It's been a big day here in Birdland. Big goings on! Buck Showalter, hired! Miguel Tejada, traded! It's all much more exciting than this actual baseball game is going to be.
It's no secret around these parts that I'm sometimes a Royals fan. And as a sometimes Royals fan, I feel that I have enough street cred that it's not insulting to the Royals for me to ask y'all if you can believe the Orioles have eleven less wins than the Royals. Obviously having watched the team all year and seeing how bad they are, it doesn't surprise you. But can you believe it? The Royals. Sad.
Also sad is Brian Matusz. His last outing wasn't terrible, it was simply mediocre. But in the two starts before that he pitched a combined total of four and one-third innings with six walks and only five strikeouts, all while giving up an awful ten runs.
Despite his troubles, Brian's xFIP of 4.76 and K/9 of 7.18 are both second among Orioles starters, and it's funny but I still feel just a little confident when he's on the mound. Hopefully tonight he'll put it together because, frankly, I could use it. I would like to order one replica of Brian's 4th of July start vs. the Red Sox, please!
Starting for the Royals is Kyle Davies, who earned the win against the Orioles on 17 May, allowing two runs on seven hits through six innings. I'm hesitant to say he's not a very good pitcher, because he'll probably shut down the Orioles offense. But he's not a very good pitcher. So we'll see what happens.