.42)
PHI - Cole Hamels (4-2, 4.48)

The Orioles head to Philadelphia to take on the defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies. The O's are coming off an impressive series win against the New York Mets, while the Phillies were just swept at home by the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Phillies best player had been LF Raul Ibanez, but he was just placed on the disabled list due to side effects of steroids, I mean an injured groin. However, the Phillies still have dangerous hitters without Ibanez, such as 2B Chase Utley, who is hitting .308, with 15 HRs, and 44 RBIs, RF Jayson Werth (.261, 12 HRs, 36 RBIs), and 1B Ryan Howard (.257, 19 HR, 51 RBI). Someone who the Phillies are not getting production from is SS Jimmy Rollins. Rollins is going through an awful season, hitting just .225, with 6 HRs, and 27 RBIs.

The Phillies haven't had the greatest pitching this season. Ace Cole Hamels has been battling injuries, 102 year old Jamie Moyer is finally pitching like he is 102, and their closer Brad Lidge, who was perfect last year, struggled before finally being put on the disabled list. The Orioles face the Phillies most consistent pitcher on Saturday, J.A. Happ. Happ started the year in the bullpen but is now in the rotation and has steadied the Phillies staff.

The Orioles started the season with Jeremy Guthrie as their ace, but Guthrie has been terrible, so the Orioles now rely on rookie Brad Bergesen as their ace. Bergesen hasn't allowed more than 2 earned runs in his last four starts. It is great to finally see an O's pitcher showing some promise.

Orioles Magic

Shaking things up in this edition of Orioles Magic. The Orioles welcome the New York Mets to the Yard. Rather than have me bring you a preview, I have decided to let guest contributor Matt, a huge Mets fan, do the honors.

Coming off an 19-9 month of May, Mets fans thought that only brighter days were ahead. This winning month, one of the best in franchise history, was highlighted by the beginning of the injury bug (Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes) but nothing seemed to phase them. All of us knew, that once June hit a lighter schedule was in place in the beginning (Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nubionals), followed by tough interleague play. Unfortunately for the Mets (and fortunately for the Orioles), everyone has seemingly started dropping like flies, whether it be John Maine having shoulder discomfort, or even 34-year-old journeyman Ramon Martinez breaking his pinkie.

Things have gone from bad to seemingly worse in our view. First getting swept in Pittsburgh to the lowly Pirates. Then the Phillies came to town, and after holding them off for a 6-5 victory in game 1, the Mets decided to blow 2 games in extra innings, giving us that gut wrenching feeling we are far too used to. This pain went into Friday nights game with Luis Castillo dropping a routine pop up (TWO HANDS!!!) and then our ace Johan Santana getting shelled for 9 runs in 3 innings to our inter-city rival the Yankees.

Needless to say this Orioles/Mets series will be quite interesting. For the Mets, Tuesday they will be throwing out Mike “Big Pelf” Pelfrey (4-2, 4.68) who is coming off a 6 inning performance against the Phillies and has been much improved since the 2^nd half of last year. The middle game will be pitched by Tim Redding (0-2, 6.18) who is also coming off an impressive start against the Phils where he went 7 innings allowing only 3 runs, followed by Livan Hernandez (5-1, 4.33) who is coming off his worst start of the year giving up 6 runs in 5 innings to the Yankees. The keys for the Mets in this series will be whether or not they can put some terrible losses behind them (a dead horse subject), and continue to get quality pitching from Pelfrey and Redding, and attempt to get good hitting out of their backup players. One player that has been on fire, throughout the month of June is third baseman David Wright who is hitting .364 for the season, and .489 for the month.

For the Orioles, they are coming off a series where they welcomed the Atlanta Braves to Baltimore and took 2 out of 3 from the Bravos. For this series Jeremy Guthrie (4-6, 5.52) takes the hill on Tuesday night, Koji Uehara (2-4, 4.37) on Wednesday night, and Jason Berken (1-3, 7.32) in the finale. The keys for the Orioles will be whether their offense can continue to have an explosion like they did against NL East foe Atlanta, or if the offense will revert back to its form for most of the last three weeks. Orioles super prospect Matt Wieters will have to get things going as he is only hitting .233 through 12 major league games.

The Week That Was

The Los Angeles Lakers captured their 15th NBA Championship last night, crushing the lifeless Orlando Magic on their home floor, 99-86 to win the series 4-1. Kobe Bryant scored 30 points and had 4 blocks, and earned his first NBA Finals MVP. He also quieted any rational haters of him their might be (their are very few) by winning a title without one of the most overrated players of all time, Shaquille O'Neal. Bryant was spectacular this season, embracing his role as a leader of this team. He almost seemed to be more of a coach than the greatest coach in NBA history, Phil Jackson, who captured his record 10th NBA Championship. The Lakers face some question marks for next season with both Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza being free agents. It would be ideal to re sign both, especially Ariza but the Lakers may not be able to afford that. Ariza has to be the one that's kept if it is decided to let one walk. He was huge in the playoffs and stepped up consistently on both offense and defense. Odom can be a force on both ends but you never know what to expect out of him. Jackson has one year left on his contract and there is talk he might retire and leave the game as a champion. I couldn't blame him if he decides to. All of that is irrelevant for now, the Lakers are champions and Bryant has secured his legacy as one of the Top-10 all time players in the game.

The NHL season also wrapped up this past weekend with the Pittsburgh Penguins shocking the hockey world and defeating the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit to capture the Stanley Cup. The Penguins were left for dead after being beaten soundly in the first two games in Detroit. They managed to even the series up in Pittsburgh but then were left for dead again after dropping Game 5 at Detroit. I think the Penguins themselves might have been the only ones who thought they could win a Game 7 at Detroit. Cindy Crosby left the game with a hang nail in the second period but the Penguins still were able to take a 2-0 lead on goals by Maxime Talbot. Detroit cut the deficit to one and then furiously tried to tie the game but were denied by some brilliant goaltending by Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins were on the outside looking in for the playoffs before firing their coach Michael Therrien. They replaced him with minor league coach Dan Bylsma and the rest is history. Pittsburgh now has the Super Bowl Champion Steelers and the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.

Orioles Magic

Friday, June 12 - Sunday, June 14

Atlanta Braves (29-30) at Baltimore Orioles (25-35)

Pitching Matchups

Friday: ATL - Tommy Hanson (0-0, 9.00)
BAL - Jason Berken (1-2, 7.04)

Saturday: ATL - Kenshin Kawakami (3-6, 4.62)
BAL - Rich Hill (2-1, 5.24)

Sunday: ATL - Derek Lowe (7-3, 3.44)
BAL - Brad Bergesen (3-2, 4.04)

Interleague play returns as the Orioles welcome the Atlanta Braves to the Yard. After a 5 game winning streak elicited some hope a few weeks ago, the O's are back to playing like crap. The Braves are hovering around .500 and trying to stay in the NL East race.

When you think of the Braves one man comes to mind, 3B Chipper Jones. The 37-year-old is having another solid season and leads the Braves in almost every offensive statistical category. He is batting .320, with 8 HRs, and 31 RBIs. The Braves other major offensive threat is C Brian McCann, who is hitting .312, with 6 HRs and 24 RBIs.

For years, pitching was the Braves rock. You could count on the Braves having at least steady pitching from the ace to the number four spot in the rotation. Times have changed and now the Braves have the ace, but not much else. The Orioles are terrible on Sundays and unfortunately for them they get to see the ace, Derek Lowe on Sunday. Lowe is 7-3, with a 3.44 ERA and has been exactly what the Braves were hoping for. Tommy Hanson makes his second career start tonight for Atlanta, he gave up 6 earned runs in his first start against the Milwaukee Brewers. The O's are fortunate to be avoiding the Braves second best pitcher, Jair Jurrens, who leads the team in ERA, at 2.85.

The Orioles have been struggling for about a week offensively, which has coincided with their poor play. Adam Jones has cooled a bit, Brian Roberts has been mired in a slump, and Aubrey Huff is only hitting .258 for the season. Matt Wieters is starting to get his stroke, but still is hitting just .208 since being called up a few weeks ago. It seems like Luke Scott hits a home run just about every night, he leads the team with 15. Also worth mentioning is the play of call up Nolan Reimold, who is hitting .271, with 7 HRs and 16 RBIs.

Jason Berken starts for Baltimore tonight, and brings his 7.04 ERA with him. Saturday, the O's hope they get the good Rich Hill who seems to alternate between looking amazing and then downright awful. In his last start against Oakland he couldn't find the plate and was pulled in the first inning. Rookie Brad Bergesen starts Sunday, and he has pitched very well as of late, and has been the Orioles most consistent pitcher thus far.

Orioles Magic

Friday, June 5 - Sunday, June 7

Baltimore Orioles (24-30) at Oakland Athletics (22-30)

Pitching Matchups

Friday: BAL - Jeremy Guthrie (4-4, 4.86)
OAK - Dallas Braden (4-5, 3.63)

Saturday: BAL - Jason Berken (1-1, 2.25)
OAK - Trevor Cahill (2-5, 4.33)

Sunday: BAL - Rich Hill (2-0, 4.15)
OAK - Vin Mazzaro (1-0, 0.00)

The Orioles quick run through the AL West continues in Oakland this weekend. The O's dropped 2 of 3 in Seattle and have recently seen their hitting completely disappear. This of course comes during a time where they actually pitched very well against Seattle. Just can never seem to get good hitting and good pitching going at the same time.

The Athletics have been a bit of a disappointment in this young season. With the addition LF Matt Holliday, and 1B Jason Giambi, along with some good young pitching, the A's were expected to contend in the AL West. Instead they sit in last and Holliday is already talking about how he would be alright with being traded.

You know your offense is strugg a ling when your catcher leads your team in batting average. That is the case with the A's and C Kurt Suzuki (.284, 2 HRs, 18 RBIs). DH Jack Cust leads the team in HRs with 8, and Holliday leads the team in RBIs with 33. As a team Oakland is hitting just .239 for the season, which is atrocious.

As mentioned before, the A's have some good young arms, and pitching is actually the reason the A's record isn't worse. The O's face their wins leader Dallas Braden tonight, who despite an ERA under 4.00, has a losing record, due to the A's inept offense. Braden also leads the team in strikeouts. On Sunday, the Orioles will hope to crack rookie Vin Mazzaro, who in his debut against the Chicago White Sox, gave up no runs over 6.1 innings.

Rich Hill takes the mound for the O's on Sunday. He is coming off a brilliant shutout performance against the Mariners on Monday. Jason Berken gets the start on Saturday, he has shown some potential in his few starts. The O's bats cooled against the Mariners but Luke Scott continues to hit the ball very well, but the O's will have a hard time getting the offense going against the good pitching they will face this weekend.