Right Off Russell

After a 10 game road trip the Orioles return to Baltimore to take on the second place Blue Jays in a 3 game tilt. The O’s were 4-6 on the recent trip, but did not take advantage of the opportunity to finish a sweep of the Nationals on Sunday when the bullpen faltered. The Orioles hope to have a better week with a 7 game home-stand.

A couple of story lines to watch include whether or not Jeremy Guthrie can begin to right the ship on his season. Guthrie has struggled to not give up runs early in games recently and currently is pitching to a 5.37 ERA. The Orioles will also need to find a starter for Tuesday’s game. Speculation is that a pitcher will be recalled from the minors to take the ball. Whether it will be Chris Waters, or Jason Berken is any one’s guess right now. Berken is younger and has pitched better than Waters at AAA, but Waters has major league experience on his side. Luke Scott will return from the DL this week, taking the place of Lou Montanez. Scott may not be available until after the series against Toronto.

The Blue Jays meanwhile, are coming of consecutive series sweeps at the hands of Boston and Atlanta. The Jays have lost their hold on first place in the league and look to be coming to Baltimore at the right time. The question is, is it the right time for the O’s or the Jays. During the Jays losing streak they have been inconsistent in all phases of the game. At times there usually strong pitching has failed them, but the main problem was that they scored only 10 runs in the 6 losses.

The likely pitching match-ups are as follows:
Jeremy Guthrie (3-4, 5.37) vs. Brian Tallet (2-2, 4.47)
Jason Berken or Chris Waters vs. Ricky Romero (2-0, 1.71)
Rich Hill (1-0, 3.18) vs. Roy Halladay (8-1, 2.52)

You can make the case that Toronto has the edge in all three match-ups. The Orioles have to take advantage of a struggling Jays line-up and duplicate the strong pitching of the first 2 games of the Nats series, if they hope to win this series. I am encouraged by Rich Hill so far, but he has yet to face a top offensive club. At least the possibility of seeing another young arm int he Orioles rotation is keeping the season interesting.

For some thoughts from our friends up north, click here