Orioles News - 10/31/07 - O's Decline Option On Benson - Patterson Leaves - Bako Gone Too

Busy, busy, busy. That is what the Baltimore Orioles have been. I'll begin with the news about Kris Benson.

The O's have decided not to pick up the option on pitcher Kris Benson's contract today. Benson missed all of last season with a partially-torn rotator cuff. He underwent surgery last March to repair it. And to think we traded away a young pitcher with potential (John Maine) for a few starts by Kris Benson. Real good move there. Riiiiiight.

Center fielder Corey Patterson has officially filed for free agency. He will be joining a free agent class that includes Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter. That is a good class between those two players alone. Since those players are out there, Patterson is likely to get over looked by many teams. He will probably find out that little teams show interest in him.

Backup catcher Paul Bako has also officially filed for free agency. He wasn't the greatest backup ever, but still a good backup player. - John T.

Orioles News - 8/26/07 - Twins sweep O's - Bedard gets strikeout record

6. Thats how many losses the Orioles have in a row. Let me throw another number at you. 21. Thats how many games back the Orioles are in the AL East. The O's lost again yesterday, 11-3 to the Minnesota Twins. Our ace, Erik Bedard got rocked for 6 runs. It's his first loss since June 10th. The O's have now dropped 8 of their last 10 games. In the first inning Bedard walked the first batter he faced. He then struck out the next batter he faced, giving him the single-season Orioles strikeout record. After that though, Torii Hunter singled sending the runner on first base to third base. Hunter then tried to steal 2nd base and a bad throw from catcher Paul Bako sent the runner on third base, Casilla, home and Hunter to third base. Justin Morneau hit a sacrifice fly to send Hunter home to score the game's second run. Then in the 2nd inning with 2 men on, Bartlett tripled to knock in both runners. The O's fought back in the 3rd and 4th innings. In the 3rd, Tike Redman singled to start things off. Redman then stole 2nd base. Brian Roberts singled after that and that sent Redman to third. On an error, Roberts addvanced to 2nd. Corey Patterson reached second base after an error by Alexi Casilla which scored both runners, Redman and Roberts. In the 4th inning, Aubrey Huff singled to start things off. Freddie Bynum also singled to advance Huff to third. Paul Bako then hit a sacrifice fly and Huff scored. The O's were done scoring after that. But the Twins weren't as they scored 7 more runs. In other Orioles news, Kevin Millar failed to reach base as his Orioles record of 52 straight games reaching base ended. He nearly had a homer that would have tied the game in the 5th inning but Torii Hunter robbed his home run. So, 6 straight losses...- John T.

Orioles News - 8/25/07 - Radhames Liz debuts - O's fall again

The Baltimore Orioles fell again last night, 8-1 to the Minnesota Twins. The game was full of missed oppurtunities for the O's. The O's stranded multiple runners against Matt Garza, the Twins starter, 3 times. And, the O's stranded runners on third base three times. The Orioles finally broke through in the third inning when Nick Markakis drove in a run. That was the only run of the day for the O's. However, the big story was Radhames Liz. He is an Orioles starting pitcher, and he made his Major League debut last night. He is just like his mentor, Daniel Cabrera. He has a dominant fastball but his command isn't great. Liz walked 3 batters in the game and all 3 wound up scoring. Three of the five runs he gave up came on 1 swing. Liz led off the third with 2 walks. A bunt from Nick Punto advanced the runners to third and second base. After a groundout, Jason Bartlett hit a two-out two-run single to left field. After that, Liz set down 6 straight batters in innings 4 and 5. Then Liz lost control again. He gave up a single to the first batter in the 6th inning, and then a walk. Torii Hunter then came up and ripped a 97-mph fastball for a home run. The Twins scored 3 more times off of the Orioles bullpen to score the final runs. The O's have been outscored 59-17 in the last 5 games. We are in desperate need of some run support, as we have the young pitching, but we just don't score the runs...Oh well. At least we can all watch now as the battle for fourth in the AL East heats up between the O's and Tampa Bay Devil Rays....-John T.

Orioles News - 8/24/07 - O's lose 4th straight

The Orioles lost again last night, 7-4 to the Minnesota Twins. It's their 4th straight loss. Corey Patterson singled in the 1st inning to begin. Then Miguel Tejada came up and crushed a homer to left field to make it a 2-0 game. Later in the inning, Nick Markakis was up and he got a 2-1 pitch that he liked as he sent it over the centerfield wall to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Then in the 6th inning, Corey Patterson lead off with a homer to right, to extend the lead to 4-0. Surely Jeremy Guthire, the O's starting pitcher who had been throwing a shutout, can hang on to this lead right? And the bullpen could hang on to this lead to right? Wrong. In 3 pitches, Jeremy Guthrie went from pitching a shutout with a 4-0 lead to a less comfortable 4-3 lead after Justin Morneau hit a solo homer and Jason Kubel hit a 2 run homer. After he finished that inning, the bullpen came in. I bet you can guess what happened next. If you can't here's what did happen. With a 4-3 lead in the 8th inning, the bullpen blew another game. In the 8th inning, Jamie Walker came in to pitch with runners on the corners. 2 sacrifice flys and a double later, the Twins had taken the lead 5-4. Then in the 9th with Dany Baez pitching for the Orioles, Torii Hunter took a pitch and ripped it for a 2 run homer to score the games final points. The O's have allowed 33 runs between innings 7-9 in the last 5 games. So much for revamping the bullpen this past offseason. In other Orioles news, Radhames Liz is making his Major League debut tonight. He was 11-4 at AA Bowie this year. Now if only he could get some run support...-John T.