Angels 11, Orioles 4

Worst game of the year? I thought so.

We've been the victims of ten run beat downs. We just gave a game to the Red Sox that should have been ours, but last night's loss was really a team effort. Most of the lopsided losses can be attributed to a starting pitching meltdown. Rich Hill, Adam Eaton, and Jeremy Guthrie have all been responsible for those. The collapse against the Sox can be put on the shoulders of Jim Johnson and George Sherrill. Many players contributed last night.

Jason Berken looked like a AAAA pitcher again last night. He didn't allow a run for the first three innings, but put lots of people on base and was really lucky that he didn't allow many more runs. He also inflated his pitch count and when things went really bad in the fourth he didn't have the energy to get out of the jam. Maybe he needs more than the five AAA starts he logged.

It didn't help Berken that Brian Roberts made the first of his awful plays in the fourth, pulling Robert Andino off the bag with a poor toss and losing a sure force out.

Matt Albers came in with the bases loaded and no outs. He allowed the inherited runners to score, but it really could have been worse. Is it my imagination, or has he been our most effective reliever over the last few weeks? I wish he had pitched longer. We had a 4-3 lead when he left.

Danys Baez came in to pitch the seventh, and things really got out of hand. I can't describe how bad his control was. It is a small miracle that he wasn't racking up hit batters and wild pitches. He loaded the bases, but caught a break when Vlad Guerrero tapped into a double play. He should have been out of it with a tie game, but the worst was yet to come.

Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis combined for the Cover-My-Eyes Awful Play of the Game. Juan Rivera hit a lazy pop up to right field. Nick drifted in, Brian drifted out. They stopped, looked at each other, and watched the ball drop between them. That was 100 million dollars worth of players looking like the Bad News Bears. I really wanted to see Dave Trembley throw a tantrum, throw some bats, throw a water cooler, and throw Roberts and Markakis out of the game. I guess it wouldn't have helped though. As it turned out though, it wouldn't have hurt.

The offense did nothing in the top of the eighth, then Brian Bass came in to stop the bleeding. Nope. Bass put Macier Izturis on, then moved him to second with a throwing error on a pick off attempt. Then we saw another junior varsity play. Andino handled a sharp grounder and threw to Melvin Mora to cut down Izturis. Mora hadn't moved towards third though and was three paces off the bag when Izturis arrived. He made a diving try at a tag but didn't have a chance. I turned the game off when Chone Figgins drove in Izturis.

I'd love to draw some kind of big picture conclusion from this game but I really don't have it in me. There are days when this team is unwatchable. I have a feeling that today, with Rich Hill on the mound, might be another.

HOLY F#$%ING &*%$!!!

Its almost one in the morning and I'm still lying here thinking about the game. Largest comeback in Orioles history? From down 10-1 to winning 11-10? Biggest ever comeback by a last place team against a first place team? Second biggest comeback allowed in Red Sox history? What happened? Its just a mixed up highlight montage in my head.

In a post game interview, Dave Trembley said his favorite play was Oscar Salazar's three run home run in the seventh. I'm OK with that, but how about Felix Pie working his way out of the doghouse? How about Brian Roberts ending a 0-18 stretch? How about Matt Albers and Mark Hendrickson settling down that mess Rich Hill left behind? How about Matt Wieters coming through with the bases loaded? Didn't you love watching the Red Sox futilely arguing with the umpires when things were coming apart?

If I had to pick one moment to relive, it would be the moment in the eighth when Nick Markakis came up with two on and two out to face Papelbon. I always get a little chill at seeing two great young players facing each other with the game on the line. I anticipated a lengthy battle but Nick had other ideas. He smashed the first pitch into the left-center field gap, driving in two and giving the Orioles the lead.

Tomorrow Brad Bergesen is pitching for an Orioles team that is bound to be fired up. Should be fun.

Koji's Elbow

Here is what WebMD had to say about Arthrograms. Koji had one today.

An arthrogram is a test using X-rays to obtain a series of pictures of a joint after a contrast material (such as a dye, water, air, or a combination of these) has been injected into the joint. This allows your doctor to see the soft tissue structures of your joint, such as tendons, ligaments, muscles, cartilage, and your joint capsule. These structures are not seen on a plain X-ray without contrast material. A special type of X-ray, called fluoroscopy, is used to take pictures of the joint.

An arthrogram is used to check a joint to find out what is causing your symptoms or problem with your joint. An arthrogram may be more useful than a regular X-ray because it shows the surface of soft tissues lining the joint as well as the joint bones. A regular X-ray only shows the bones of the joint. This test can be done on your hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, wrist, or jaw (temporomandibular joint).

Other tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), give different information about a joint. They may be used with an arthrogram or when an arthrogram does not give a clear picture of the joint.

An arthrogram is used to find the cause of ongoing, unexplained joint pain, swelling, or abnormal movement of your joint. It may be done alone, before, or as part of other tests, such as MRI, CT, or arthroscopy.

An arthrogram is used to:

• Find problems in your joint capsule, ligaments, cartilage (including tears, degeneration, or disease), and the bones in the joint. In your shoulder, it may be used to help find rotator cuff tears or a frozen shoulder.
• Find abnormal growths or fluid-filled cysts.

There's a lot more on WebMD, but that's the important part. I hope the test doesn't turn up anything serious. We need Koji to come back and take Rich Hill's place in the rotation.

Hill can go to AAA or he can get picked up by someone else. I'm tired of watching the guy. He is this year's Daniel Cabrera. He pulls a really good start out of his butt every now and then so we all get excited. Then he follows that with five crappy performances. Nine runs allowed in three and a third tonight. Let's hope Koji gets healthy so we can put him in the rotation, keep Hernandez, and take our chances with Hill clearing waivers.

Looks right now like the Red Sox bullpen might make this interesting. A reverse Mother's Day Massacre? Dare I hope?

Melvin Mora's D

Lots of figurative ink has been spilled over Melvin Mora's bat and how it should be slotted in the lineup. Less has been said about his defense. I started thinking about it yesterday, watching Oscar Salazar at third.

Salazar had a couple of tough plays and he wasn't awful, especially compared to some of his teammates' defensive performances. He pulled Aubrey Huff off the bag with one throw, but it was a tough play. A few balls skittered a few inches out of his reach but not so close anybody would call them errors. There were just a lot of tough plays that Salazar didn't make. I don't know that Mora would have, but I think he would have converted at least one or two into outs.

I looked Mora up on FanGraphs and found that he is statistically a little above average at third base. He is a solid guy who makes the plays he ought to and sometimes surprises me on tough plays. Ty Wigginton, by comparison, is a butcher. I didn't bother looking up Salazar since he wouldn't have enough chances to make it meaningful.

You can pin yesterday's ugly loss on a lot of people. Luke Scott and Aubrey Huff both made awful mental mistakes on the base paths. Matt Wieters played like a rookie. Our pitching? David Hernandez didn't look bad, but he did help Adam Dunn autograph Eutaw St.

For me, I think the defense at third was a big factor. Oscar Salazar does a lot of things well and I hope we hang on to him. More on that in another post. He just doesn't have a great glove at third. If Mora had been there, I believe he would have saved a run or two.

Catching up

True story here. I missed the entire Marlins series. I've been tied up with a project that closely resembles a job, and didn't get to see much. Big thanks for small favors. Luckily I have nothing to do this weekend except drink beer and watch the Orioles. Right now I am watching them kick the living daylights out of the Nationals. Two observations.

First, Dave Trembley seems partial to extreme shifts against left handed hitters. Just my opinion, but it seems they cause more problems then they solve. I wish he would stop.

Second, I have written that young teams like ours are going to be inconsistent. Oddly, it seems the rookies are pretty steady and the vets are the ones who are all over the place. Nolan Reimold, Matt Wieters, Koji Uehara, and Robby Andino give you exactly what you have come to expect. Jeremy Guthrie, Nick Markakis, George Sherrill, and Luke Scott are streakier than a toddler's underwear. I wouldn't mind trading a vet or two.

Fantasy Baseball Q&A

Yesterday I enjoyed talking Orioles baseball with Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove. We discuss Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora, and Nolan Reimold.

Stadium Names

Suite 101 was kind enough to publish another of my articles on their website. It can be found here. In it I write about stadium naming rights. Parts of this article appeared in Weaver's Tantrum last year, but much of it is new material.