You Win Some, You Lose Some

I left for dinner with the O's ahead 3-1 and Koji Uehara cruising. I came back to see that they'd lost 5-3. Koji pitched another quality start (6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K) but Jim Johnson gave up a three-run home run to Johnny Damon in the seventh that was the difference in the game. While they lost the series 1 game to 2, the O's outscored the Yankees 15-14 on the strength of there 12-5 win yesterday, in which Aubrey Huff, Nick Markakis, Luis Montanez, and Adam Jones all went yard. Montanez appears to be taking more at bats away from Pie, though Felix got the start today and went 2-3 with a walk.

After taking both games of the series in Minnesota, and dropping two of three to New York, the Birds stand at 13-18 on the season. That's a 68 win pace, which conveniently enough is how many wins the team had last year.

On the bright side, Jeremy Guthrie pitched pretty well in the 4-0 loss to New York to open up that series. He only gave up a three-run home run to A-Rod in the first, and held them there through six innings while K'ing 8 and allowing 7 hits and 2 walks. It looks like he got more sink on his fastball and change-up, and threw a lot more of the latter at the expense of the breaking ball. (From Fangraphs:)

I didn't watch that game, but this might be an interesting development. So much so, in fact, that I think I'll take a look at that game now. (Just kidding. MLB.com no longer lets you watch old games for free. The condensed game - which is available - seemed to show Guthrie throwing some good change-ups but also leaving the fastball up in the strike-zone a little too much. Unfortunately for Guthrie, CC Sabathia shut the O's out and he didn't get a chance for a win despite the quality start. It's something to keep an eye on in his next start.)