Orioles drop final Grapefruit League game

If you’re keeping score at home, today’s 8-5 loss to Tampa in the Grapefruit League closer. Obviously from the perspective of southpaw starter Wei-Yin Chen, he gave up seven runs. However it’s worth keeping in mind that only three of them were earned. Chen should have been out of the fourth inning when J.J. Hardy’s error prevented a sure double-play ball. Two batters later Desmond Jennings’ grand slam put Tampa ahead 6-1. (Desmond also hit two other homers in the game.) Luckily Hardy atoned for his mistake by hitting two homers of his own. He was joined in the home run parade for the O’s by Nick Markakis and Nick Johnson.

Buck Showalter was quick to point out on MASN’s O’s Xtra post game show that several of the Tampa home runs were wind-aided, but that’s part of spring games. Showalter also reiterated that the O’s still had three games left to go. Granted those games don’t count towards the Grapefruit League standings (for whatever that’s worth), however there still are three games to go. Showalter seemed to indicate that most of the personnel decisions were made in his mind, however he wants to see what the rest of the industry does before finalizing it. Translated, that means he wants to see who gets cut by other teams.

Rosters are due to the league office at the latest by 5 PM this Wednesday. The “second Opening Day” for MLB will be that night in Miami as the Marlins face the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals. (The “first opening day” of course was last week when the Mariners played the A’s in Tokyo.) Thursday a handful of other teams will open up, and of course the fourth and final Opening Day will be Friday which will include the Orioles under the blonde sunshine. I’ll be writing Birds Watcher’s season preview, and fans can look for that to come out sometime on Thursday (after the roster is official).

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