Casilla with the Twins, via Wikipedia.

The Orioles are having a fairly busy off-season already. First they picked up Ayala’s option whilst declining Reynolds’s, and now they’ve claimed Alexi Casilla off waivers from the Twins.

Casilla is 28 years old and primarily a second baseman, but he’s played some shortstop and third, as well, and is a good boost to the Orioles’ infield. He’ll probably compete for second base with Robert Andino and Ryan Flaherty, as well as the returning Brian Roberts. Should make for an interesting Spring Training, that’s for sure!

The Orioles made some other announcements today, as well, via Dan Connolly:

On Saturday, players who have filed for free agency can begin to talk with other teams. The Orioles have some interest in retaining pitcher Joe Saunders, outfielder Nate McLouth and designated hitter Jim Thome, but no agreement was reached during the exclusive negotiating period, meaning the three will be able to discuss contracts with all interested parties starting Saturday.

Also Friday, the Orioles announced they have outrighted outfielder Lew Ford, infielder Steve Tolleson and lefty Zach Phillips to Triple-A Norfolk and reinstated right-handers Oliver Drake and Stu Pomeranz, lefty Tsuyoshi Wada, infielder Brian Roberts and outfielder Nolan Reimold from the 60-day disabled list.

So there you have it – busy off-season already, huh?

We took the opener! First step accomplished!

Truthfully, the score of this game should be 6-0, but Curtis Granderson hit a homer off of Brian Matusz in the 9th. Matusz was otherwise spotless and things went smoothly for the rest of the inning, but I admittedly wanted a shutout.

This win was truthfully a team effort tonight. Miguel Gonzalez pitched seven innings, holding the Yankees off the board as the Orioles scored and scored again. He got into a bit of trouble in the 6th and 7th, but he managed to fight his way out of it and keep the Yankees from scoring. On the offensive end, Mark Reynolds homered twice and J.J. Hardy once, with every starter except Nate McLouth and Omar Quintanilla having at least one hit on the evening. Everyone helped, and as a result everyone won. Except the Yankees, even though they did help us out by not being particularly offensively productive tonight.

Now, I think you all know what time it is…

Oh, a couple of notes:

• The Randy Wolf signing is official now. He’ll be one of the four players added to the roster in the first round of call-ups tomorrow.
• The other three? Xavier Avery, Steve Tolleson and Luis Exposito.
• Oh, and we’re going to be on TV on Thursday.

We missed you!

I honestly forgot what it was like to have Brian Roberts in a game. He reminded me by going 3-for-4 tonight and driving in a run, so I guess that clears that little issue up!

Steve Tolleson was optioned back down to Norfolk and Nolan Reimold was moved to the 60-day DL, but at least we have one of the cornerstones of the organization back. (Also, Matusz didn’t break his nose – it’s just bruised. Phew!)

For the most part, this game went pretty well – Roberts returned, Wei-Yin Chen returned to consistency (he scattered four runs over 6.1 innings, with two of those runs scoring at the end in the seventh), and Kevin Gregg got to try to close the game out and gave up a two-run homer to make the score 8-6. Buck had to bring in Jim Johnson because it became a save situation. Fortunately, Jim Johnson closed it out with ease, swiftly eliminating two opposing batters.

To be honest, if we didn’t beat the Pirates, I would have been a little sad since this is a great test for the Orioles – an opponent on their own level. With the teams sporting almost-identical records before the game, I thought that this series would be well-matched, but I was naturally hoping the Orioles would win just so that they could continue to convince the fanbase that they’re going to be a consistently good team this season. So far, they’ve done that except for Kevin Gregg, who is pretty consistently bad, but we don’t have to use him that much.

I rather like the way the Orioles looked tonight – they were able to soundly outperform a team with a record similar to theirs, which boosts my confidence in them even more. I’m still not entirely used to this success, but it’s starting to become something I expect out of them more and more, and I’m finding myself disappointed instead of complacent when they lose. That’s the number one reason I wanted them to especially win tonight, with the return of Brian Roberts – I wanted to see them win for him, for us, and for themselves and know that they could do it.

It’s June 12th. They’re a game out of first place behind the Yankees (and tied with the Rays – thanks, Mets!). I think I officially believe in this team.

After four days of working at an anime convention doing cartooning-like things, I got to drive back home…to find that the Orioles won again.

Series win against the Phillies. Cliff Lee is still winless in 2012 (I honestly feel bad for the fellow). And to top it off, this weekend I got to see these people:

I think this was a pretty good weekend on the whole, but let’s talk about why today was good for the Orioles because, well, that’s kind of the point of this website.

The Orioles now have a 9-2 record in extras. That’s insane, to be honest. If any game they’re involved in goes into extras, the odds are roughly 82% in their favor – they’ve now won that many times past regulation game length. This time, it was a shorter affair, with Adam Jones scoring on a Matt Wieters double in the tenth inning, but nevertheless the ridiculous stat stands taller and taller with each passing win.

Things ended up falling on the shoulders of the bullpen this afternoon as they bailed out Jason Hammel, who apparently was quite hot today:

The bullpen’s effort came in support of Orioles’ starter Jason Hammel, who battled through six innings while sweating through three jerseys, matching a season-high 115 pitches in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.

Sometimes I miss being at Gettysburg and running down to Camden Yards in the warmer months. Nope, not today!

To be fair, though, Hammel did struggle with his fastball command today, which is a bit of an issue, but it’s really hard to pitch well when you’re dehydrated beyond belief.

The Phillies piled on most of their runs in the second, adding one more in the fourth after the Orioles initially led the game with one run in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the fourth, though, the Orioles scored three runs, and the game remained tied until the bottom of the tenth. Yeah, it was one of those bullpen games.

Also, poor Steve Tolleson. Kid hits the game-tying homer in the fourth and this is what’s written about him:

With Baltimore down in the fourth, 4-1, the rarely used Tolleson provided the game-tying three-run homer off Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee, who finished with four runs on seven hits and two walks in six innings. Lee took another no-decision to prolong his winless start to the season.

Rarely used. I don’t think he needs that rubbed in, but at least he went yard today!

I like this winning thing. I think I’ll go to sleep happy now.

Yeah, we just won the series against the Rays. We’re good at winning things. Isn’t that an odd thought?

It’s nice to see Matusz pitching fairly well again, too. That was sorely needed around here – he’s looking more like his 2010 self as of late. Tonight, he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up all three runs (with only two of them being earned), but he did enough – the Orioles tacked on four runs during his time on the mound to give him the win, with recent addition Bill Hall adding a fifth on an eighth-inning homer.

Mark Reynolds, in the meantime, is on the DL, so Steve Tolleson is at third base for now. This means we may actually get some somewhat consistent defense there. Well, maybe not, but anything’s better than too many errors.

Speaking of errors, that’s pretty much how we won tonight – the Rays made five of them. Well, that and the fact that we were able to capitalize on their errors – being able to take advantage of situations like that makes for a better baseball team. It’s actually very key that the Orioles were able to see that the Rays were repeatedly slipping and were able to act accordingly and seize the opportunity to add runs. That’s not something they’ve been able to do in years past, which makes me once again think we’ve got a different bunch of Orioles on our hands here.

Oh, and Adam Jones hit Bill Hall in the face with a pie. Yeah.

Also, apparently the fanbase pissed off Evan Longoria. Let me talk about that briefly before I close. Evan said this:

Apparently being happy to actually have a decent team makes one 'obnoxious.'

I’m not sure what he means by the fans ‘digging themselves,’ but I think he’s misunderstanding having confidence in a team as having confidence in oneself. Believe me, a lot of those people probably hate themselves – but they’ve got a reason to like their baseball team for the first time in years, and that actually means something to them. In my experience, I’ve found fans of the Orioles to be fiercely loyal to a team that over the past few years has traditionally sucked. They’re honestly thrilled for once to have a team that they can cheer on and expect to be able to win more than not. It’s not normal for them – their joy is mixed with disbelief and confusion – but yes, they’re going to be quite excited. For them, having a team having a winning season means so much more than you probably understand, Evan – in the time you’ve been with the Rays, they’ve been a successful team. They’ve been having good years in the entire time you’ve been in the Majors. For the Orioles fans, who have had a drought of over 15 years now without much success, having a season like this one so far is huge.

Let them be excited. They don’t know how much longer this is going to last. They’re still expecting things to go badly. Personally speaking, I don’t think any fanbase who is not used to its team winning ever becomes automatically obnoxious when the team does better than expected for once. They’re still suspicious at first and are wary of success, so what you’re hearing isn’t cocky and obnoxious yelling – it’s pure, unadulterated joy.

Just let the people of Baltimore be happy for once.

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.