clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Game 159: Blue Jays (72-86) @ Orioles (82-76), 7:05

Jonathan Schoop starts for a second game as the Orioles take on the Blue Jays Thursday night. Mark Buehrle pitches for Toronto against Miguel Gonzalez for the O's.

Mike Ehrmann

For a second straight night, the Orioles lineup will feature Steve Pearce, Jason Pridie, and Jonathan Schoop. What the heck, why not? The O's had gone 21 games in a row without scoring more than five runs. They finally snapped that on Wednesday night. Now... I don't know. Whatever. It's just not as fun this year.

Schoop's inclusion is a reason to be excited, just in the sense that he may be contributing to next year's team, so getting a first glimpse of him, especially after a great debut, is exciting. Schoop will get to face Blue Jays starter Mark Buehrle tonight. Buehrle has faced 12,005 batters in his MLB career. Schoop has four plate appearances.

I always find Buehrle to be impressive for this reason: he has pitched 200+ innings every season starting in 2001. That streak will not be broken this year. He has 200.1 innings headed into tonight. I wonder what it would be like if the Orioles had a pitcher like that.

It's Miguel Gonzalez starting for the O's against a diminished Toronto lineup that has been lacking both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. What will Gonzalez show us in his final start of the season? It's been a rougher road for Gonzalez this year compared to last, but he's still coming in with an ERA under 4 - which could change with a bad game tonight, but hey.

It's the shaving cream pie face t-shirt giveaway Thursday night. Perhaps the Orioles will have an occasion to dole out a shaving cream pie to a player after the game.


BALTIMORE ORIOLES TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Brian Roberts (S) - DH Jose Reyes (S) - SS
Nick Markakis (L) - RF Munenori Kawasaki (L) - DH
Danny Valencia (R) - 3B Brett Lawrie (R) - 3B
Adam Jones (R) - CF Moises Sierra (R) - RF
Matt Wieters (S) - C Anthony Gose (L) - CF
J.J. Hardy (R) - SS J.P. Arencibia (R) - C
Steve Pearce (R) - 1B Ryan Langerhans (L) - 1B
Jason Pridie (L) - LF Ryan Goins (L) - 2B
Jonathan Schoop (R) - 2B Kevin Pillar (R) - LF