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The Wednesday night Orioles game thread: vs. Mariners, 7:05

Wei-Yin Chen has been good so far this year. If he's good on Wednesday night, the Orioles will have a good chance of extending their winning streak as they play the Mariners at Camden Yards.

Wei-Yin Chen, plotting how to lay waste to his enemies.
Wei-Yin Chen, plotting how to lay waste to his enemies.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

There's nothing particularly special about the second game back in Baltimore for Nelson Cruz with a different team. It's just another game. The fact is that most baseball games start out looking like just another game. A lot of baseball games end up looking like just another game, too. But you never know if some game will go unlike any other one you've ever seen before. On any given pitch you never know if you will see something unusual happen. That's what makes baseball fun.

Maybe the matchup of Wei-Yin Chen and Roenis Elias will generate a boring game that one team wins by like a 4-2 score and the losing team gets a few scoring chances but doesn't fail in an especially noteworthy way. Or maybe someone is about to hit three home runs and drive in nine, or someone is about to throw a no-hitter, or strike out 19.

Anyway, if you, like me, were scarred by the dark years, you probably have this impression that the Orioles were always terrible against left-handed pitchers and will always be terrible against left-handed pitchers - which Elias is. This year's Orioles actually have fewer at-bats against LHP than anyone else in the AL - and with a .737 OPS they're right about average. Whether that ends up meaning a dang thing tonight is not something we will ever know until it happens.

Today's Lineups

SEATTLE MARINERS BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Rickie Weeks - DH Manny Machado - 3B
Willie Bloomquist - LF Jimmy Paredes - DH
Robinson Cano - 2B Adam Jones - CF
Nelson Cruz - RF Delmon Young - RF
Kyle Seager - 3B Chris Davis - 1B
Justin Ruggiano - CF Steve Pearce - LF
Logan Morrison - 1B J.J. Hardy - SS
Mike Zunino - C Caleb Joseph - C
Chris Taylor - SS Reynaldo Navarro - 2B
Roenis Elias - LHP Wei-Yin Chen - LHP