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What horrible things await us on this Friday night? Hopefully at least one awesome thing awaits. The major league debut of Dariel Alvarez, for instance. The Orioles made a zero-sum Cuban transaction before Friday's game, bringing up Alvarez and optioning Henry Urrutia in the process.
Adam Jones is back in the lineup. I guess that's good news, as long as he really is healthy enough to play, rather than stubbornly forcing himself into the lineup with the potential to hurt himself worse if something goes wrong. But, no one has a better idea of whether or not Jones can play than Jones. Maybe he too will do something awesome, like hit a home run off of Cole Hamels.
Don't you think Hamels is the exact kind of pitcher against whom the Orioles might have success, lulling us into a false sense of security as they then proceed to get dominated for the remainder of this weekend series? That's what it seems like to me. On the other hand, maybe they will go ahead and get no-hit by him. Hamels is making his fifth start since being traded to the Rangers. He has a 4.73 ERA in that time. That's probably due to come down. Maybe it will start coming down against the Orioles tonight, which would be unfortunate.
If there's any good news to be said about this series, it's that it gives the Orioles the opportunity to take games out of one of their direct competitors for the second wild card spot. That's only good news if they actually take those games, rather than blow them horribly, as happened in the Twins series. The curtains have not come down on the season yet. The tech crew person is eyeing the cord, though.