Game 149: Angels (82-67) @ Orioles (60-88), 7:05pm

If you're wondering why the Orioles bandwagon suddenly feels a lot more crowded, it's because these guys have hopped on board for the weekend. With the O's set to begin a three-game series against LAAAOCCAUSAESMWU, Texas, sitting on a magic number of 10, will surely be pulling for our boys of Baltimore over the next few days.

As a bonus for those guys, they get to cheer for Tommy Hunter, who's starting for us tonight. Unfortunately, he sucks. That may be unfair. It is fair to say that Hunter should never pitch in the 7th inning of a game, because every time he has done so it has been a disaster - and in his other starts the disaster came before the 7th inning. At his best, Hunter's probably going to be a guy who goes 6 innings a game and has a 4.50 ERA. That's not very good, but then, Orioles starters have a 5.31 ERA this year. A dude pitching 180 innings with that 4.50 would have some value, if he existed, which if he does it's surely not on the O's.

Dan Haren is the Angels starter, and he has gotten some of the best results in the AL. He has a 1.01 WHIP. That's over 217.1 IP, which is kind of remarkable. Only one other pitcher in the AL has 200+ innings and a lower WHIP, and that's Verlander, sporting a 0.92 WHIP over an even more insane 236 IP. So, Haren: he is kind of good this year. Really just kind of good, and durable. The fewest innings he's thrown since 2005 has been 216. He's only had an ERA over 4.00 in one season in that time. He might not be so good against the AL East all the time, but the O's could use a Haren of their own.

Tonight, Buck Showalter is playing the "How many hitters with poor plate discipline can bat in front of Mark Reynolds?" game. The answer is two: Vladimir Guerrero, Adam Jones (first time starting in a week) and Chris Davis are two of the three hitters in front of Reynolds, who's batting 7th. The other is Matt Wieters, who is awesome, and batting 5th. This will definitely work out well. I have foreseen it. By which I mean it will probably be terrible for anyone who likes to see the Orioles win - but then, so has the rest of the season, so what else is new?

Fakeout: The first published lineup had Jones listed in it, but he has been scratched. Let's look at the silver lining: now Nolan Reimold can get to play, since he was on the bench in favor of Matt Angle in the original lineup.