As Frank Zappa would have it: What's New In Baltimore?
The RED HOT Orioles (winners of nine of ten) arrive at SkyDome fresh off a series win in Anaheim over the Angels, who had been red-hot themselves. The Jays, as everyone knows, are slumping badly and now trail the Orioles for third place by eight games. A sweep would put Baltimore at .500, about where everyone expected them to be starting this season.
On to the Advance Scout!
Probable Starters
Fri 7:05 PM - Baltimore RH Sir Sidney Ponson (7-12, 5.69) vs. Toronto RH Miguel Batista (9-7, 4.41)
Sat 4:05 PM - Baltimore RH Dave Borkowski (3-2, 3.29) vs. Toronto RH Josh Towers (7-4, 4.62)
Sun 1:05 PM - Baltimore RH Daniel Cabrera (9-5, 3.71) vs. Toronto RH Dave Bush (1-3, 3.59)
* Kick In The Teeth Time : Baltimore are as close to the Red Sox for second place (and the Wild Card) as they are to the Blue Jays in last. Eight games separate the O's and Sox as well. The O's are only sixth in the wild-card race, though, so they have work to do yet to vault themselves into contention. They are 18-10 since the All-Star Break.
* What's been their secret? The offense, which everyone was expecting so much of this year, has taken off and is teeing off on the opposition. In their last ten games, the O's have scored six or more runs seven times, including two 9's and two 11's, for a total of 6.9 runs per game. They're doing it the old-fashioned way - get runners on base and drive them in with base hits. The Orioles are fifth in the majors in OBP and tied for first in batting average. A lack of power makes the O's a touch inefficient, but they steal bases well and put the ball in play.
* A stable lineup (and a recent lack of injuries) may also be paying benefits for the Orioles. They hadn't made a roster move in three weeks until Jay Gibbons came off the DL earlier this week. O's on the DL include Luis Matos, and the perennial David Segui, Marty Cordova, and Eric DuBose, all on the 60-day DL. DuBose is set to return next season, while Segui may be allowed to injure himself again soon. He's been on a rehab assignment and will be evaluated Sunday with an eye to returning after this series.
* Unfortunately, Gibbons being activated meant that the fans will miss out on the return of Ken Huckaby, who was designated for assignment earlier this week.
* This will be the first time that Jays fans have seen Karim Garcia in an O's uniform. Garcia was acquired July 19 from the Mets for Mike DeJean, and has played sparingly and rather poorly in 16 games, despite getting 11 starts.
* The Dave Bush role in Baltimore has been played by Saturday's starter, Dave Borkowski. Borkowski's no young prospect, though. He's 27 and has knocked around for years; his major league debut came way back in 1999 and he hadn't pitched in the bigs since 2001 with the Tigers. Borkowski has won three of his six starts and has a nifty 3.29 ERA, with just 9 walks and 32 strikeouts in his 41 innings.
* Out-of-nowhere phenom David Newhan keeps on rolling along. Newhan, a career minor leaguer less than a month from his 31st birthday, is hitting .356/.411/.510 this season while playing first base, third base, both corner outfield spots, and DH. I believe Newhan has never before played against the Blue Jays; his previous stops were all in the NL (17 games with Philadelphia and 46 with San Diego) and he hasn't faced the Jays this season.
* Meanwhile, Newhan's actually being outdone by the player he replaced (temporarily) at third base, Melvin Mora. Since returning from injury and reclaiming his spot at the hot corner, Mora has been on fire. He is not hitting .346/.433/.597 and hit a bomb yesterday off Bartolo Colon. Other Orioles whose bats are smoking are the big free agents : Miguel Tejada, .319/.367/.547 and Javy Lopez, .316/.370/.496. Javy is DHing when he is not catching and with consecutive day games on Saturday and Sunday, look for him to possibly be spelled in one of them and take the DH slot while Robert Machado catches (as happened yesterday when Lopez got the day off).
* While the Oriole hitting has been all that, the Oriole pitching has... um... not. Baltimore's 4.82 ERA is 24th in the majors. Better than I expected coming into the season, but the reason they are not a bigger player in the wild card race. The pitching has improved, though : one reason is the new pitching coach, the Ancient One, Ray Miller, who joined the team on June 26. Miller's getting a lot of credit for better performances by the starters than under the departed Mark Wiley.
* On this day 35 years ago, Jim Palmer threw a no-hitter for the O's against the Oakland A's.
* The saga continues for the Expos' desired move to Washington and the Orioles' continuous attempts to block it. Peter Angelos was recently told by Bud Selig that no move would be made over the objection of the Orioles, but Angelos has continually reiterated that he will not accept a cash indemnity payment to allow the Expos to move to D.C. Angelos does not object to certain cities in Northern Virginia hosting the Expos, and some of the NoVa groups are getting a closer look now as a result.
* The Orioles really believe that they can pull themselves back into the race. Signs are that the team is loose; Miguel Tejada (one of my favourite players in baseball, too bad he's now an Oriole) is leading in the clubhouse and leading on the field; he is still leading the majors in RBI with 106.
Batting vs. Lefties :
What lefties?
Batting vs. Righties :
4 Roberts
DH Newhan
5 Mora
6 Tejada
3 Palmeiro
2 Lopez
9 Surhoff
7 Bigbie
8 Hairston
In Relief :
Closer: Julio
Setup: Big Unhittable B.J. Ryan (LH)
Short: Groom (LH), Grimsley, Williams
Long: Rodriguez, Parrish (LH)
One final note. B.J. Ryan is going to fall just a bit short of the service time needed to be a free agent. Wouldn't he be the perfect guy to add some backbone to the Toronto bullpen? Oh well.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040813101140999