The Orioles game is under a rain delay right now, which is really rather boring, so now’s probably a good time to share these tidbits from Britt Ghiroli about new acquisition Joe Saunders. The Orioles received him in exchange for Matt Lindstrom and a player to be named later.

Turns out that Saunders grew up an Orioles fan:

[on the trade] “I’m excited to get traded to a playoff contending team, they are in the hunt right now so it’s going to be exciting. Plus my family is from there so I’ll get to go closer to home. I grew up an hour and a half south of Baltimore so it’s going to be exciting to hang out with them more and they’ll get a chance to see me pitch more.”

[on returning to the MD/VA area] “I was an O’s fan growing up, I went to a lot of their games when I was a kid.”

It’s always nice to bring those local players back home, isn’t it?

Now let’s see if we even get to play baseball today…

EDIT: We don’t get to play today. There will be a single-admission doubleheader on 9/24.

Oh. Well, then. I’m not so thrilled with this being the first game to come back to.

Jason Hammel pitched three innings and gave up only two runs, but he unfortunately left the game early due to a knee injury of some sort – one which Gameday would not tell me more about (MLB.TV and the radio both wouldn’t work until the 8th inning for me for some reason). Unfortunately, that led to our bullpen coming into play and not doing as well as it normally does, with Ayala and Eveland combining to give up five runs over the fourth and fifth innings. The rest of the bullpen came in to get work in this game – when I say the rest of the bullpen, I mean it, because Gregg, Patton, Lindstrom and Strop each got an inning of work, and the four of them did absolutely fine. Even Gregg. Yep.

On the offense front, we really were still useless, which only solidifies the fact that we need help in that department when we’re buying in a week or two. We had six hits total in this game. That’s really not very many, you know. Somehow, we scored two runs in there, but the issue remains – this team doesn’t have good offense. If they win, it’s because their offense absolutely explodes, but a good offense is a consistent offense and this offense is the most fickle one I can remember.

I really can’t find a better way to sum up tonight than this screencap I took from Gameday:

Yep. Right. Let’s just try again tomorrow.

The fanbase's general idea of Tommy Hunter tonight.

Things really could have been worse tonight, guys.

Tommy Hunter was going on short rest. He could have been demolished by the most potent lineup in the American League. He wasn’t. He did give up four runs over six innings, but let’s be honest – there were moments where it could have imploded on him.

Then things fell apart when Lindstrom took the mound in the seventh. People got lots of small hits. Steve Tolleson – recently added to the roster – made an error instead of starting an inning-ending double play at third. Hardy and Reynolds failed to complete a double play, as well. Adam Jones missed the cutoff man. Basically, everything went to hell.

That being said, the Orioles held their own through the first six innings of this ballgame and won the first game of this doubleheader, and that impresses me given that nobody expected anything from them at all this year. I’m not going to be too upset about losing three to the Rangers, considering that they’re the best team in the American League.

Look at it this way – we’ve played ten games against Boston, New York and Texas recently. We’ve won six of those games. That’s pretty darn good. This is a team that nobody expected anything from. They’re winning even though everyone counted them out just for being the Orioles. There’s something different about them this year – they’re at the very least mediocre with occasional, but fleeting, moments of greatness. It’s making a distinct difference in things like the fanbase’s reactions to the games, the attendance, and even the team’s morale. They look and feel stronger than they were last year. It’s peculiar, but it’s also very distinct – you can feel it around them.

That being said, I’d also like to point out that color commentator Gary Thorne accidentally called former Oriole Koji Uehara ‘Ogando’ tonight. He is not Ogando. Yeah. I’m not even going to touch that one. The fanbase is pretty sure that Thorne is permanently drunk in the booth anyway.

This man has owned the Twins today.

Here’s our first official game of 2012! I’ll continually update this post through the game as things happen.

• Top 1st: All three Twins retired by balls hit to Arrieta. First out of the game was a grounder back to the mound, and after walking the second batter, Mauer also grounded back out to Arrieta, setting up a double play. Nice.
  
• Bottom 1st: Well, Nick Markakis is certainly healthy. He just absolutely clobbered a ball over the left field fence – and to be honest, I can’t remember him ever hitting a homer out to left field, so it’s a very pleasant surprise. J.J. Hardy was on base with a walk, so the Orioles are now up 2-0.
• Top 2nd: Nothing particularly exciting happened here, but Arrieta just recorded his first strikeout of 2012 by painting the inside corner of the plate at 96 mph. That ended the inning.
• Bottom 2nd: Pavano gets his first strikeout to end the inning in a very similar way to Arrieta, but otherwise nothing particularly exciting happened.
• Top 3rd: Arrieta is absolutely dealing today. He retired the first two batters of the inning on strikeouts, with the third one being taken care of with a simple grounder. Wow.
• Bottom 3rd: Pavano’s getting more comfortable now – he’s retired eight Orioles in a row. It should also be noted that Andino almost got a hit, but the mound made the play and he was thrown out.
• Top 4th: A fan ran on the field wearing nothing but black shorts and a black cape. That was…interesting. Also interesting is that two men got on base for the Twins and Arrieta still managed to get out of it.
• Bottom 4th: Markakis walks, then Adam Jones doubles. Matt Wieters then sacrifices himself on Good Friday to allow Markakis to score and Jones to move to third. Orioles now up 3-0.
• Top 5th: Arrieta retires the side easily – nothing exciting here.
• Bottom 5th: The Orioles are also retired easily. Oh.
• Top 6th: Arrieta delivers his fourth 1-2-3 inning of the game. He’s looking really good right now. He’s also made four putouts in this game.
• Bottom 6th: A bit of a gift for Markakis, but he knocks a triple when Doumit struggles to make the catch in right (he shouldn’t be in right, but anyways…). Hardy scores from first, and it’s 4-0 Birds. Markakis later tried to score from third on a Wieters sacrifice fly, but Joe Mauer didn’t like that idea so he got him out.
• Top 7th: It’s taken him 97 pitches, but Arrieta’s kept the Twins off the board for the entire game. Attaboy, Jake! Mark Reynolds also made a surprisingly skilled play at third base.
• Bottom 7th: Wilson Betemit gets his first hit as an Oriole, but he’s erased when Mark Reynolds hits into a double play. Eh, go figure. Lindstrom is coming in now to replace Arrieta.
• Top 8th: Lindstrom starts off iffy, giving up a hit, but with help from Nolan Reimold he records two quick outs afterwards. Reynolds then throws the third out wide, but Chris Davis literally saves him by keeping his toe on the bag before faceplanting.
• Bottom 8th: Jeff Gray relieves Pavano. Andino promptly singles. After Reimold grounds out, Hardy walks. A pitching change successfully eliminates Markakis for the first time today, bringing up Jones with two outs. Of course, we don’t score and he fans.
• Top 9th: Happy Opening Day, Troy Patton! You gave up a two-run homer! Willingham drove that one all the way out to left center with one out. Jim Johnson comes in to bail him out. Although it gets a bit tense, he’s able to close things out, and we’ve won on Opening Day!

It should be noted that during the bottom of the 3rd inning, Armando Galarraga was released to make room for Dana Eveland on the AAA Norfolk roster. Eveland reported to Norfolk today.

In ‘the Orioles are stupid’ news, the team is potentially sending its veteran starter who was there to mentor all of the younger pitchers, Jeremy Guthrie, to the Colorado Rockies. Here’s what we’ve got from Dan Connolly so far:

Again, this isn’t official, but it sounds like it’s fairly close and it’s making quite a few fans upset.

We’ll miss you around here, Gutz. You’re a great man and an excellent role model. And you have ties with Stanford, so I doubly like you.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

EDIT: The deal has been confirmed on Twitter by Guthrie himself and the Orioles beat writers are all tweeting that his agent has announced it as well. Consider it done. Have fun in Colorado, Gutz – it’s gorgeous out there and you’ll probably fit right in with all the hipsters in Boulder.