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On the first day of Machadomas, Manny gave to us a Wilson Betemit reprieve. On the second day of Machadomas... well, that's what we're going to find out. He's playing. This isn't surprising, because if you're going to call up a top-flight prospect like Manny Machado, you'd better be playing him nearly every day, but it feels like we've seen the Orioles of recent years fail at nearly everything, so even these small reassurances are good to see.
As for tonight's game, the story is the same as every other game: it's going to be up to the starter to give the O's a chance in the game and not have to rely on staging massive comebacks. So Miguel Gonzalez will have the opportunity to face the Royals, who are basically middle of the pack in terms of hitting for average and getting on base. Chen could not deliver any strong outing yesterday, and so the O's lost the first game of a series they need to play well in, as it's one of the last games they will play against a team with a completely terrible record on the season.
The offense has to do their part. Last night they did not do their part against Will Smith, which did not surprise our hardened and bitter hearts. Of course the team would perform poorly against some no-name, soft-tossing lefty! Well, tonight they'll be up against Luke Hochevar, who has sucked for the duration of his big league career. He was once the #1 overall draft pick. You think O's fans regret Billy Rowell, imagine how the Royals fans feel about Hochevar, when Evan Longoria was taken two picks later. Yikes.
Seriously though, Hochevar is now 28 and he has an ERA over 5. Most of the years of his career, his ERA has been over 5, and in his career it is 5.24. It's bad. Even Hochevar can have a good night, but most of his nights are meh at best and bad at worst. Still, we don't want to see him have a good night tonight, so whatever else is going on, we'd like to see the O's bats give him some trouble.
Also, just to be safe, let's direct every bit of negative thought-power that we can possibly summon towards Billy Butler, who destroys Orioles pitchers both figuratively and literally whenever possible. Thief! Thief, Butler! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!