O' lead AL East by 2, head to D.C.

The Baltimore Orioles survived a bullpen meltdown Sunday in Boston that robbed Kevin Gausman of a win after he pitched brilliantly for five and two thirds. What should have taken nine innings took twelve as the O’s pounded out another victory in Beantown against a team that throws the ball around like little leaguers. Boston's once solid defense has descended into the abyss.

Kevin Gausman

Nelson Cruz continues to dominate Red Sox pitching much to the chagrin of John Lackey and others in Boston. Lackey decided that immediately the five hit performance of Cruz in game two of Saturday’s double header was the best time for him to grumble about the Cruz suspension for appearing in the files of a PED dealer in Miami last year. Apparently Cruz was untroubled. He went three for six with an RBI as the O’s took advantage of two more Sox errors en route to a 7-6 win.

The O’s head back home with a two game lead in the AL East for a huge series in Washington with the Nats that begins tonight. The 48-39 Nats are in second place just a half a game behind Atlanta in the NL East. Chris Tillman will face Stephen Strasburg in the series opener. Both teams are on a roll having won seven of their last ten games.

First Half Review: Second Half Needs

Having passed the halfway point of the season over the weekend and emerging from a disappointing series loss to Tampa, the O’s returned in action at Camden Yards last night with a resounding thumping of Texas. The O’s scored early and often en route to a 7-1 win over the Rangers. Manny Machado began serving his five game suspension last night and the O’s moved Chris Davis from first to third base. He played well in the field despite a throwing error.

Any objective review of the O’s first half would cause the observer to conclude that this team has a real chance to make the playoffs and perhaps win the World Series. Below is a position by position and player by player review of what the O’s need to not only make the post season but prosper.

Outfielders: The O’s outfield is the brightest spot on the team. Adam Jones has mixed just enough patience and discipline in with his unbridled aggression at the plate to be a consistent contributor. Nelson Cruz is the free agent signee of the year in the AL. Steve Pearce has been on a run that could be a career changer. Delmon Young has been a consistent contributor when called upon. Nick Markakis may arguably be one of the very best leadoff hitters in all of baseball, and along with Adam Jones, he helps the O’s cover plenty of ground in right and center field. The soft spot for the O’s outfield is the inexplicable inclusion of David Lough. Lough needs to be in Norfolk (or Bowie) working on his offensive skills. He is not a professional hitter. And the baseball world already has too many small, medium-speed outfielders, with decent gloves, but propensities for hitting fly balls (or striking out), coupled with warning track power.

At third Manny Machado is steadily regaining the form both offensively and defensively that makes him one of the finest young players in the game. He will be well rested for the second half of the year after serving the five game suspension followed by the fast approaching all-star break.

At short J.J. Hardy has lost his concentration in the field from time to time in the first half and his defense has not been nearly as good as it was last year. That still makes him the best defensive shortstop in the league, but by a smaller margin. He is beginning to show signs of regaining his power despite a tendency to take center cut fast balls for a called strike to start almost every at bat. His batting average remains high.

At second Jonathan Schoop is all upside. He simply needs to keep working at improving every day. He is a great physical specimen and seems to do his best work at the plate when there are runners on base. Maturity should treat him well. His defense is already top shelf. Ryan Flaherty is a useful utility player who can play a number of positions. Unfortunately we cannot recall him every putting any off-speed pitch in play. Opposition pitchers know this.

Chris Davis has become an absolute mess. For a portion of May and June it looked like Davis was regaining his approach as a professional hitter with power to all fields. He has hit a few line drives to left and left center field. Unfortunately Davis is clearly thinking way too much during every at bat. As a result his bat speed has lost several notches. Maybe he is not getting the early recognition he needs to be effective. Or maybe he simply needs to shorten his stroke so he can wait. One thing is for sure, even if his stroke is fine, O’s fans will know he has cleared the mental slate and is ready for a superior second half if Davis stops missing medium quality center cut fastballs. For now, his thought processes and guessing have caused him to descend into the mental funk of hitting which has him stuck in an abyss. From my vantage point the Davis stroke looks fine. What can he do? He can continue to go the other way in the batting cage both off a tee and against the machine. However, when he gets to home plate he really only needs to do two things. 1) See the ball, and 2) hit the ball.

The O's catcher position has been shored up by Caleb Joseph in the absence of all-star catcher Matt Wieters. Todd Hundley contributes to the offense with an occasional hit. This spot suffered mightily with the loss of Wieters, but the O’s pitching has improved noticeably since Joseph got the call up from Norfolk. The pitchers improved performances has to say plenty about his defense in the face of an unproductive season at the plate so far.

Ubaldo Jimenez may have pitched his best game last night. He was consistently down in the strike zone with late life on his once dominating fast ball. He, along with virtually every other O’s starter will need to stay consistently down in the strike zone if they hope to be part of post season. Each and every starter has demonstrated an ability to keep hitters off balance. But each has lost command frequently enough to prevent the O’s from going on the badly needed 8 to 10 game win streak they will need to grab control of the AL East.

The O’s bullpen has a major hole in it. It seems that Buck Showalter is limited in how he can play matchups against left hand hitters late in close games. Brian Matusz has been disappointing (5.16 ERA) and Joe Patton was dealt to the Padres for Hundley after being ineffective. On the plus side, Zac Britton has been a quality closer and Darren O’Day is a trustworthy set up man. Still, Tommy Hunter, T.J. McFarland, and Brad Brach need to improve their command.

If Matusz does not improve soon it may be up to T.J. McFarland to take on the role of left-on-left matchup guy late in games. McFarland has been a solid long relief man for most of the year.

This team has a very good chance to get to the playoffs and go deep. They can score late and almost never seem to be out of a game. They beat the league's best pitchers.

Does the team need Chris Davis to return to form? Last year's production seems unrealistic. However, if Davis commits to seeing the ball and hitting the ball and a few others improve the O's 2014 second half could be great.

It should never have come to that

Fresh off of a successful road trip that saw the O’s rebound with two straight wins after a crushing loss to New York Friday night, the birds faced off against a Chicago White Sox squad that sent their ace Chris Sale to the bump last night at Camden Yards.

Bobby Dickerson

Adam Jones got the night off to a rocking start with a line drive two-run homer off the top of the wall in left center field in the bottom of the first.

However, after the two-run first inning things got dicey for Baltimore. Chicago began to slowly but surely chip away and in subsequent innings the O’s left a trainload of base runners stranded.

In the fourth the O’s failed to score with one out and the bases loaded against lefty Chris Sales. O’s third base coach Bobby Dickerson refused to send Manny Machado from third after he had tagged up on a medium depth fly ball to right field off the bat of Steve Pearce. The throw which would have had to be near perfect came in way up the line and Machado could have scored easily.

Unfortunately, Dickerson, who is having a forgettable year making stop and go decisions as the O’s third base coach has, on several occasions, held runners when the opposition was already conceding the run. Dickerson pretty much did this again an inning later last night when J.J. Hardy’s nineteen hop ground ball squeezed through the left side of the Sox infield. With Nelson Cruz running on contact from second, the O’s getting at least one run out of that frame was a foregone conclusion. The Hardy ground ball was slowing to a crawl on its way to left field and Cruz could have scored standing up. However, inexplicably, Dickerson tightened up mentally and ultra-cautiously threw up the dreaded stop sign for Cruz. Chicago's ace Sales capitalized on the Dickerson judgment error and the O’s stranded all three base runners for the second inning in a row.

Chris Davis

Perhaps Dickerson relays signs from manager Buck Showalter quite well. However, any realistic appraisal of his decision-making at third this season would have him optioned to Norfolk, designated for assignment, or re-trained at another position. He simply cannot make enough good decisions to continue in that spot.

The biggest story in the media this morning will not be the momentum stopping over-caution of Dickerson in the third base coaching box. It will be the Chris Davis walk-off three-run bomb in the bottom of the ninth to give the O’s their third straight win. People paying close attention including Showalter know that squandering run scoring opportunities created by the O's bats is not something that the team can afford from their third base coach. It has already happened way too many times this year.

Amazingly, after a strong outing from Wei-Yin Chen, decent relief by Webb and Brach, and fourteen other hits by O’s, the team needed the dramatic pinch hit Davis smash to win the game.

The O's take on Chicago again tonight at Camden Yards with Miguel Gonzales on the hill. They are just 1.5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the A.L. East.

Gausman shines, O's take two of three at Tampa, head to the Big Apple

Kevin Gausman

The recent call up of Kevin Gausman from AAA Norfolk has provided a catalyst to the O’s pitching staff. Whether it is the threat of a lost spot in the starting rotation or just a coincidence, minus one forgettable outing by Ubaldo Jimenez, the O’s starters have been carrying a team that is failing pretty regularly to put sufficient runs on the board.

Yesterday afternoon Gausman made it three brilliant starts in a row when he allowed no runs on five hits in six innings. Gausman worked out of a massive bases loaded first inning jam. Had plate umpire Pat Hoberg called balls and strikes with more consistency, Gausman’s pitch count might have stayed down and enabled him to go even deeper into the game. Fortunately for the O’s, ex-closer Tommy Hunter worked two scoreless innings  in the seventh and eighth and Zac Britton dominated again in the ninth with two strikeouts to earn his ninth save.

Runs are still hard to come by for Baltimore. The O’s stranded a slew of base runners (as did the Rays) during the afternoon affair. However, Steve Pearce continues to amaze. His batting average is up to .324 after yet another two hit game. Pearce also drew a walk. He seems to always be on base.

The O’s head to New York for a critical three game showdown with the Yankees that begins on Friday night. Ubaldo Jimenez will take the bump for the O’s while the Yanks have yet to name a starter. The Yankees are a half game in front of the O’s going into the series. Both teams have won six of their last ten.

O's split first two at Tampa, try for series today at 11:00am

The first two games of the O's series at Tampa are a study in contrast. Jim Bradley, the legendary high school football coach once responded to a reporter question after a loss. "We played just well enough to lose," he explained.

On Monday night in Tampa the O's played just well enough to lose. There were many reasons for the 5-4 loss. It is counter-productive for teams to point fingers. However, it is harder to improve your team without some examination of cause and effect that causes a team to play just well enough to lose.

The bottom third of the O's lineup is an ongoing problem. There is just no other way to put it Ryan Flaherty, Caleb Joseph, and David Lough are the place in the batting order where rallies go to die.

Brian Matusz came into the game to hold the Rays and failed, surrendering a key homerun. In the end the O's blew a lead and lost a very winnable game.

Last night it was the O's we all continue to believe in. They played well enough to win. The O's hung a five spot on former O, the well-travelled Eric Bedard in the third. And despite a less than stellar outing from Miguel Gonzales, the O's added two more runs in the seventh, finding the route to a 7-5 win.

Chris Davis hit a grand slam home run in the third, a towering opposite field shot that hit the pole. His stroke continues to look more and more balanced as he continues to get pitched mostly hard in and soft away. Davis faces pronounced shifts in every at bat with the defenses tilting dramatically to the right side making it very difficult to hit safely on the ground to right.

Buck Showalter once again shook up the bottom third of the order with Manny Machado going back to the seven hole and Jonathan Schoop hitting in the eight hole. Along with Caleb Joseph, each man contributed singles to the offense.

Steve Pearce continues to shine in the two hole with two walks and two hits including a homer in the seventh in five trips to the dish last night. Both Pearce and Delmon Young give the O's a productive 1-2 punch at DH.

The O's will be back at it early today with an 11:10 first pitch to decide which team takes the series. The O's send Kevin Gausman to the bump today.

O's Matt Wieters heading for Tommy John surgery?

No cigar for the Baltimore Orioles yesterday in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays. After taking two of the first three games of the series and creating an opportunity to close the Jays division leading gap from 4.5 to 2.5 games yesterday, the O’s found themselves back to square one at the end of the weekend.

The problem was pretty simple. The O’s bats went silent again. Though Chris Tillman struggled early, he wound up scattering eight hits and surrendering three runs over seven innings. Tillman pitched well enough to win if the O's bats had responded.

Matt Wieters

There is a buzz around the O’s organization regarding Matt Wieters and it is not good. Wieters will be re-examined by his surgeon in Florida today and is now expected to have Tommy John surgery recommended. Unable to throw even lightly without discomfort, Wieters would be lost for the remainder of this season and would be a longshot to return by opening day in 2015.

And so it seems that the O’s will have to carry on with backstops Nick Hundley and Caleb Joseph. Joseph has been kept in Baltimore while Steve Clevenger, who is pounding the baseball unmercifully at Norfolk, stays down at AAA. Clevenger was actually hitting a hundred and fifty points higher than Joseph when he was sent down after the Hundley acquisition. It would seem that Buck Showalter much prefers the defensive skills of Joseph to Clevenger's.

As is the nature of a long baseball season the O’s have no time to cry in their beer over the lost opportunity weekend. They headed out to Tampa, Florida and are set for a three game weekdays series against the floundering Rays before a huge three day series over the weekend at Yankee Stadium.

Norris stellar again, Davis top hand happy uppercut disappearing

It is only June 15^th. But the Baltimore Orioles are facing by far their biggest game of the year today when they host the finale of a four game set against division leading Toronto at Camden Yards. Start time is 1:30pm. The O’s have taken two out of three so far, but a 2-2 split is not what the birds have on their minds. Taking three of four will send the O's out on the road with some momentum.

The O’s continued to get strong pitching when Bud Norris took the hill yesterday afternoon. Norris had already pitched a gem earlier in the week against Boston. Norris continued to look like the best of the veteran starters on the O’s staff with another good outing yesterday.

Chris Davis

Maybe the biggest potential story of the year continued to develop yesterday as Chris Davis shows more and more signs of re-establishing the swing that made him the most feared hitter in the American League last season. Davis hit a two run homer into the O’s bullpen in LEFT CENTER FIELD in the fifth yesterday to give the O’s what they needed to beat R.A. Dickey and the Jays. Inexplicably a fresh off the DL Tommy Hunter took a risk of injury to catch the ball. Someone should explain to Hunter that he does not get paid to catch homers in the pen.

Davis has been seen working hard lately to rid himself of a top hand happy uppercut pass through the hitting zone. His resurgent power couldn’t come at a better time for the O's as Nelson Cruz continues to hit lately, but with less power.

Delmon Young continued his productive ways as DH with a hit and an alert first to third base running decision that keyed the O’s run in the fourth.

On the downside, J.J. Hardy continued his struggles with another 0-4 afternoon. Homerless all season it appears that the opposition around the league has the book on Hardy. He is taking center cut fastballs for called first strikes repeatedly this season and consequently finds himself making weak contact producing defensive swings late in the counts in almost every at bat.

Today it will be Chris Tillman’s chance to right his own personal ship and give his team a lift. Tillman has had early game command issues this season resulting in an alarming walk total. When he has missed it has often been high and when he has not walked people, he has center cut too many fastballs and hung too many breaking balls to be effective.

Should the O’s win the series finale they would move to within 2.5 games of the Blue Jays while heading out on the road again to face Tampa for three and the Yankees for three.

Gausman shines again, Young delivers the goods

Kevin Gausman wants to stay with the big club. Taken as the fourth overall pick and number one selection by the O's in the 2012 draft (first year players), there have always been sky high hopes for the rangy Gausman. He came to the organization after a stellar career at college baseball powerhouse LSU. He seems to be maturing as a professional pitcher at just 23. Last night Gausman threw six strong innings and got the win as the O's beat Toronto 4-2.

Kevin Gausman

Gausman was making his second big league start in less than a week after being recalled from Norfolk. He allowed just one run to a Toronto Blue Jays team that came into the series with a 4.5 game lead in the AL East.

The good news is the Gausman success against the Oakland A's on Saturday night was somewhat contagious to most of the O's starting rotation. After a forgettable debacle by Ubaldo Jimenez on Sunday, the O's starters have allowed all of 3 runs in their last four outings.

Buck Showalter went to the head-to-head historical stat book and inserted pesky Delmon Young in the lineup last night to face Jays ace Mark Buehrle. The move paid off immediately. After a leadoff single by Nick Markakis in the first, Young smashed a homerun off of the Toronto lefty to stake the O's to an early 2-0 lead. Caleb Joseph's RBI double in the second would be all the runs the O's needed to claw to within 3.5 games of the Jays.

O's first baseman Chris Davis continues to show signs of getting his "hit the ball where it is pitched" stroke back despite an 0-4 night. He is still missing pitches he hit hard last year but the uppercut seems to be disappearing.


Delmon Young

Any lingering questions about what Tommy Hunter's role would be in a save situation where answered last night when Zac Britton got the call in the 9th from Buck Showalter and delivered his sixth save with yet another barrage of sinking two-seam fastballs to Jays hitters. His ERA is now a microscopic .78.

Just  17,403 showed up for the matchup between first and second place teams at Camden Yards. The O's have been disappointing at home this year, particularly their big guns. However, if they continue to pitch like they have the last four nights, they have a good chance to overtake the Jays in short order. If they do the crowds are sure to swell.

The performance pressure shifts to Ubaldo Jimenez tonight. Jimenez has been, at best, very inconsistent this season. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Buck Showalter is reassessing his starting rotation options in the wake of the two consecutive dominating outings by Kevin Gausman and several subpar outings by Jimenez.

Extra BP helps Davis, O's pitching dominates

Chris Davis was caught on film by MASN taking extra batting practice against a pitching machine yesterday. MASN also quoted hitting coach Jim Presley as they played the clip. According to Presley, Davis needs to get rid of the top hand dominant uppercut swing that has replaced his "hit the ball hard to all fields" stroke of 2013.

Chris Davis

It looked like the extra effort was beginning to work in the series clincher last night. The O’s won the game going away after a lengthy rain delay.

Things began well for O's starter Wei Yin Chen. In the bottom of the first inning Davis hit a long two-run homer that helped stake him to an early 3-0 lead.

Some signs of the Davis uppercut still remain, however, Davis also hit a ball deep to center last night and pulled an inside pitch down the line late in the game for a double. The only suggestion to further advance the reversal of the Davis swing woes of 2014 would be to keep working on his high-to-low underspin stroke off a batting tee. When Davis starts to patiently stroke off speed pitches away to left center field, the O’s have the chance to permanently break out of their up one day and down the next pattern.

The O’s continued their best starting pitching run of the season in the three game series against the Bosox. Wei Yin Chen, shut the Red Sox down for seven innings with a low pitch count before giving way to Darren O'Day after the rain delay. The O's staff which now includes a well-rested bullpen allowed the bean town nine just one run in twenty-seven innings.

Kevin Gausman, who came up from Norfolk last weekend to give the O’s a huge boost before Ubaldo’s walkfest on Sunday, gets the ball tonight as the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays come to town. A three-out- of-four O’s series win would be just what the doctor ordered for a Baltimore team that seems to be right in the precipice of a huge breakout.

Norris brilliant in O's 4-0 blanking of Bosox

Kevin Gausman

The last three games have been an “up, down, and back up” story for the Baltimore Orioles. Kevin Gausman came up from Norfolk to give the O’s starting rotation an “up”on Saturday with a strong start. He will remain in the rotation.

I remember first seeing Gausman while I was broadcasting a baseball game maybe a dozen years ago. He was just a little guy back then and following his older brother Brian who was a closer for the NMSU baseball team. The Gausmans were attending a three game NMSU series with Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Gausman's father Clair, who is a NCAA football referee, brought some hot dogs for us in the broadcast booth. Gausman went on to LSU before joining the O’s.


Bud Norris

Sunday Ubaldo Jimenz had his worst outing of the year surrendering walk after walk while mixing in extra base hits as the O’s went down big to the Oakland A's. The Sunday game culminated with an attempted two pitch beaning incident. The targeting of the O’s third baseman Manny Machado triggered a furious reaction. Machado flung his bat at the Oakland A’s after his swing and may face a suspension.




Adam Jones

Cooler heads prevailed on Monday when the O’s all-star third baseman issued an apology to everyone involved. However, the bean balling A's hopeful Fernando Abad, who also got tossed out of the game, was silent. Amazingly, all the media attention was on Machado for a relatively harmless throwing of his bat, while Abad seemed to get a free pass on his targeting of the pitch at Machado. No apology was forthcoming from Abad though he is likely facing a suspension.

Context of the incident tells the story. With an 11-1 lead, there was no reason for Abad to be taking a cheap shot at the recently operated on leg of Machado with his fastball. Of course Machado over-reacted, but the A’s pitcher clearly provoked the entire incident.

Last night was the Bud Norris and Adam Jones show. Norris surrendered just three hits and no runs in eight innings of work before Tommy Hunter, fresh off the DL finished the deal in the ninth. Adam Jones went 3-4 with a homer in the first inning to set the tone, and the bullpen, minus Hunter, got the night off. The O’s won easily (4-0 )over a struggling defending champion Boston Red Sox squad that is just 13-18 on the road this year.

Toronto kept up their winning ways with another win over Minnesota and remains atop the AL East with a 5.5 game lead over the O’s. The O's face Boston again tonight at Camden.

A 5-5 road trip

The O's had a chance to go 6-4 last night for one of their toughest road trips of the year. It didn't happen.

J.J. Hardy

Chris Tillman couldn't locate any pitch and never got out of the second inning. Despite an O's comeback that tied the game, gold glove winning shortstop J.J. Hardy made three errors as the O's fell to Texas 8-6.

Why the O's were playing Thursday night instead of at mid-day on a get out game is a question that only the hapless Bud Seelig could answer. And we are guessing though old Bud might throw out a few lame excuses for why MLB would send a team home in the wee hours of the morning for a series that begins tonight, nobody would be buying including Seelig. Greed is a contagious disease and greed is why the O's ran the gauntlet yesterday.

In the meantime, the sizzling hot Toronto Blue Jays continue to put distance between themselves and every other contender and pretender in the A.L. East. They did what the O's could not do last night, which is win their fifth straight in beating a loaded Detroit Tiger team again. The Jays have now won eight of their last ten and have been the best team in baseball the last five weeks.

The O's have their work cut out for them over the weekend. The always tough Oakland A's were resting comfortably in their Baltimore hotel rooms when the O's boarded their plane to head home from Dallas.

O's on a four game winning streak, go for sweep at Texas tonight

The Baltimore Orioles offense is getting healthy at the expense of a depleted Texas Rangers pitching staff. The O's had base runners all night on Wednesday and despite stranding 12, they still scored six runs, just enough to beat Texas 6-5. The O's drew seven walks as virtually every hitter in their lineup demonstrated more patience at the plate.

Zac Britton

Nelson Cruz is now putting himself into triple crown territory with one of the hottest sustained hitting barrages in recent memory. He upped his batting average to .319 with a 3 for 5 night. Cruz scored two runs while both Nick Markakis and Adam Jones delivered a pair of RBI.

Chris Davis hit a towering homerun to right field when he got the barrel on an inside pitch. Davis showed a bit more patience at the plate last night but continues to swing through or foul off pitches he put the barrel on all of last year. When Davis returned to the dugout after his round tripper he got the silent treatment from his teammates. With a great sense of humor Davis gave imaginary fist taps and high fives to his invisible buddies until straight faces could no longer be kept in the O's dugout and he was hugged and thumped on the back by his laughing teammates. Even Buck Showalter couldn't hide his grin.

Right hander Bud Norris was pretty mediocre last night. He left the game after five innings with a contusion on his arm thanks to a batted ball. Ranger slugger Adrian Beltre hit a pair of homers off Norris including a two run blast in the first to erase a 1-0 O's lead and a three run shot in the 5th to wipe out a 5-2 O's lead.

The O's bullpen was spectacular again last night with McFarlane, O'Day, and Zac Britton shutting down the Ranger attack.

Matt Wieters continues to throw every other day. Hopes are high that the O's all-star catcher will return to the lineup soon.

Buck Showalter may be approaching decision-making time as Tommy Hunter is reportedly beginning to throw again. Seasoned observers believe that Zac Britton has by far the best arm in the bullpen and should remain the O's closer. If not for a lucky swinging bunt that resulted in his only blown save, Britton would be 6 for 6 in save chances. He has simply been a dominator. Hunter, on the other hand, was surrendering extra base hits by the bucket throughout his short tenure as closer.

One would think Hunter should have been on the new assignment watch going back to his old role as a set up man before making his trip to the D.L. The only remaining question is will Buck stick with Britton and his heavy sinking fastball or go back to Hunter.

Only Buck knows what he will do.

Was the Davis fly ball at Texas a glimpse of what is possible again?

Ubaldo Jimenez should have gotten the win. He pitched masterfully last night against the Texas Rangers. After giving up a game tying homerun in the 7th, Brian Matusz who came on in relief of Jimenez, became the beneficiary of a big inning as the O's piled on six runs in the 8th inning to seal an 8-3 win.

The biggest blow of the night appeared to be the Nelson Cruz three-run bomb in the 8th, but it could have been the fly ball Chris Davis hit off the left field wall for a double. Why? Because the O's desperately need the Davis bat to wake up.

For the Davis bat to wake up it is Davis who needs to realize his swing has gradually morphed from a solid stroke into a chronic uppercut that is dominated by his top hand. The results of this morphing speak for themselves. Davis is swinging at and missing center cut pitches, whether they be average fast balls or hanging curves. Often when Davis makes contact he chops the ball into the opponents shift on the right side of the infield for harmless ground outs.

Why was the Davis fly ball to left in Texas last night so important? There are two reasons. First because the pitch was so low, the Davis subconscious knew he could not hit it with the uppercut. Instinctively Davis simply hit the ball where it was pitched, which was away. Second, in going with that pitch, what looked like a routine fly to left was classic Davis. The ball kept carrying and carrying all thanks to the brute strength of the Davis bat. There was no upper cut and no top hand domination, just a smooth instinctive power hitter swing with the explosiveness all O's fans are counting on and opponents are deathly afraid of.

Will O's hitting coach Jim Presley be able to take that seemingly innocuous at bat and turn it into a teaching moment so that Davis can begin to get rid of his new self-defeating uppercut and top hand dominant habits? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, it is Nelson Cruz who is carrying the hitting power duties of the team. Last night the O's got another big Cruz night and decent contributions from others as the O's pounded out 17 hits including another great night by Adam Jones.

If the O's can get starting pitching performances from the rest of the staff like they got from Jimenez last night, the AL East is available for the taking.

O's woes continue

A glance at the box scores lately tells you all you need to know about the Orioles offensive attack. The O's drew one walk last night in Houston. They hit safely five times. They scored one run. They got beat again. They have lost four in a row.

If Miguel Gonzales was a spouse he could sue successfully for non-support. He took a no-hitter into the sixth and surrendered just two runs on the night. Darren O' Day pitched a scoreless 8th. The Astros, winners of seven in a row for the first time in four years, did not need their final at bat. It was that easy.

The loss caused the O's to dip below .500 baseball for the first time since early in the season. At first glance there appears to be no end to the run scoring drought in sight.

A shuffled lineup that put Manny Machado in the seven spot did not help. Right hand hitting catcher Caleb Joseph, who was curiously retained over left hand hitting catcher Steve Clevenger, continued to flounder at the plate going 0-2. His batting average dipped to an almost impossible .040. Steve Clevenger must be wondering what he said to piss Buck off.

Teams lining up to play the O's in the near future are not getting complicated advance scouting reports. Pitch around Nelson Cruz, don't throw Adam Jones a strike, keep the ball away from J.J. Hardy and Chris Davis and you can hold the O's under three runs. That just about sums it up.

Cruz carrying O's on his back

Nelson Cruz looks like the free agent signing of the year. He homered again last night in Houston. Unfortunately, the rest of the lineup bats were silent as the O's lost to the lowly Astros on the road.

O's starter Ubaldo Jimenez pitched well enough to win, but the O's big guns (minus Cruz) continue to fail in critical RBI situations.

Nelson Cruz

The biggest struggle of the season for O's fans is watching Chris Davis try to hit. Somewhere along the way Davis slipped into the mindset of thinking he is a supposed to be a "power hitter" instead of simply being an excellent hitter with extraordinary power. As a result, one can only wince and shrug as the big guy continues to take pitches he was hitting off or over the left center field wall last year. When he does make contact (when pitched away) he is top hand happy. Accordingly, he beats the ball into the dirt on the shift protected right side of the diamond. Routine ground ball outs to one of several defenders on the right side have become a way of life.

O's hitting coach Jim Presley would do well to put Davis in the batting cage for an hour a day hitting line drives to left center field off a tee. Once Davis realizes he was successful last year because his approach was to be a professional hitter with power....instead of a "yank pull"everything power hitter he will be unleashed again. My kingdom for a few well struck balls to left center coming off the Davis bat.

The best at bats the O's get these days come from Nick Markakis, Steve Pearce and Nelson Cruz. All three have a very patient, disciplined, and professional approach to their craft. Thankfully J.J. Hardy has also come around in recent weeks.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the O's opposition is they still occasionally throw Adam Jones a strike. One can only imagine how good this man could be if he actually waited for his pitch and risked taking a few more called strikes.