W – Shaun Marcum (8-4)     L – Brian Matusz (3-10)

So Chris Tillman took a step forward in his last start and now Brian Matusz has taken a step back. In what has been an extremely up and down season for the young lefty, he couldn’t make it out of the 2nd inning yesterday. The 1st inning went well enough, a  lead off single was stranded at first base. But the 2nd was a disaster. A single, walk, and double tied the game up. Two strikeouts made it look like it might not be too bad but Fred Lewis was hit by a pitch to load the bases and recent acquisition Yunel Escobar hit a grand slam to bust the game open. Another run scored on a walk and a double before Mark Hendrickson was brought in to mercifully end Matusz’ outing. Hendrickson got out of the inning and went on to pitch four more innings but gave up a run each in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings. Frank Mata pitched the last three innings of the game in mop up duty, giving up a run in the 9th.

The offense jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning. Miguel Tejada and Nick Markakis hit back to back singles and Adam Jones later singled in Tejada. But that was it. We had 12 hits in the game but were 1-15 with runners in scoring position. That might be a new low for that category in a year where we’ve struggled mightily in it. Markakis also doubled twice, increasing his MLB leading total to 31. The rest of our hits were singles. Jones had two, Josh Bell who finally got into a game had two, Cesar Izturis had three, and Felix Pie had one. Scott Moore walked in the game. I think its time that Andy MacPhail stopped messing around and got our next manager in here. Give the team a direction and some hope.

Player of the game: Nick Markakis – 3-5, 2 doubles (31) (.308 AVG)

We’ll see if Chris Tillman (1-3, 5.64) can duplicate his last performance tonight against Wade Davis (6-9, 4.69) as the Orioles welcome the Tampa Bay Rays into town.

W – Brandon Morrow (6-6)     L – Jason Berken (2-2)     SV – Shawn Camp (1)

It looks like the all-star break did Jeremy Guthrie some good. He was on a streak of bad starts before the break and he came out last night and pitched a great game. He gave up a solo homerun on the first pitch of the game and that was it. After that he shut down the Blue Jays over 6.2 innings. He gave up that lone run on 7 hits and a walk while striking out 6 batters. He was pulled from the game with two outs in the 7th inning and Will Ohman struck out the first batter he faced to end the threat. Unfortunately, a rare occurrence for this season, Jason Berken struggled coming out of the bullpen. He came in for the 8th inning and gave up a two run homer to Jose Bautista that gave Toronto the lead and the eventual win. He did settle down after that and pitch a scoreless 9th but the damage was already done.

We struggled offensively but it looked for a while like we were going to pull off a victory. Our only runs came on a Cesar Izturis two RBI single to score Adam Jones and Felix Pie who had both singled. Izturis had two hits in the game while Jones and Pie each also walked. Nick Markakis hit his major league leading 29th double while Miguel Tejada and Craig Tatum each singled. Tatum also walked and was pinch hit for in the 9th by Scott Moore. I’m fine with that, but why didn’t Juan Samuel pinch hit for Izturis with the bases loaded and two outs? Josh Bell sat on the bench again and Samuel isn’t confident in him enough to pinch hit him for even Cesar Izturis? Then why is one of our top prospects in the major leagues to never play when he could be getting everyday at bats down in AAA Norfolk? It makes no sense. Either play him or demote him, its that simple. Theres no reason for Josh Bell to go a week without seeing a single in game at bat.

Player of the game: Jeremy Guthrie – 6.2 IP, 7 H, ER, BB, 6 K (4.58 ERA)

The Orioles are 0-8 against the Blue Jays this season and we’ll try to avoid another sweep today with Brian Matusz (3-9, 4.77) on the mound. Shaun Marcum (7-4, 3.44) starts for Toronto, fresh off the disabled list.