Welcome to August, O's fans. The Orioles went a disgusting 8-19 (.296) in July. Their overall winning % on the year is .308. It's a sad day indeed when the team's winning % is lower than Corey Patterson's OBP.
Kevin Millwood, who has mentored the young Orioles pitchers into complete disarray, will try to do something he hasn't done in over a month: allow less than 5 runs in a start. Millwood has actually been a little worse than Bruce Chen this year. Think about that. Chen, in case you are wondering, was signed to a minor league deal before the season.
Today is also Juan Samuel's final day as manager of the Baltimore Orioles. I never thought Samuel was a good manager, but it was hard to blame him given the circumstances. It's still sounding like he'd rather not be the third base coach for the Orioles once Buck Showalter takes over, and that'd be just fine with me.
Let's Go O's! Win one for the Windmill!
Weird fact! When I set up a gamethread, you enter the player stats widget such as the ones above by choosing the team you want from a drop down menu, then choosing the player from another. When I select Kansas City Royals, one of the player choices is Garth Brooks. Sadly, when I select his name I am told "Data for this widget is currently unavailable." Further investigation reveals that it must be because he played outfield for the Royals during Spring Training as part of some charity event, and that somehow got his name on their roster. Look, it even auto links his name.
Lineups:
Orioles: Julio Lugo 2B, Nick Markakis RF, Ty Wigginton 1B, Luke Scott DH, Adam Jones CF, Felix Pie LF, Jake Fox C, Josh Bell 3B, Cesar Izturis SS
Royals: Chris Getz 2B, Jason Kendall C, Billy Butler 1B, Jose Guillen DH, Wilson Betemit 3B, Alex Gordon LF, Mitch Maier RF, Yuniesky Betancourt SS, Gregor Blanco CF