Welcome to September.

With roughly 30 or so games left in the 2010 season, the Orioles are trying their best to finish on a definite high note.That would be a welcome change from what we have seen the last 13 years or so.

Last night, the Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox, 5-2, thanks to yet another strong start by Brian Matusz, hefty work by the bullpen and the offense breaking through. The game was settled in the eighth inning as Luke Scott and Felix Pie homered.

Matusz stymied the Red Sox into the seventh inning and kept them off balance all night – especially J.D. Drew and David Ortiz. He seemingly has bounced back from his nightmarish start to the season and is finally looking like the young lefty that everyone had hyped up last year.

Even more impressive was the effort the bullpen gave to help Baltimore to the victory. The triumvirate of Jim Johnson, Mike Gonzalez and Koji Uehara saved the game for the Orioles and it‘s amazing what could have been if all three were healthy.

The Orioles might not be .500 team, but they would not have a .370 winning percentage either. More importantly, the Orioles avoided their usual August swoon, going 17-11 during the month.

The team is also 17-10 under Buck Showalter and I’d consider that accomplishment a minor miracle being that they were headed to being one the worst squads to ever play the game in recent memory. I still have a hard time believing the Orioles have seen during the last month are pretty much the same team except for some new faces we’ve seen since April.

But it’s pretty obvious that a lot of the players are hustling and playing harder under Showalter than what we saw with Dave Trembley or Juan Samuel. Then again, with key players healthy, the roster pretty much back at full strength, the mistakes being cut down and more effort on the field, perhaps the Orioles could now avoid losing 100 – or much less finishing off the second half close to .500.

However, despite the positive last few weeks, there will need to be some changes made in the off-season and the young players who struggled will need to step it up.

With the last month of the season upon us, I’d like to see the Orioles put a crimp in the plans of some in the American League East. It looks like Tampa Bay and New York (Yankees) will probably make the playoffs, but I’d like to see Baltimore make their journey a bit more interesting.

Finally, I’m curious to see what the September callups do. According to the Orioles.com, the first group of players called up will be Robert Andino, Nolan Reimold (both who have major league experience) and Brandon Snyder.

With last night's solid win against the Angels the Orioles secured their first winning month of the year and their first winning August since 1997. The Orioles, so far, have gone 15 and 11 this month with three games remaining. Not only is this month the only winning month for the Orioles thus far, it is the first time this year the Orioles have recorded more than 10 wins in a month. That is simply how bad the birds have been all year, looking at them now it really does feel like a different team.

Having a strong August was very important for this team because in September the Orioles will enter schedule-hell. Thanks to the unbalanced nature of the schedule September sees the Orioles taking part in what amounts to a round-robin AL East tournament, one the Orioles have had trouble with this season. The clouds may be gathering on the horizon but the Birds of August are enjoying every last bit of sunshine this new life has brought.

The Orioles, believe it or not, have a legitimate shot at having a second half at or above .500. YES! I know! I never thought I would find myself typing that sentence this year but it is true. As the Orioles play in Los Angeles today they have a second-half record of 18-24, only six games back and with the way the Orioles have been playing I think they have a real shot at this. Now what does that mean? It means that this team is for real. It means that this team would have had to get through the hellish September schedule and come out not only in one piece but actually ahead. It means that the Baltimore Orioles will have to play winning baseball against teams in the thick of pennant races. It means that the team that has gone into full-blown implosion every fall for the last decade may have finally turned the ever-elusive "corner".

How great would that be? How fantastic would it feel to be going into the offseason saying: "Look how much they improved," "I can't wait to see what they do next year." Finishing this year strongly would allow this team to go into next year with more answers than questions for a change. A delightful, welcome, fantastic change.

The Orioles may have already locked in their 13th straight losing season but, unlike our friends in Pittsburgh, things actually seem to be looking up.

After only winning one game out of three in Chicago against the White Sox, the Orioles flew out to the West Coast to face the Angels.

On Friday, the Orioles beat the Angels, 3-1, as Brad Bergesen bounced back from a so-so performance last weekend. He went eight strong innings, gave up a run on four hits, and kept the Angels off balance. Koji Uehara got the save.

Baltimore got runs from a Nick Markakis RBI-single in the first, a Luke Scott RBI-single in the sixth and a Corey Patterson groundout in the eighth inning.

The only run for Los Angeles came off a Bergesen balk in the first inning.

Now that there are 33 games left in the season, what should we expect from here? It’s been a long season, but it’s good to have seen the team play much better overall under Showalter and actually play some competitive baseball.

With Jim Johnson back in the fold, it’ll be interesting to see how he does during the rest of the season (Armando Gabino was sent down). However, Brian Roberts (hip) and Adam Jones (shoulder) are ailing a bit.

Finally, the Orioles’ final month may have a role in how the American League East plays out. The vast majority of the games left in the season feature the usual suspects in the division, and one has to wonder if the team will fall into a swoon again.

If Baltimore can compete in the final month, it will be a huge building block heading into 2011. Really, we’d all like to see Roberts and Jones stay healthy in the next month, and not see Luke Scott fall into an extended slump and cross the 30-home run plateau.

Will the young pitching hold up? Can Buck Showalter get the Orioles to finish up with a .500 record during his 2010 run?

We shall see.

Yesterday evening, baseball fans, kids, parents along with a strong representation of current and ex-Oriole players were once again on hand for Brian’s Baseball Bash. The event, in its fifth year, has a change of venue from downtown Baltimore to Dave & Buster’s at Arundel Mills Mall, but that didn’t stop hundreds from supporting a good cause and meeting the various celebrities in attendance.

It was quite an afternoon for Josh Bell in Baltimore on Saturday. Over the past weeks, some have wondered if Bell had been rushed up to the majors too quickly in light of his struggles; however, against Rangers’ ace Cliff Lee and in front of a National audience, he showed the promise the Orioles had in him.

Yesterday, Baltimore beat Texas, 8-6, as they put on quite a power display. Bell has two homers off Lee and drove in five runs in easily his most productive day as a major leaguer so far, and Luke Scott along with Ty Wigginton hit back-to-back home runs to start a five-run, fourth inning.

Brad Beregsen got the win, although he was not exactly at his best. He allowed five runs in seven innings of work on the afternoon, while Koji Uehara got his major league save.

Meanwhile, Lee didn’t look much like the ace we’ve seen over the past two seasons. The left-hander only lasted 5 2/3 innings and allowed eight runs on ten hits. The Rangers needed Lee to stop their skid, and they are now 3-7 in the last ten games.

The Orioles are now 44-80 on the season.

It was a very frustrating Friday for the Baltimore Orioles as they lost to the Texas Rangers, 2-0, in the second contest of a four game set.

Nick Markakis got his first career ejection after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Jeff Nelson; meanwhile, Buck Showalter too vented at Nelson later and found himself tossed – only after a memorable tirade that had shades of Earl Weaver written all over it.

Then, the fans got into Nelson for the final few innings of the game attempting to get under his skin, booing, mocking cheers and saying sarcastic things.

Seriously, Nelson’s strike zone was fairly questionable on the night and that in turn hurt the Orioles, but then again, C.J. Wilson – who on the night started for the Rangers on the mound – was brilliant.

Overall, Wilson stymied the offense for 8 2/3 innings, allowed only three hits and struck out twelve. Of course, Nelson helped Wilson on the night, and the Rangers’ catcher, Taylor Teagarden sold the calls well.

In the end, the Oriole offense was quieted and they had little chance on the night to upend the Rangers.

The Baltimore Orioles were shutout for the ninth time this season.

Jake Arrieta, who started on the mound for the Birds, did do his job on the night and had a quality start. He may have taken the loss, but he gave up two runs (only one was earned) on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings of work on the evening.

The Buck Bump, is it real - how long will it last? Before last night's win the Orioles lost two series in a row, two winnable series and Orioles fans everywhere began to consider the notion that the Buck Bump had passed and the Orioles would fall back into their old Pre-Buck (or P.B.) ways. Orioles fans can be a panicky bunch; after all 13 years of losing baseball will do that to you. Until the World Series parade starts on Pratt Street Orioles fans exist in a perpetual state of "waiting for the other shoe to drop". Let me be the first to say this O's fans: DON'T PANIC (notice the large friendly letters) the Orioles are still experiencing the influence of Buck Showalter and the bump is still in effect.

Despite dropping back-to-back series to the Rays and Mariners the key thing to remember is the Orioles have been playing very solid baseball. The Rays are simply a better team right now and the Mariners - well - frankly the M's got a little lucky. It is not everyday that Matt Tuiasosopo pretty much wins a game single-handed. I still don't know how he caught Matt Wieters' double the other night and I bet he doesn't either. That is baseball even when you are playing well sometimes you just don't get the breaks.

I stated a while ago here in this very blog that the real test of this team under Buck's tenure would be how they react to their first bit of trouble and last night I think they showed us. Brian Matusz was masterful against a very tough Rangers lineup and the Birds made easy work of the Texas Club shutting them out 4-0. It was just an excellent performance from everyone involved. The Orioles are simply playing better ball and that usually translates into more wins. Every once and awhile good ballclubs lose games they have no business losing, like the third game of the Mariners series, but so long as the play remains consistent there good teams tend to win more games than they lose.

Sitting here in the pressbox tonight, be sure to follow me on twitter (@hampden42) for live commentary and Q+A. this will be my third game of the season sitting with the rest of the press. I have to say everyone has been so very nice and welcoming to li'l ol' me. The Orioles are really going out of their way to open this experience up to the electronic media and I am thankful for the opportunity.

other thoughts:

- A discussion from earlier today: Apparently fangraphs has updated their latest defensive stats and there is a bit of a head-scratcher. Apparently Nick Markakis UZR (ultimate zone rating) is among the WORST for right fielders in the AL. Now that does not make much sense to me. According to this metric, taken at face value, Nick Markakis is in the same class as Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn. Now, any stat that puts Markakis in the same solar system as Dunn defensively must have something wrong with it in my mind. Thus the problem when quantifying defense as much as you try to rationalize it still seems to end up being rather subjective. I always take "advanced" defensive metrics with a grain of salt because the twisted calculus that is involved seems to come from the land of wind and ghosts but as I understand it UZR is based largely on RngR which judges how many runs above or below neutral a defender is in making plays in his designated "zone". According to these updated numbers Markakis is sitting at a -10.2 making him one of the worst right fielders in the AL. What this is saying is that Markakis has a lot of trouble making plays in his zone that an average player would make (average being -1-1). However, Markakis has made 46 outs out of his zone (OOZ) this is good enough for third in the AL and well above last year's numbers and well on his way to catching and surpassing 2008, his best defensive year.

Still with me?

All of that boils down to this question for the fielding stats gurus: How can someone who supposedly has so much trouble making plays in his zone have so many outs out of his zone?

Defensive metrics are hard.

-On another forum I was talking in the baseball thread. The Orioles were playing the Mariners and a forum-mate had tickets to see his beloved Rays take on the Texas Rangers. The matchup between two first-place teams arguably the two best teams in the AL in Tampa drew only 6K more than the two worst-teams in the AL in Baltimore. His words: "We don't deserve this franchise."

Time for pregame dinner: remember follow me on Twitter for commentary and discussion - @hampden42

On Sunday, August 22^nd, Brian Roberts will be holding his fifth annual “Brian’s Baseball Bash” at Dave and Busters at Arundel Mills Mall.

The blog can certainly attest if you’d like to meet some of the Oriole players, get face time, autographs and just have a good evening, this event is for you.

Of course, ‘Brian’s Baseball Bash’ is for a good cause – to help the University of Maryland Hospital for Children and all proceeds will go towards that foundation.

Admission is $200 per person and $150 for children 12 and under. This includes complimentary parking, a Dave and Buster’s game card, dinner, desert, cocktails, the opportunity to interact and receive autographs from Orioles players along with local celeberties, giveaways plus access to live and silent auctions.

For more information, check out the University of Maryland Hospital for Children's website by clicking here.

Here's a report from last year's event: Click Here

After two disappointing losses to the Seattle Mariners in their three-game series this week, the Baltimore Orioles got a huge shot in the arm as Brian Matusz threw eight shutout innings as they beat the Texas Rangers, 4-0.

They snapped a two-game losing streak, and used a four-run seventh inning to emerge victorious.

Matusz – who had a season full of ups and downs – perhaps had his best showing in the majors so far on Thursday. On the night, he just allowed five hits and one walk against the Rangers – a team more than likely playoff-bound.

We all know he’s got the stuff – the question is can he pitch with some consistency?

The young lefty’s outing also underscored why the Orioles have done so well under Buck Showalter since he took the helm of the team. The starting pitchers have put together quite a run of quality outings, as 14 out of their 16 starts have gone at least seven innings.

That in turn has rested the bullpen, and it’s not surprising how much better they have performed.

Again, it’s amazing how different the Orioles have performed under Showalter. I’m waiting for this team to resort to the play that killed them before Showalter arrived. However, it looks like something has been lit under this team and perhaps they can play a role in deciding the fate of some of the playoff contenders along with the American League East race.