Andino Says He Wasn’t Tipping Pitches vs Yankees

April 10th, 2012 Matt Loede Posted in News

Orioles second baseman Robert Andino says he wasn’t tipping the location of pitches in Baltimore’s game against the New York Yankees on Monday night.

Andino and New York catcher Russell Martin had an angry exchange after the Yankees’ 6-2 win. Andino hit a leadoff double off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning and did not advance.

Andino said Tuesday that Martin accused him of indicating to Baltimore hitters the location of Rivera’s pitches.

Andino said the disagreement was ”a misunderstanding” and insisted he did no wrong.

He said, ”I don’t play like that.”

He said it was ”baseball stuff” and that ”everything is cool now.”

Asked if he thought the Yankees might retaliate, Andino said, ”I don’t know, I ain’t a future teller.”

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said, ”You move on.”

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Orioles Ink Lefty Pitcher Dontrelle Willis to a Minor League Deal

March 22nd, 2012 Matt Loede Posted in News, Roster Moves

LHP Dontrelle Willis, released by the Phillies last week, signed a minor league deal with the Orioles.

In three games with Philadelphia this spring, he allowed five runs on five hits and four walks 2 2/3 innings, and he complained of arm soreness.

Willis’ career has been in a downward spiral in recent years after he made two All-Star appearances in his first three seasons. Since the start of the 2008 season, he is 4.15 with a 6.15 ERA, having appeared in games with Detroit, Arizona and Cincinnati.

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Hunter Allows Two Runs in Five Innings in Loss

March 21st, 2012 Matt Loede Posted in Game Stories, News

Tommy Hunter had to wait until only two weeks remained in spring training to make his first start.

It didn’t go quite as well as he hoped.

After being sidelined by a lower back injury, Hunter allowed two runs and five hits in five innings in the Orioles’ 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Last week, Hunter worked four innings in a minor league game, and Wednesday he labored through the five innings, throwing 74 pitches. Hunter walked two, struck out two and allowed a long home run to left by Toronto’s J.P. Arencibia in the third inning. It was Arencibia’s fourth of the spring.

“I definitely have some work to do, and thank God, there’s two weeks of spring training left,” Hunter said. “I still can get outs. I’m not feeling the best that I can feel. Then again, it’s spring training. It’s my first outing, and I can only improve from there.”

Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said that Hunter, who will be part of the starting rotation, can certainly improve over this performance.

“He’s capable of better—command-wise,” Showalter said. “We’ve seen Tommy have good command. It was good to see him survive without it, but I’d rather see him have it. He will. He will.”

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Catching Depth Could Be an Issue for O’s

March 20th, 2012 Matt Loede Posted in News

The catcher position seemed to be in great shape in early January.

The starting role wasn’t in question. Matt Wieters is the Orioles unquestioned starter.

But the depth among catchers thinned out significantly early in camp, when Dane Sardinha failed a physical and Ronny Paulino battled visa issues.

Recently, backup catcher Taylor Teagarden injured his lower back and probably will be out for two more weeks after receiving an epidural. But Teagarden isn’t ready to rule himself out for Opening Day.

Teagarden, 28, has battled some back issues before, but only from general wear and tear, manager Buck Showalter said.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Teagarden has caught 118 games in the majors, including a career-high 60 with Texas in 2009. He appeared in 14 games in the majors last summer.

Paulino arrived in camp at the right time after battling visa issues for the first three weeks of the spring. He’ll get plenty of work, both out of necessity and as a means of teaching him a lesson, Showalter said.

Even if Teagarden isn’t ready to go by the end of March, don’t expect the Orioles to add external help, unless there’s a surprising late-spring cut from another camp.

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Hunter, Hammel at the Top of the 2012 Orioles Rotation

March 19th, 2012 Matt Loede Posted in News

1. RHP Tommy Hunter

2. RHP Jason Hammel

3. LHP Wei-Yin Chen

4. RHP Jake Arrieta

5. LHP Dana Eveland

The rotation is a major question mark heading into spring training, as there is a chance none of last year’s opening day rotation members will open 2012 with the Orioles. Promising young arms like RHP Chris Tillman and LHPs Zach Britton and Brian Matusz could open the year at Class AAA Norfolk.

Britton enters with questions about his shoulder, Matusz about his conditioning and confidence, and Tillman about his command and consistency. There are no questions about their stuff.

The trade of RHP Jeremy Guthrie leaves a gaping hole for the opening day start, and if Arrieta is healthy, he could be granted the role over the new veterans of the staff—Hunter and Hammel.

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OF Felix Pie Designated for Assignment

August 23rd, 2011 Matt Loede Posted in News, Roster Moves

The Orioles designated outfielder Felix Pie for assignment on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Dominican hit a paltry .220 with eight doubles, one triple and drove in seven runs over 85 games this season, his fifth in the majors.

In 398 games with the Cubs and Baltimore since 2007, Pie batted .249 with 17 homers, 44 doubles, 13 triples and 97 RBI.

The O’s also recalled outfielder Matt Angle from Triple-A Norfolk and selected the contract of infielder Jake Fox from the Tides.

Fox spent 19 games with Baltimore earlier in the season, totaling two homers, two doubles and four RBI while hitting .188.

Angle, 25, made his major-league debut with the Orioles on July 17 but went hitless in seven at-bats over two games. He hit .272 and stole 27 bases in 107 games for Norfolk this year.

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Orioles Play Long Ball in Topping Twins 4-1

August 23rd, 2011 Matt Loede Posted in Game Stories

J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters each smacked home runs as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Twins, 4-1, to open a four- game series.

Zach Britton (7-9) was activated from the disabled list earlier Monday and allowed one run on six hits and four walks to snap his career-high, five-game losing streak. He placed on the DL on August 5 with a left shoulder strain.

Kevin Gregg needed just eight pitches in a perfect ninth to close out the game for his 18th save of the year.

“You can just see by the way our team has been gelling we needed to get that win today. I think we turned it around and we’re going to show it,” said Orioles reliever Mike Gonzalez.

Carl Pavano (6-10) went seven innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks in the Twins’ fourth loss in five games.

Robert Andino led off the third with a single, stole second, moved to third on Nolan Reimold’s base hit and crossed the plate on Ryan Adams’ single up the middle to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

A Hardy sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out, but Nick Markakis grounded back to the mound and Adam Jones flied out to center to keep it a one-run game.

After a Ben Revere single and a Trevor Plouffe double put runners on second and third in the bottom half of the inning, Joe Mauer’s groundout to short plated Revere and tied the game at one.

Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel worked back-to-back walks to load the bases with two outs, but Jim Thome flied out to left to end the inning.

Baltimore then added a run in three straight innings to take the lead.

In the fifth, Hardy pulled a two-out, solo home run over the wall in left field, and Wieters added a solo shot to right in the sixth.

“I was trying to stay away from the inside part of the plate and the first time I [went there] he hit it out. I had a feeling he was trying to juice something,” Pavano said about Hardy’s home run.

Hardy worked a one-out walk in the seventh and came around to score on a Markakis double to make it a 4-1 game.

Minnesota entered the game batting .261 with runners in scoring position, but stranded a runner at third in the fourth, a man on second in the fifth and runners on second and third in the seventh. The Twins ended the game 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.

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Suzuki’s 2 Solo Homers Sink Orioles in 6-5 Loss to A’s

August 17th, 2011 Matt Loede Posted in Game Stories

Kurt Suzuki already had produced a stellar day; a pair of solo home runs and a throw to second to nail a baserunner trying to steal.

Then Oakland’s go-to catcher put a game-saving tag on his former Cal State Fullerton teammate to close the Athletics’ 6-5 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday.

He needed this one, too. It’s been a rough year.

Suzuki connected in the second and sixth against Alfredo Simon (3-6) for his second career multihomer game and right fielder David DeJesus cut down pinch-runner Blake Davis with a perfect throw to the plate for a dramatic finish.

“The plays to right field, those are the toughest ones because you can’t really judge where the runner is,” Suzuki said. “I took one last peek right before Dave got the ball to see where the runner was. I knew it was going to be a bang-bang play. I played with Blake in college for three years. I knew he was going to try to slide around me, either that or he was going to try to trick me and try to run me over.”

Brandon Allen tripled and scored on the same play and also had a sacrifice fly for the A’s, who snapped a four-game losing streak Tuesday night and followed that up with another victory for a winning series.

DeJesus—who entered as a defensive replacement for the final inning— flubbed Nick Markakis’ RBI single but recovered to make a strong throw to Suzuki, who tagged Davis to deny the Orioles the tying run. It also preserved Andrew Bailey’s 15th save after he gave up three hits in the ninth.

DeJesus held his breath as he watched the play unfold.

“I’m just hoping that he was out, ‘cuz that would have been ridiculous,” he said. “I came in for defense and was able to make the last out, even though it was crazy.”

Home plate umpire Dan Bellino asked Suzuki to “show him the ball,” and the catcher obliged. And the out call finally came.

“In my mind it took about an hour for the ball to get to home plate. He bobbled the ball, but you have to keep your wits about you,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin, who has been preaching staying poised after a defensive blunder. “He made a heck of a throw. We’ll take it.”

The Orioles were trying for their first road series win since mid-May and a winning season series with Oakland for the first time since going 8-3 in their 1998 matchups. The A’s won this year’s meetings 5-4.

Suzuki also hit two home runs on June 3, 2010, at Boston. Seven of Oakland’s nine hits went for extra bases.

Baltimore wanted to force extra innings. Davis got the go signal from third-base coach Willie Randolph and charged toward home.

“He had a good throw, the ball beat me,” Davis said. “I tried to go around the tag and he blocked the plate pretty good. You can do that or you can just try and run him over. … Looking back, it probably would have been a better idea to just probably go right into him, especially being the tying run.”

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