Tuesday Bird Droppings

The O's may have lost, but so did the Tigers so that means the O's have officially clinched home-field advantage in the ALDS. As one intrepid chatter pointed out in yesterday's Open Thread, if you look at TBS' programming schedule for next week they have blocks of air time from 6-9:30pm set aside on both Thursday and Friday for one series. Looks like that will be when the O's play. So no worries of day game action, at least for games 1 & 2 of the ALDS. Now...to figure a way out of work early both of those days so I can get down to Baltimore in time...

School of Roch: Showalter, Chen and Hardy speak after 5-0 loss
Post game quotes magotes

Markakis back in lineup; Pearce eyes Wednesday return | orioles.com
Fear not, denizens of Birdland. Pearce and Nicky are fine.

Orioles Buzz: Andrew Stetka: Sizing up the O's potential playoff foes
A look at the possible road ahead

Cold Weather Home Runs - Baltimore Sports and Life
The Orioles will be facing a new opponent in October: cold weather. How will the bats respond to chilly Detroit?

How many starters will Orioles use in division series? | Comcast SportsNet Baltimore
4, that's how many. Saved you a click.

Baseball Prospectus | Monday Morning Ten Pack: The Season's Most Disappointing Prospects
Featuring a write up on a certain O's catching prospect after the paywall.

MLB forms 'Pace of Game Committee' - CBSSports.com
This isn't rocket science, guys...

Giants CEO Larry Baer thinks advertisements on uniforms are coming soon | HardballTalk
They may be owned by the Ruskies now, but I certainly wouldn't mind a Mr. Boh patch on the O's jersey. Or an Old Bay sticker on the back.

Happy 48th birthday, Pete Harnisch. The forgotten part of the Glenn Davis trade, Pete went on to have a solid career in the NL with the Astros and Reds primarily. Dark days in Birdland a year ago this day as the O's lost to the Rays on a 9th inning HR by James Loney, and lost Manny for the season after his knee buckled while running to 1B.