The Birds jumped all over Ervin Santana in the first inning, causing him to throw 30 pitches in total. With the Orioles covering the corners Adam Jones‘ RBI-single scored Manny Machado and the O’s were off to an early lead. After a Chris Davis strikeout Matt Wieters turned around and stroked a two-RBI double that gave the O’s a 3-0 lead. Given that there was a good chance that this game might be one of those five-inning deals given the potential for weather, taking an early lead makes a huge difference.

However Santana settled down, and didn’t allow the O’s to cross home plate for the remainder of his time in the game. Again, that’s another reason to jump on a guy as quickly as you’re able to do so. The umpires finally called a rain delay after former Oriole Miguel Tejada had stroked a one-out single to left field. One issue with this is that since the inning started the official rules state that it has to be completed. Given that the Orioles were leading 3-1 at the time (Kansas City put a run on the board with an RBI-single in the third inning), they could have simply completed the half-inning and that would have sufficed since the home team doesn’t take their last at-bat in a victory. So that meant that the would probably be finished to completion given that Kansas City in effect had the tying run at the plate.

Luckily for them a window emerged to complete the game. As I said above, Chen’s night ended with the rain delay and Showalter had Brian Matusz come in the game with one out and one on. After Matusz recorded the first out, Alex Gordon homered on a 2-2 count to tie the game at three. (Tejada was already on base at the time, so one of those runs was charged to Chen.)

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Previous to 2012 this probably would have been the end of the game in a sense. The Orioles would have made some other mistake in the game and they would have lost. We would then hear about how it’s tough to come back out after a rain delay and play at the same level. Be that as it may, that would be an excuse; these O’s don’t make excuses. MASN analyst Rick Dempsey likes saying that nothing good happens after a walk. Adam Jones walked to lead off the last of the eighth, and following a Davis strikeout pitcher Luke Hochevar attempted to pick Jones off…and he committed an error with an errant throw. The ball hit Jones in the back, but he got up and scampered to second base. Matt Wieters drove in his third run of the night with an RBI-double, and the Orioles suddenly had the lead back.

Jim Johnson was able to record his 12th save of the year, and the Orioles improved to 20-13. The Birds are expected to move Miguel Gonzalez back from his scheduled turn in the rotation (tonight) due to that blister on his thumb. Chris Tillman will start tonight on normal rest given the fact that the O’s had yesterday off. Tillman of course is coming off of a great start last week in Anaheim in which he pitched eight innings in a win. He’ll be opposed tonight by Luis Mendoza of Kansas City.

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When players make too many mistakes they’re sent to the minors. When coaches make too many mistakes they’re fired. I recognize that umpires are judged in a certain manner by the league, however outwardly there appears to be very little accountability on their part. Why bring that point up? Let’s say that Jason Hammel had been a pitcher with whom the Orioles were growing increasingly frustrated regarding holding runners on. Either that, or let’s say that Wieters was literally one botched throw away from being sent down. Luckily neither of those scenarios are the case, however if they were and you took that play out of the context of the fact that it was a bad call…you get my point.

More specifically, if that call is made correctly Hammel gets out of that inning unscathed. I will grant the fact that he seemed to come undone after that blown call and Anaheim ended up scoring three runs while Hammel’s pitch count became inflated. You’d be right to point to that and simply blame the umpire, and there’s no doubt that the blown call is noteworthy. However as I’ve said before, pitchers need to focus on minimizing the damage. That’s one instance in which the damage wasn’t really minimized; your best-case scenario is that the hitter flies out on the next pitch and the inning is over. That’s obviously not what happened.

However to their credit, the Orioles as a team did not let that one blown call encompass the game, and they battled back and won. Five years ago, Anaheim probably would have put five runs across in that scenario and the O’s would have lost the game to the tune of a 10-3 final score. (Furthermore I suspect that five years ago whomever would have been managing the team would have come out to argue for the mere reason of getting the team fired up, and would have ended up being ejected.)

The call being blown isn’t as well-stated because the O’s won the game. Incidentally this isn’t a rant against umpires, and I don’t feel that the second base umpire had it out for the Orioles or was trying to help Anaheim. I think the guy just blew the call, and that happens because the umps are human. Once again, I call upon MLB to help their umpires out and institute some form of instant replay on a play of that sort. They allow it on home runs, so why not also on plays as such? In no way am I suggesting that they allow replay on balls and strikes, because that’s a ludicrous idea. However I do think that fair/foul, caught/trapped, safe/out, and of course home runs should be reviewable. Is it really going to take a major market team losing a huge game due to a blown call for this to happen?

The Orioles return home tonight for a very brief three-game homestand against the Kansas City Royals. Wei-Yin Chen will get the ball for the homestanding O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Ervin Santana (who’s going for career win number 100). Kansas City has started the season off surprisingly fast, and of course Oriole-killer Billy Butler is still in their lineup. As I said yesterday, Orioles fans might not recognize their team wearing that strange color they call white given all the traveling they’ve done!

Miguel Gonzalez became the latest Orioles starter to struggle, however as manager Buck Showalter pointed out afterward Gonzalez fought through his command issues. Gonzalez’s line: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R (4 earned), 2 BB, 1 K. Gonzalez  also became the third Orioles pitcher in a row to give up a first inning solo home run, this one to Dan Jennings. He also gave one up to Evan Longoria in that first inning, putting the Orioles down 2-0 early on. However Tampa starter David Price wasn’t exactly in control either, although he was given the early lead.

With Tampa leading 3-1 in the last of the second Nolan Reimold’s two-run homer tied the game at three, also acting as a harbinger of things to come. Tampa would reclaim the lead in the third on a J.J. Hardy throwing error, only to have Alexi Casilla score on Manny Machado’s RBI-double in the fifth. In this game just when you thought one team had the lead for good, the other one struck back. A Molina solo homer in the sixth inning gave Tampa the lead back again at 5-4. Again, we’re talking about two teams here that typify the whole “play ’till the final out” mentality. Last year we talked about that so often to the point to where fans started to almost pick fun at it. However would fans rather that the team gave up being down 3-0 early?

Steve Pearce picked a great time to get his first hit of 2013, breaking out of an 0-for-15 slump. Following a J.J. Hardy double in the last of the seventh, Pearce hit an elevated fastball over the left field fence for a home run, giving the Orioles their first lead of the night at 6-5. However immediately following that in the top of the eighth, Oriole-killer James Loney decided to deposit a pitch in the seats as well, tying the game at 6. And there we stood, tied. It’s worth mentioning that relievers Brian Matusz, Darren O’Day (despite giving up the Loney homer), Jim Johnson, and Troy Patton got some key outs for the Orioles late in the game. It’s also worth mentioning that the O’s left what ended up being a key run on base in a fairly sloppy manner. On Manny Machado’s RBI-double back in the fifth Nick Markakis ended up in a two-out rundown at third base. Replays were inconclusive as to whether or not Markakis was actually watching third base coach Bobby Dickerson, but what was clear was that Dickerson was waving Markakis home…until the very last moment when he put up the stop sign. But by that time Markakis had made his turn and was caught in no-man’s land.

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The issue isn’t quite as magnified in the wake of this game because the Orioles won it, however they’re still having problems with starters going deep into games. Miguel Gonzalez, to his credit, is the first one to admit that 5.2 innings probably won’t cut it once we get into the grind of the summer. However Showalter also pointed out in his post game presser that part of that is also Tampa’s doing. Again like the Orioles, they don’t give up; they’re also very good at fouling pitches off and working counts, which drives up pitch counts. (Remember Tuesday night when Chris Tillman was forced into a 12-pitch at-bat on the second hitter?) It’s also worth mentioning that most AL East teams are good at working counts in that manner, and as I said yesterday 12 of the Orioles’ first 15 games have been division games.

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The victory gave the Orioles a series win, as they took two-of-three from Tampa. The Orioles intended to play some small-ball in that last of the tenth when Manny Machado bunted following a Markakis lead off single. However Machado’s bunt hugged the first base line, and by the time Tampa realized it wasn’t going foul Machado was safe at first. Obviously people will remember the Wieters walk off grand slam more than anything else (and rightfully so), however that bunt turned the inning and the game into what it ended up being. That’s one huge advantage to being the home team in an extra inning game; you have the option of playing small-ball because all you need is that one run to win the game.

The LA Dodgers make only their second visit to Oriole Park in it’s history, and their third overall visit to Baltimore if you count the 1966 World Series. These interleague series’ are supposed to be for the fans, but this one is really intriguing given the fact that these two teams rarely see each other. Los Angeles comes in struggling, having just been swept at home by San Diego. They’ll face Jason Hammel of the Orioles tonight, who’ll be opposed by Hyun-Jin Ryu. It’s the old Oriole Way against Dodger Blue this weekend at the yard.