With the Birds trailing 2-0 in the second following the aforementioned Cabrera homer, Chris Davis kept them temporarily afloat with a solo shot to right center. Davis continued his amazing season with his big league-leading 24th homer of the season. He’s on pace to at the very least put his name up there with some very elite people in a sense. Detroit would put three more runs on the board against Arrieta with two RBI-singles and a sac fly to run the score to 5-1, which was the final. The bright spot for the Birds as usual was the bullpen; both Troy Patton and Pedro Strop came on and pitched well in relief, surrendering four hits and striking out two batters between them. Strop was brought in effectively for mop-up duty in a sense, however that was probably done to get his confidence up a bit. If last night’s performance is any indication, it worked.

Courtesy of Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

However the story of the night was what the Orioles would do with Jake Arrieta. Speaking for myself, I think he has far too much talent to rot in triple-A, however whether or not he can mentally get it together enough to be a consistent major league pitcher is of question. Miguel Cabrera set the tone for Arrieta’s outing with the first inning home run, and while it might be worth mentioning that Arrieta probably limited damage as well as he could, he also put the O’s in a hole. Buck Showlter often points out the fact that pitching at this level is tough, however the Birds are going to need better than a five-run outing out of a starter on a consistent basis in order to keep that pitcher in the big leagues.

In fairness, the offense didn’t offer much last night in the way of run support. Furthermore I suspect that Arrieta would have been sent back to the minors regardless of the outcome of last night’s game. Jason Hammel is being scratched again while he continues to recover from a stomach virus, and as I said above the Birds are expected to recall Zach Britton to make the start tonight. (Britton will be the corresponding roster move for Arrieta.)

Steve Melewski of masnsports.com also submitted this report overnight to the tune that the O’s are possibly going to call up Travis Ishikawa to the big leagues. Obviously Ishikawa isn’t going to take Chris Davis’ spot at first base anytime soon, however he has the option of opting out of his contract if he isn’t called the the major leagues. Ishikawa was prepared to do just that, and Dan Duquette was trying to work out a trade for him over the weekend. I suspect that calling him to the big leagues is just a move to buy the Birds a few extra days to do just that, if in fact they call him up. Ishikawa was raking at triple-A Norfolk, and he was great for the Orioles in spring training.

Britton will be opposed tonight by Justin Verlander, who’s owned the O’s of late. However withstanding last night’s result, the Orioles still have one of the most potent offenses in the American League. If they can get some guys on base getting runs in will be much easier.  What eventually happens with Arrieta is anyone’s guess. Could he be packaged with Ishikawa in a trade? I suspect not, but you never know.

The fans of the Orioles are no worse than any others; they are probably in fact better than most in terms of supporting their team. But over the early part of this season we have seen quite a few different guys labeled as a goat. I don’t generally buy into this very quickly – am just noting the pattern particularly evident on comment boards.

Last year’s Rule 5 darling Ryan Flaherty has not escaped some rather severe criticisms. His defense is rightly applauded – the skill that keeps him in the lineup. But his hitting has been very weak for the most part, though he seems somewhat improved after his trip to AAA. But if his ninth-inning 375-foot foul ball would have been on the Flag Court on Saturday for a walk-off win, all of this would have been quickly forgotten.

Likewise, this year’s Rule 5 guy T.J. McFarland has been a frequent flyer on message boards, as fans ponder if the Orioles can afford to keep a non-critical-situations innings eater on the roster for the whole season. But several very commendable recent outings have given his stock at least a short-term rise in valuation.

And has anyone heard the phrase “Tommy Home Run Hunter” used lately? But again, on the flip side, no less than Jim Johnson hit the goat list for a time, as has Taylor Teagarden, Jason Hammel, and just about every person batting as the DH.

But the bum of the week for last week was Pedro Strop. He is still not out of the goat house. It is a difficult case to say that the Orioles should surely give him a longer leash … but I made that case on this blog in an article last week.

Apr 5, 2013; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter (26) takes the ball from starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (34) in the sixth inning against the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles defeated the Twins 9 – 5. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Right now, the bum of the week (status pending as “probable”) is Jake Arrieta. Like Strop, he is a difficult guy to defend. The best I can say in that regard is this:  since he is pitching tonight in a spot start, his career ERA against the Detroit Tigers is 1.46, and the combined batting average of their current team against him is .194 … and yes, I know it is a small sample size. Without doubt, Arrieta has had little success this year for Baltimore or Norfolk.

Contrast Jake’s lack of recent success with the record of the Tiger’s Max Scherzer, who coming into tonight’s game at 9-0 with a 3.19 ERA this season.  Over his past 27 starts he is 16-1 with a 2.66 ERA.  THAT.IS.IMPRESSIVE.

So really, what chance whatsoever do the Orioles have this evening? To paraphrase the movie “Dumb and Dumber,”— I’m saying they have a chance … and better than “that one in a million talk.”  This is baseball, and anything can happen. We have already seen more than a few games this year go totally opposite of expectations. And hey – nobody has more natural talent than Jake Arrieta.  Oh, that didn’t encourage you?  OK, how about this? … Miguel Cabrera is hitting .179 over his last nine games! Now don’t you feel better?

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

The starting pitching again was an issue yesterday, as Jake Arrieta was lifted after pitching four innings. As Buck Showalter walked to the mound, I thought for sure that after the game we’d be hearing that Arrieta was going to triple-A. With the bullpen a bit taxed after yesterday’s doubleheader, it stood to reason to me that Showalter might leave Arrieta in the game even if he was struggling a bit. Arrieta was not sent down immediately following the game, however that could still happen. The Orioles will need to make a roster move prior to Wednesday afternoon’s game against Toronto to call up another starter (unless they want to use someone out of the pen), so there’s still a chance that Arrieta might be a part of that roster move. That aside, Arrieta breezed through the first two innings. Perhaps most importantly he minimized the number of pitches he threw, which boded well for the Oriole bullpen. However he issued a walk in the third which later came into score, and the wheels came off in the fifth. He issued two more walks, hit a batter, and then was lifted after Mark Ellis singled two of those men home. Once T.J. McFarland came in and the dust settled, the Orioles’ 4-1 lead had turned into a 5-4 deficet.

Los Angeles was supposed to start Chad Billingsley against the Orioles, however he was placed on the 15-day DL due to elbow discomfort. LA recalled Stephen Fife from triple-A to make the start, and the Orioles hit him hard out of the shoot. With runners at first and second in the last of the first Nick Markakis’ RBI-single scored Nate McLouth and the O’s were off to an early lead. Adam Jones was hit by a pitch and Chris Davis singled, and following a Matt Wieters strikeout J.J. Hardy drove in two runs with a two-RBI single. Adam Jones took the first pitch he saw in the last of the third and smacked it over the left field wall following Los Angeles getting a run back in the top of the inning, and the Orioles led 4-1.

Fife only pitched 4.2 innings himself, and while LA had lost six straight it is worth mentioning that they have a pretty decent bullpen. Their bullpen was also a bit more rested than that of the Orioles coming out of yesterday’s doubleheader, which is part of the reason that the O’s were shut down in the second part of yesterday’s game. As for Jake Arrieta, everyone (including Arrieta) agrees that his stuff is too good for him to come across as inconsistent as he has. Again, he mowed batters down in the first two innings, and even after giving up the one run in the third he was still able to post a decent inning in the fourth. However when things do come undone as they did in the top of the fifth yesterday, they unravel very quickly. As I said previously, the Orioles will presumably be making a roster move at some point prior to Wednesday’s game. If Arrieta going to triple-A isn’t the corresponding move, that means that he’ll be getting at least one more start. I suspect that Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette have a plan in mind already, and that it will be revealed in due course. (For the record, the reason they need to make a roster move is due to the fact that they had a rain out on Friday, and Jason Hammel would be pitching on four days rest if he took his normal turn in the rotation.)

The Orioles return to AL East play tonight at the yard as Toronto comes to town for a three-game set. Chris Tillman gets the nod for the O’s, against J.A. Happ for Toronto. Both pitchers are looking to lower their ERA’s and to go deeper into games. I would submit that these three games against Toronto are important for the Orioles in terms of the bullpen, as immediately following Wednesday afternoon’s game the Birds will fly to Oakland for a four-game series. It’s bad enough that they’re going to the west coast without a day off (hidden shot at MLB’s schedule makers in there somewhere), but if the bullpen has been over-used in the immediate games prior to going out there it makes things much worse.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Orioles had a crowd of 26K+ for the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, a 46K+ sellout Saturday night, and 41K+ yesterday afternoon. The first game on Saturday looks kind of like the weak link there, however keep in mind that the game was supposed to be on Friday night, and many fans probably had to exchange their tickets for other games if they couldn’t make it on Saturday. People claim they’d rather not see interleague play, however league-wide it seems that the numbers indicate attendance is up for these series’. And why not…how often do the fans of Baltimore get to see Dodger Blue? This was only the third time in history they’ve been here, and the first time was in the 1966 World Series! I’ve long been a proponent of interleague play, as I feel it gives the fans a chance to see teams they otherwise wouldn’t.