You never write…
Hard to stay excited… looking forward to 2010 already.
Jeremy Guthrie was hit hard for seven runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings versus the Angels on Sunday. Guthrie walked two, struck out two, and gave up four doubles and a homer. He has just three quality starts in 13 outings since the start of June, and his ERA is a career-worst 5.66.
Nick Markakis belted a solo homer but the Orioles fell to the Angels in extra innings. The homer was Markakis’ 14th, putting him right on pace to match last year’s 20 long balls. It certainly won’t go down as a bad year for Markakis, but that he currently has 60 less walks than he finished with in 2008 is something of a disappointment. Since he also hasn’t shown any progress in power or batting average, there’s no apparent trade-off in aggressiveness.
1B Rhyne Hughes was acquired from the Rays to complete the Gregg Zaun trade. A pretty nice catch considering the Orioles parted with a backup catcher. The 25-year-old Hughes isn’t considered a top prospect but he has slugged 22 homers in 440 at-bats between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham this season.
Felix Pie hit for the cycle in a win over the Angels on Friday night. Pie is the seventh player to hit for the cycle this season. He got there with an RBI double in the first, a solo home run in the third, an infield single in the seventh, and then, a triple to the right-center field gap in the ninth. He scored three times in the blowout win. It was the first career four-hit game by Pie. Nights like this prove that he oozes talent, but we’re still left waiting for him to put it together.
Chris Tillman earned his first major league win, allowing four runs — three earned — over 6 2/3 innings on Friday night. It was also the first start where he allowed more groundballs than flyballs. To his credit, he hung in there after giving up two runs in a shaky first inning. All told, he scattered seven hits while walking two and whiffing three. The six homers in 24 innings are a bit alarming, but Tillman has looked progressively stronger with each outing. He’ll get the Rays next week.
The Orioles will go with a six-man rotation in September. This basically means that Brad Bergesen will not nudge a youngster, like Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman or David Hernandez, out of the rotation when he returns from injury. “I think we’ve got that much pretty much written out,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “I think there’s three days off early in September, and the off-day on Thursday pushes Tillman back an extra day. Obviously, we’ve talked about going to a six-man rotation in September, and we’ll monitor that closely. We’ll look at innings pitched and projected innings pitched for this year based upon what they did last year. We’ll be very careful about it.”
The Orioles have withdrawn a contract offer to second-round draft pick Mychal Givens. “This is all on me,” Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan said. “This is my call. I just don’t feel good about this and we are moving on to Plan B. We were working on info from the weeks leading up to the draft and some of that changed draft day.” Givens, a high school shortstop from Florida, increased his asking price on draft day, straining negotiations from the start. He is a toolsy shortstop with decent power potential and a raw approach at the plate who will head to Oklahoma State.
Jason Berken fell to 2-10 by allowing four runs — three earned — in five innings Thursday against the A’s. Berken snapped a nine-game losing streak in his last start, but is back on the wrong side of the ledger again. While the Orioles seem committed to keeping him in the rotation, Berken has been flat out awful with a 6.63 ERA and 41/29 K/BB ratio in 74 2/3 innings and doesn’t really have the minor league track record to suggest that he’s capable of a whole lot better.