After one rehab start Derrek Lee is back in the lineup tonight for the Birds.
The Orioles need a win tonight to avoid falling to a new season low six games under .500. After winning four in a row to get back to .500 the Orioles have lost six of their last seven their latest coming at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays last night here at Camden Yards.
Tonight the Orioles will send Jake Arrieta to the mound against the Jay’s young power-house Ricky Romero.
The Birds’ offense showed a little bit of life last night scoring four runs, with the help of a J.J. Hardy two-run homer, but could not stop the potent homerun bats of the Jays. This time the Jays got a grand slam, with two out and two strikes, from catcher J.P.Arencibia as the Jays went on to an 8-4 win.
Goats for the Orioles last night once again included struggling starters Luke Scott and Nick Markakis. Two players that were expected to be cornerstones for this team are just having atrocious seasons thus far. Luke and Nick combined to go 0-9 last night leaving seven men on base between them.
Watching this team right now you get the feeling that the season is hanging on by a thread. They are still close enough to .500 that it would not take an odd streak of wins to get back but as the losses pile up and the offense continues to scuffle you can feel a heaviness start to settle in around the ballpark. It is a beautiful evening here in Baltimore and the crowd is beginning to trickle in. The palpable excitement that was here as lately as two weeks ago is all but gone. Its as if it was a balloon with a slow leak.
Game time in just over half an hour from now. This team is capable of so much more, lets see if they can show it tonight. Follow my live twitter commentary @hamdpen42 and on the Oriole Post facebook page.
