Our nightmare is over, Camden Chat! Felix Pie is back and ready to boisterously clap some life into the Orioles. Ok, so he won't do as much for the team as a healthy, productive Brian Roberts would. And given the choice, most of us would take Matt Wieters tearing the cover off the ball over him. But you know what? It's ok to be happy about Felix Pie. He will probably never be a star, but unlike Corey Patterson and Julio Lugo and the other players we're forced to watch every day, he might. And even if he can't keep up his hot hitting, what would you rather see in the outfield: this or this?(By the way, a search of the MLB.com archives for "Felix Pie defense" is a good way to cheer a person up)
He might sometimes appear to have a touch of ADD in the outfield, and he might be just a little less fragile than Koji Uehara, but he won't lollygag or sleepwalk his way through a game, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he's just straight up adorable. I honestly don't know how anyone can watch the kid play and not want him to succeed (or in my case, not want to give him a hug and fix him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).
But enough of that. I just hope he does well.
Jake Arrieta is another one who could really benefit from a strong performance. He wasn't awful his last time out (especially compared to his previous starts), but he still walked too many and didn't miss enough bats. After a bit of concern over his falling velocity in his starts against the Giants and Padres, Jake has been back up to normal his last two starts (fastball averaging about 92.5 and touching 94-95), so that's good to see. Hopefully he'll put it all together tonight and won't have to deal with horrible plays behind him by the shoddy Orioles defense.
Opposing Arrieta is Armando Galarraga. We all know his story and we all know that he's a good guy. But since his perfect-game-except-not, he's had a rough go of things. In the five starts since then he's averaged less than five and a half innings per game, and in his last three starts he's given up 19 hits, 7 walks, and 14 earned runs in 14.1 innings. His humble reaction to being given the shaft last month made me fan of the guy, but I sure hope he pitches tonight like he has in his past few starts.
Let's Go O's!
Lineups:
Orioles: Corey Patterson DH, Miguel Tejada 3B, Nick Markakis RF, Ty Wigginton 1B, Adam Jones CF, Matt Wieters C, Felix Pie LF, Julio Lugo 2B, Cesar Izturis SS
Tigers: Don Kelly CF, Johnny Damon DH, Magglio Ordonez RF, Miguel Cabrera 1B, Brennan Boesch LF, Carlos Guillen 2B, Brandon Inge 3B, Alex Avila C, Ramon Santiago SS