Sometimes things in a baseball season sneak up on you. Take the Baltimore Orioles for example. Two of their everyday outfielders are hitting .349 and .346 (Matos and Mora respectively). Their other outfielder has 64 RBI (Gibbons) and they have two infielders with over 60 RBI (Conine and Bautista). Those are some pretty numbers!

And the Orioles have some pretty good pitching talent. Sidney Ponson is 12-5 with a good ERA and four complete games. Jason Johnson is 7-4 (3.82). Rick Helling pitched well tonight and Rodrigo Lopez pitched great his last time out and has regained last year's form. Closer Jorge Julio has twenty saves and has been set up well by Kerry Lightenberg.

The Orioles are now only seven games below .500 and only seem a few players short of being a very good team. And they are fun to watch as Matos and Mora not only hit but take turns showing up on highlight shows for their fielding.


The news for Junior Griffey was terrible. His ankle is shredded and he had season ending surgery today. I hope he doesn't give up because he sure was one of the most talented players ever. On a similar note, Rick Ankiel had Tommy John surgery and will be out eighteen months.


The Yankees have just gone ahead of the Indians 6-4 giving Clemens a passable chance to win number 302 tonight. Giambi and Matsui are again leading the way.

Meanwhile, Toronto defeated the Red Sox again, this time 4-1. The Blue Jays are such a flighty team. You can never tell which Blue Jay team will show up. I think Kielty will help a lot with his enthusiasm.


And one final note: An AP writer reported today that Yankee manager, Joe Torre, spoke to Alfonso Soriano today for spending too much time admiring his homers. This is just one more anecdote that shows how good a manager Joe Torre is. His rule is absolute but he is so respected and has absolutely the right perspective on almost every occasion. Soriano, to his credit, agreed to his manager and apologized for the grandstanding.