coming up on this edition of o's extra, we'll get an update on the shortstop. struggles at the plate the lineup has been changed. >> that one to right center field. back at the warning tracks. good-bye. home run. >> jason hopes to pick up the pitching staff as the a's counter with trevor cahill. >> he got him as two men are down. >> all that and much more coming up next on o's extra right here on masn. welcome to an evening of

orioles baseball. game two of a three game series. the orioles lost last night 9-1 as cust and holliday hit homers. jason bergen going to the mound. cahill pitches for oakland. the extra pregame show brought to you by at&t your world delivered. they lost last night and also lost the shortstop. what does it mean to the ball club? >> the club seems to play better when he's healthy and playing well. two games over .500 when he starts the game. back up guys when he's in there they're 1-10. that's nine games under .500. the good thing about he's started to hit the ball well. in his last ten games he's hitting .393. .396 batting average against him. they have to have him in the lineup against the right hand

hitter. gives stability to the bottom part of the lineup. >> robert will be the starting shortstop for the orioles. we have more on the orioles shortstop situation. >> reporter: looks like robert is going to get quite an opportunity to play. we have an update on cesar iz turs. he did make it through the surgery. he's resting in a local hospital. tomorrow he's expected to fly back to baltimore with the team on the team plane. but dave said cesar is expected to be about out two to three weeks maybe more. tomorrow we should see him move to the d.l. we're getting word it will be oscar called up in his place. in the meantime he isn't a shortstop, robert will get the start at shortstop. something he's excited about. he's looking forward to getting into the groove. since coming to the orioles he has not been an every day player. he's not had a chance to get

successive bats and days. something he's looking forward to. it's been difficult for him in the american league. he was used to the national league. he was with the marlins last year. he said in the national league you have a chance to play every day even if you don't start. that's not the case with the american league. and he talked more about that with me earlier. >> national league you probably could get to bat almost maybe every day because you always have to hit for the pitcher. here maybe once a week or twice a week. it's hard. stay in shape. keep with routines and watch a lot of video. >> reporter: getting prepared. obviously last night great defensive night. he looked comfortable out there. >> it's been my biggest asset i think. just having fun out there. trying to get some hits having fun. >> reporter: and he just likes diving in the dirt. that's what he told me. we saw that last night.

playing some very fine defense. made two very good defensive plays. but today dave said all he expects is to play solid defense, make the routine plays up the middle until they get iz turs turs. he proved he can have the break out games. i know he's looking forward to having the opportunity to do that consistently over the next couple weeks here. >> all right. thanks. she'll return on our post game show and also be during the game. according to masn.com, school of rock, oscar is in route to oakland to join the orioles. what about what he brings to the club? i thought he would make the ball club with spring training. but with the problems he had he ended up making the ball club and put oscar back in triple a ball. he showed he could come off the bench, hit with a little bit of power. he could play around the infield. i liked him better on the

corners at 1st base or 3rd base. i don't like him in the middle. you have to appreciate this guy's bat. send him back down to triple a ball. he hits home runs down there. he drives in runs. kind of guy waiting in the wings to be a utility player up here at the major league level. he did a good job last year and you can't forget. very tough to come off the bench. he's comfortable, understands his role. i enjoy having him back with this ball club because he's right-handed and can hit the ball out of the ballpark. that will give him some respect by the opposing pitchers. >> and as you mentioned i think he had three home runs in maybe 50 at bats which is good. >> it is good. that shows if you have to play him on a regular basis least not a guy that's going to walk up and be an out. he's a guy they're going to have to worry about if they make mistakes with him he can hit the ball out of the ballpark. that's what makes him a 4a player. not a guy that you want on your

ball club every year coming out of spring training. he's stuck there in the middle. given an opportunity to play on a regular basis, he can put up numbers at the major league level. you don't know. he hasn't gotten much of an opportunity to play on a regular basis, but what i've seen so far i like. >> dave has shaken up tonight's line up. nick markakis bats second. adam jones number two. luke scott in the lineup. gregg zaun is tonight's catcher and felix pie plays in left field. dave tells us why he made the changes. >> i'm trying to do what i can to help the team. it's not one particular guy. it's just mix the lineup up so we can help the team and get a little more offensive and score runs and win tonight. that's what that's all about. >> luke scott again is hitting clean up tonight. 13 home runs for the season including nine in his last 12

games. rick, is luke scott a clean up hitter? >> we don't know until we give him a chance. right now the way the things are going for the orioles not getting many runs or even hits but the one guy who is is luke scott. you kind of have to give him a shot. he's been the guy that backed up the number four hitter. gives stability to the offensive lineup in that respect. throw him in the number four spot because the way things are going right now it's not working. i like the moves he made. markakis back to the second slot and jones to the third slot. jones should never really be a number two guy. it worked for the first month natch of the season. but he's hitting the ball with so much power right now and playing the ball around the ballpark. you can't defend him easily. he's a guy that's going to drive in a lot of runs for the future. take your shot and see what he's going to do for you. i like the lineup tonight. >> definitely. let's check out the a's starting lineup. jack cust hit a three run homer

last night will be batting thursday. holliday bats clean up. also had a three run homer last night. the a's have beaten the orioles 22 of their last 30 in oakland. jack led the american league in walks. cust also hit 33 home runs. >> we've had jack cust here. i love the guy. he was a great kid to have on the ball club. if he is the i pit my of a mistake hitter. he had only 77 rbis. that surprised me because not a lot of people on base when he hits his home runs which tells me with nobody on base he gets more fastballs and he can do that. he led the american league in strikeouts last year. it's a mystery to me how he could lead them at the same time and walk. it doesn't make sense to me at all. he looks for the ball in a certain situation. big time hitter. if he guesses right he can hurt

you. but the big upper cut swing you have to throw him up in the strike zone to get him off the fastball and keep off speed stuff and low stuff down. low fastballs you're in trouble. >> another player that did that was babe ruth. >> when we come back weerl look at jeremy guthrie's per performance.

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nice. welcome back oo's extra. jeremy guthrie worked only two innings last night. he talked about his performance last night. >> the exception was the pitch to davis. that was a slider still up and he was able to reach out and poke it into the right field. none of the pitches were executed tremendously and i paid the price for it. >> real hot team you're facing? >> i don't know one way or another they were hot. i made them hot if they weren't already. they swung the bats very well tonight. they hit the ball really hard. even the outs were hit hard. they swung the bat well against me tonight. >> hard to tell the night before but you don't anticipating missing any starts with this do you? >> i do not. hopefully wake up and continue to gradually disappear for the next start. >> amber reported his wrist is fine. he took a line shot back off

his wrist. two-thirds of an inning, seven hits, six runs, no walks, no strikeouts. that's a three run home run to jack cust. is guthrie trying to overthrow his fastball? >> sometimes i think that hits the nail right on the head. he decided he was going to go out and throw as hard as he possibly could. if you can equate it to the game of golf, any time you try to go out and overswing, you're going to get lost for six, seven, nine holes before you can find it. guthrie the same thing here. all pitches are up in the zone. he got hit hard. he also was a little bit unlucky in last night's ball game too because when he kept the ball down like he did right there, the ground ball still managed to find a hole. that puts a lot of pressure on here's a guy that has a lot of pride in the way he goes about doing his job. he's a work a high school holic. if there's any way i could convince him to try easier i think it would make a world of difference in the way he's

pitching right now. the more pressure he puts on himself to pull himself out. he's taken the responsibility of the lead on this ball club, the ace of this staff. it's a lot of pressure for him right now. he will find himself eventually. the sooner he starts to relax and let his talent come out the better off he's going to be. he is one great pitcher. you can tell by the way he's pitched the last two years. >> the orioles are having problems hitting. nick markakis is batting .195 since may 14. he evaluates his last three weeks. >> i think hitting's contagious. a lot of people say that. i firmly believe that. it's better having the whole team in a slump than having just a couple guys in a slump and a couple guys hot. we'll come out of it. we'll get things going. we just got to keep battling.

everybody will eventually get on the same page. our pitching's doing great. can't ask anything else from our pitching. step up as hitters and get out of this funk we're in. >> one thing about baseball a series of ups and downs. downs the last few games. four rbis. four extra bases. last home run made against the new york yankees. what do you see is his major problem? >> he's starting to swing at pitches out of his strike zone. this happens to every single hitter in major league baseball. anybody that knows about slump, when the food for thought comes in your mind, instead of just seeing and hit the ball you start to guess up there at home plait. the pitch that you're looking for or guessing for isn't right in the little box you're looking for, you have a tendency to swing at the ball out of the strike zone. he's getting jammed more than i've ever seen him get jammed.

swings at pitches that are high and out of the strike zone. he's not in a bit of a groove right now. i saw this young man go half a season without hitting the ball worth a darn. he was one game away from getting sent back to the minor leagues. had one break out game. he ended up hitting over .290 his first year. he will make up for all of these games he's not hitting the ball good. like i say every player goes through these slumps. nick is one of the best at figuring them out. he's nice and calm. just don't say anything to him. let him go. >> his rookie year he hit three home runs in the game and the orioles decided to keep him. >> he's got great talent. nick markakis is a key batter in that line up. they realize if they stop him they have a much better chance of winning the ball game. so they focus on him. >> baseball draft comes up this tuesday starting at 6:00. when we come back we'll go to the baseball draft expert of the orioles.

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time now for orioles player profile brought to you by the u.s. army. roberts a career start .284 average. 51 doubles last season and a two time all star. that is the orioles player profile brought to you by the u.s. army. welcome back. tom davis with rick temp city. baseball draft is coming up this tuesday starting at 6:00. the oriole have the fifth pick in the draft. >> when you're talking about the top of the draft, the first round, i just don't believe in drafting for needs because there's -- you can never have enough pitching. if you think the position player is the best guy that's the way you go. i can't fill a need in the

first round. obviously there have been drafts in the past where i've been here and we went and got a couple two or three middle infielders, kids we felt like had a chance to stay on the dirt and play because we felt like there was a need but it wasn't in the first or second round. >> here's a look at the orioles number one picks over the last five seasons that include bryan mad duction last year. billy still in the minors. towns end never really signed with the orioles. >> it's tough. i do agree with one thing joe jordan happened to say. when you go into these drafts, look for as much pitching as you can possibly get unless you have a young guy that sticks out who is going to fill a role that absolutely have to have somebody in. then you just go for pitching. if you can develop pitching and most pitching you can develop the better off you are because they're starting to get stacked up here with the orioles. three pretty good pitcher in the minor leagues. when you start -- when they all

get here to the major leagues and you can't put them all in a starting role, you might be able to take a pitcher and get any position player you want if that guy can stay on the mound for 25 starts at the major league level. >> matt has struggled so far in his first week in the big leagues. but there have been a lot of other players that have gone in the big leagues. adam jones after 32 games batting .216. dustin was the mvp last year and justin moore turned out to be an excellent first baseman. none made an early impact. matt has struggled in his first big league week and wyatters obviously when you look at this you have to say to yourself what may he be doing a little wrong or are they ganging up on him? >> >> he's not doing anything wrong. everybody knows what he's done in the minor leagues so far. 32 home runs. the rbis, all that kind of stuff.

he's a full package player. if you don't think this guy's going to hit, then you know nothing about baseball. he will be a hitter and a switch hitter, he will hit for power and eventually it will all work out. the more attention you draw to him the tougher opposing teams are going to be against him. they're not going to give fastballs to hit and 2-2 counts or change ups. any time there's somebody in scoring position they'll never give him a pitch he can pull because sooner or later he'll relax. they'll let up on him a little bit, they'll throw him a fastball or cut fastball or slider in a situation where he'll hit a double and the dam will break just like it did with nick markakis and adam jones. sooner or later this kid's going to be an outstanding offensive player. i don't care what you say i'm willing to bet on it. >> do you like his defense? >> i love his defense. i wish he would set up a little better with men in scoring position and receiving the ball. he's a big man.

they always have tough times getting comfortable behind the plate. you can watch him during the course of the game. the knees moving left, moving right. he's got great hands. no doubt about that. that's what i love about him and he gets the ball out of the glove very quick. he's very unsettled behind home plate. missed the ball in the dirt. he should have blocked last night. small adjustment and very little thing to complain about because the rest of it i really love. >> when we come back we'll take a look at jason berken. rick's scouting report comes up next. your world delivered here on masn.

just a reminder meet adam jones oriole star on wednesday june 10 from noon to 1:00 at wendy's. visit masn sports.com for more information. o's extra brought to you by at&t. berken starting tonight for the orioles. enthused about berken and the

oriole's young pitching staff. >> just by looking at him and seeing what his stuff does, it's exciting for me to be able to go to them and say you can do this. you can go there with this sequence and get guys out. and it's exciting. i love young pitchers. i love guys that come up. they're so eager. i think it's a boost for the whole ball club too. i know the guys that have been here for a long time. aubrey and b rob exciting about seeing these guys coming up and attack hitters. >> pitching coach rick. time now for rick dempsey's scouting report. >> off to a good start for 2009. two starts so far. five plus innings. 12 innings so far with three earned runs and lost his first game after giving up only one earned run. that's the best so far. he's a full package player. he's got the good sinker, curve

ball, slider, change up and what i like the most he is a grinder. >> lower earned run average to .225. >> roberts and markakis hitting one and two for the shoe tonight. they're a shoe in. if these two guys will hit like they can hit, the orioles will will win this game hands down. >> you're enthused about the lineup. >> i like it. adam jones hitting in a slot where he can drive in a few more runs. i like our number four hitter tonight. luke scott. eight home runs in his last nine ball games. you have to put him in the number four slot and change things up a bit. it's a shake up because they're stale right now. stagnant. not scoring any runs or hits. maybe this will do it. >> try to break a three game losing streak. that will wrap up o's extra brought to you by at&t.

and gary thorn bringing the game. we'll be back with the post game show right after the orioles play the a's in oakland. coming up next on masn 2. - tot. jimmy, it's on. - it's on. - oh, yeah, it's on. affirmative, it's on. announcer: southwest airlines announces new service out of bwi airport, with three daily nonstop flights to new york laguardia for just 49 dollars one-way starting june 28th. grab your bag. it's on. - ( ding ) - book now at southwest.com.