Orioles Lose, Drop From 1st to 3rd

Is this where the slide begins? The Orioles were riding high early this season and now they look like the typical Orioles teams with no life. They also have the key injuries that fit all Oriole teams. Brian Roberts is still hurt for the what seems like the 5th straight season. I believe it is the 3rd straight season though with Roberts' injuries. Robert Andino has been having a solid year though so that one hasn't hurt the O's too bad. Nolan Reimold has been an animal with the bat this season, but he was out of the lineup last night due to neck spasms. Reimold is our replacement leadoff hitter, he was hitting .370 with 5 home runs. If Reimold is out for any serious length of time, it is big time trouble. Speaking of neck problems, Tsuyoshi Wada was shut down yesterday for neck spasms. Guess we will not see him anytime soon.

Now for the actual game. Jake Arrieta has been outstanding this season and started outstanding again last night. Unfortunately, for Jake he got rocked in the 5th inning. I for one am not gonna hang this one on Jake because of one bad inning. If we hadn't been playing the Angels we still may have pulled it out.

Hard to pull it out though when your offense has no life. Nick Johnson once again went hitless and is still at .000. How long do we remain patient with Johnson? Reimold's replacement Endy Chavez led off and went 0 for 4. He will get a longer rope than Johnson, but hitting .125 just doesn't cut it. JJ Hardy was also 0 for 4. My least favorite Oriole besides Kevin Gregg (Mark Reynolds) went 0 for 3. Just a punchless night from the offense.

There are some positives from last night though.
1) The Orioles found a taker for Josh Bell, more on that trade later
2) Matt Wieters hit his 5th home run
3) Adam Jones was 2 for 4 and is now hitting .311
4) Matt Lindstrom had another scoreless outing

That's it though. Maybe next time.

-Noland