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.