If you don't want to surrender to the Stephen Strasburg hype machine, the Orioles are "playing baseball" tonight. I imagine I'll be flipping back and forth, especially if the Orioles allow themselves to be manhandled by the Yankees in the manner to which I've become accustomed.
The O's and Yanks have faced off nine times this season with the Orioles being victorious once. In those nine games the Yankees have outscored the Orioles 49-20. The Orioles have been shut out once and held to one run four times. Three of CC Sabathia's five wins have come against the Orioles.
Phil Hughes is starting for the Yankees tonight. Hughes is having a disgustingly good year; I hate that. This will be his third start against the O's in 2010. In the first he was effective, allowing just one run on two hits, but his four walks forced him out of the game after 5.2 innings and the Orioles came back against the bullpen for their only win against the Yankees this year. In his second game, on June 2nd, he was better. He allowed more hits (six) but struck out seven and walked only one. It could be a long night for the Orioles.
Kevin Millwood is still winless and he's not doing so hot recently. Over his last five starts, dating back to May 13th, The Mentor has allowed 7 home runs and 21 earned runs, good for a 5.79 ERA. Except in his 8 inning start against the Royals on May 18th, Millwood has yet to get out of the 7th inning in that time. In his last start, also against the Yankees, Millwood lasted only 5.2 innings. That's his third shortest outing of the season; the first was Opening Day (5.0 IP), the second was his only other start against the Yankees (5.1 IP).
So I guess what I'm saying is, maybe Strasburg's debut is the way to go.
Lineups:
Orioles: Julio Lugo - 2B, Miguel Tejada - 3B, Nick Markakis - RF, Ty Wigginton - 1B, Luke Scott - DH, Adam Jones - CF, Matt Wieters - C, Lou Montanez - LF, Cesar Izturis - SS
Yankees: Derek Jeter - SS, Nick Swisher - RF, Mark Teixeira - 1B, Alex Rodriguez - 3B, Robinson Cano - 2B, Jorge Posada - DH, Curtis Granderson - CF, Francisco Cervelli - C, Brett Gardner - LF