- the tulips just arrived, and the groom is-- - he's getting cold feet. - i'm okay, no i'm not. - look, we gotta go now. the light's perfect. the following is a masn presentation. coming up, "o's xtra", we'll look back to a thrilling game and how they live up to a loss. >> we'll be back. we still fight. >> you just come back tomorrow and take the ball. >> orioles bernanke coach dave jauss will give his scouting report on the hot hitters. jason berken takes the found for the o's. all that and much more coming up next on "o's xtra" right here on masn. welcome to an evening of

orioles baik baseball. this "o's xtra" on masn 2 is being brought to you by at&t, your world delivered. the orioles lost last night 7-6 in 12. orioles win streak ended at five. jason berken starts with an e.r.a. just under 7.00. ricky nolasco pitches with a 3- 6 record and reark reark of 1.15. hi, everyone. we're here in our masn stood studios. last night, orioles used 20 players including three starting pitchers. rich hill pinch-hit. orioles battled back in the game to tie it in the top half of the ninth inning only to use 7-6. how difficult is it when you battle back that late in the game and wind up losing? >> it's very difficult. the orioles are working on a five-game win streak. they're looking to make it six. they come back from that kind of a deficit. there is two outs in the top of the ninth inning. nobody on base. hear it down three runs. five consecutive hits.

they did an outstanding job coming back in this game. they kept battling and battling. everybody did the right things and found the hoald holes. it's a tribute to them and what they're really starting to create because they're playing better baseball now than they've played all season long. to think that they really got direction. they could see some daylight at the end of the tunnel right there that maybe .500 isn't going to be that bad by all- star break going to be that tough. put this game behind you right now and think to yourself on a positive basis. we've won five of our last six and that i can approach into tonight's ballgame. >> mr. positive here. for more on tonight's game, let's go down to florida and visit with amber theoharis. amber? >> tom, orioles have been scrappy lately getting key pinch-hits from guys off the bench like sals oscar salazar and most importantly they're scoring a lost runs in the nine lt inning as we saw last night. over their last seven games, they've scored 13 runs in the ninth inning. last night we know that didn't translate into a wirngs but it

did knock out hard-throwing closer matt lind strom. i asked dave trembley if nights like that help keeps opposing teams honest. >> i think it sends a message we'll play all 27 outs and we'll make you work for it. guys have stepped up against the other team's closers. look what happened against the mets and then you go to the phillies and last night. the at-bats have gotten better. you know, the key thing is if you've seen the games, guys off the bench. we've had some very, very, very big at-bats with guys coming off the bench. >> so, orioles magic is arriving though it's been a little late to show up this year n2009 this year, there's only been two wins the orioles have had come back when they're trailing after six innings. remember this time last year in 2008, this was when the comeback kids were really

around. 12 wins when trailing after six innings. they would come back to win. so, orioles hoping to see more of that as they go forward here. now, in other news, we did learn today that koji uehara is experiencing a little bit of fatigue in his throwing arm. now, dave trembley told the press today that he and rick kranitz discussed what was happening with koji in the sixth inning of yesterday's game. they knew he was fatigued. they didn't want to send him back out there. now, there are no tests or mri's scheduled to check out coaj's arm -- koji's arm. they believe it is just fatigue. when asked whether or not koji would make his scheduled start on sunday, dave trembley said that's up to koji. so, problems with koji as far as the hamstring, fatigue, dehydration. you add that whether or not they're considering putting koji in the bullpen and not force him to go six or seven innings. dave trembley says as far as he discussed, he has not discussputting him in the bullpen. they're trying to get him

through the all-star break and we'll see what happens after that. tom, rick? >> thanks to amber. amber rejoins us during the game and on our post-game show. when you look back, koji pitched six innings, allowed seven base hits in one run. rick, did you think he was possibly gas add little last night. i asked you on the post-game show. you didn't feel that way. have you changed your mind? >> no, i haven't changed my mind. i didn't think koji could betired as far as throwing pitches goes. yes, maybe he had problems with his elbow which we found out later on was the case. he was still making very good pitches n a lot of cases, i've got to go back to the days when mike flanagan was on the mound and jim palmer and those guys. as the game went on's started to get a little tired, the pitches got better and the break on the ball got bert and they changed speeds on the ball better. this is when koji seemed to me like he was starting to get locked in last night late in the ballgame he made better pitches. he got that double play when he really needed it. you saw it on the replay.

he started to kind of fall into a nice pattern right there of the i would have liked to see him extended. maybe his elbow wasn't positioned where he didn't want to hurt himself so he was taken out of the ballgame. i've seen it too many times where when a guy gets a little tired, everything becomes a lot better. >> actually, this game came down to the 12th inning and rib single by jorge cantu who gave the marlins the 7-6 victory. gregg zaun revisits the play at the plate when the winning runs scored. >> he got a good hop out there and i think it's an above average throw by luke a little bit of a short hop and a tough play. it's not one i haven't made dozens of times in my career before. just took a funny little squirt to the right and i didn't catch it in the good part of the mitt. it's a play i should have made and it was a good enough throw to get him at the plate. if i catch the ball cleanly, we had all kinds of time to make the tag. it was one of those inbetweeners where i've got to make a decision where i hope i can beat the guy back to the plate if i back up and take a

hopper. do i try to pick it clean and make a my right there. you know, i tried to pick it and get a good, clean, crisp bounce and it kind of squirted on me and just boxed it. should have made the play. >> rick was a catcher for 24 years. the big league tell us what gregg zaun did right and wrong on the play at the plate. >> there's really no right or wrong about it at all. he made the right decision to try to cast short hop. the throw as you watch it just slightly right of home plate just far nt enough out of the baseline where you've got to make a real quick decision on really to come up on the ball, stay in the base pads. -- path -- base path. you cast ball. you see the throw just to the left of home plate. ronny took one swipe at the ball. he couldn't glove it. didn't hit in the pocket and had a little bit of contact right there just enough to knock the ball away, but he never had con troafl from the very beginning. nothing wrong about the play. nothing right about the play. it just didn't work for the o's. >> interesting. the orioles made a minor league

deal today with the cleveland indians acquiring michael aubrey from the tribe for a player to be named later. aubrey was hitting .292 with five home runs, 29 rbi's at triple-a columbus. he was the first pick in the 2003 draft. orioles took nick markakis over aubrey in that year. this is marks the second time the orioles have got a cleveland indians number one draft choice. the other was jeremy guthrie. we'll take a look at the florida marlins hitters. that story next when we continue. "o's xtra" here on masn in a moment. fios guy! where ya headed?

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and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities orr you're watching batting practice as the orioles get ready to face the florida marlins in game two of the three-game series. "o's xtra" here on masn being brought to you by at&t, your world delivered. time now to take a look at the orioles starting lineup. felix pie gets a start in center field. adam jones gets a rest. luke scott in left and aubrey

huff hitting .311 with two home runs and three rbi's with runners in scoring position. matt wieters is starting to hit over last 10 games hitting .351. has wieters started to feel good about himself now that he's in the majors. >> i would think so. after the start he had, it wasn't that great. as of late, he's starting to put the good part of the bat on the ball. you can see how easy it looks like he can hit the ball out of the ballpark the opposite way. he's got a nice, little swing. he stays inside the ball. you know, it just seems effortless that the ball jumps off his bat. he's got a lot of power. there's nothing he really doesn't try to experiment with at all. he has a nice, easy swing. he doesn't overswing very often. i haven't seen him do that yet. he kind of goes with the pitch. pretty much like mauer does with the minnesota twins. he's an excellent hitter that won two batting titles. i'm looking forward to seeing this guy hit over the course of the season. i think he'll put up some big numbers. >> time to look at the florida marlins starting lineup.

leadoff batter hitting .329 in june with six rbi's and six doubles. hanley ramirez one best hitters in the game batting .329ment for more on the marlins hitters, let's check in with the orioles bench coach dave jauss. want to ask you about hanley ramirez. do you believe he's one of the top 10 players in the game today? >> yes, he is. actually, i can go back a long way because i remember this young boy at -- when he was a young boy at about 18 years old in the dominican league he had big paws. he had paws like you would think a 6'4", 250-pound man would be. he's some kind of hitter. you've got to treat all great hitters in the middle of the order fairly similar. you've got to try to stay away. you've got to straint them up. i think berken's breaking ball is very important today. if he throws that good slider he's had a bunch of times, he can keep him off balance. if you can keep him the other way, it's ok because it's a lot less damage in right center field on the ground than it is up in the air to left center

field. >> dave, the second baseman for the marlins, dan uggla is somebody you've really got to watch out for. his batting average will fool you. he's not hitting much for average, but he can hit the ball out of the ballpark. second most home runs by a second baseman since 2006 in the major leagues. how are we going to pitch this guy? >> well, the other thing he brings is even though he doesn't bring a batting average, he gets his walks. he's always been that way. he's patient and he really jumpson the mistake. because of that, you've got to get ahead of him and strike one. then, you've got to go down and away with all you have. fastball, slider. if you come in at all, you come in off the plate so he can't use again that short porch in left field. make him beat us to the big part of the field. >> jorge cantu had the game- winning single last night in the win overt marlins. whatever cantu's strengths and weakness as soon as. >> he's an rbi guy. not as much power as uggla has and not quite the average

hitter as hanley. he had all the rbi's in tampa when you were watching him at orioles a few years ago. he had an off year and all of a sudden the marlins pick him up. here is the guy again very similar in how you pitch him even though he doesn't have as great a power as uggla, you've got to go away, perk -- berken's got to use his breaking ball and you have to stand him up inside so he can't dive out there and get rbi's by hookle ball or staying through it over the second baseman's head. i like berken's matchup against these three righties. >> dave, thank you for taking time for us. that's dave jauss look at tonight's hitters in the marlins game. dave trembley will be interviewed and adam jones will be a part of wired wednesday and when we return, amber theoharis catches up with the orioles pitching coach rick kranitz next on "o's xtra" here on masn. xx♪

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"o's xtra" on masn being brought to you by trane for an air conditioning dealer near you. it's hard to stop a trane. welcome back to "o's xtra" with tom davis and rick dempsey. their earned run average at 3.47 is the fourth best in the american league and opposing hitters are hitling .243 against orioles pitching which is four ts in the american league. for more on the orioles pitching, let's check in now with amber theoharis back in florida. >> rick, since june 13th, your pitching staff has the fourth best team e.r.a. in the american league. i know the start verse a lot to do with that and a lost bullpen. if you look at last night, you take away the five runs from the bullpen, it was lower than that going into last night. what do you think is allowing everybody to kind of click at the same time? >> well, you know, obviously it all starts with the starting pitcher. they dictate the game or they get going. we've been getting solid pitching from our starters. there's no question. they're getting deep into games which is allowing the relievers

not to have to work as hard as they've been worked earlier in the year. >> is that what you want to see from jason berken and what have you seen the last outing? what adjustments from his previous outings allow him to go deep into the game? >> he did a nice job of working inbetween starts on his delivery. he really needed to clean up a few things. his delivery was absolutely perfect and flawless in my opinion when he went out there because every pitch that he threw was coming out of the same arm slot, same release point and he had all four of his pitches. when you have that, you're going to have a pretty good day. >> speaking about arm slots and deliveries, i know chris ray went down to triple-a to find out how to repeat consistently. last night see him coming in the game and have abby -- an efficient outing, what are you seeing from him that's make you confident? >> he has slowed his delivery down. i mean, he was going so fast here overthrowing, trying to more than echs he was capable

of doing try -- trying to get that velocity he had a couple years ago. when he went down, i think it enabled him to relax. he came back a different guy. he looked more confident and relaxed and i think that from here on out i think we'll see a different chris ray. >> i know how important he is to the bullpen. thank you so much for being with us, rowland-smith rick. >> you're welcome. >> amber with rick kranitz, the orioles pitching coach. chris ray pitched 1 2/3 inning last night and gave up a hit, struck out one. rick, did you see an improvement from chris ray since coming back? >> i have. i've seen a lot more life on his fastball that i've seen since he had the operation. i think that was the good thing about going back down to norfolk having an opportunity to really get on track and get a few more innings pitched. he's able to relax down there and not worry about the outcome of these ballgames. you'll see now that he's starting to be able to hit thepositions that he's looking for. at least he's on the same side of the plate where the glove is. that's one problem he had early on in the season.

his location was terrible. that's something to be expected after you have an operation of that magnitude. alongside of that early in the season when it's cold and you're not that loose out there, you'll suffer a little with velocity. it started to warm up a little bit and his velocity has come back. i expect him to be one of the kind of guys that will push george sherrill for closer role again in the future. we have jim johnson out there, too. it's nice to have three guys out there who can do that same role. i think he's getting back to where he was. such a violent delivery before he had the operation. now everything seems to be smoothing out. still a little bit of that whippy action, but sometimes that can help you against right- hand hitters. >> with baez and johnson for the eighth, you don't think veal a role to get to the eighth and ninth. >> no doubt. i think dave trembley can use him any where he wants him. it's nice to have a guy can quality pitches that could be the closer. jim johnson, look what it does for his ballgame.

he's virtually unhittable. you can tell hitters that the sinker is coming, they still can't think when they have that much movement. just a matter of chris ray getting a little bit more on top and driving the ball down in the strike zone, and i think he'll be back to where he was before he ever got hurt. >> interesting. interesting to say the least. the orioles number one draft choice from this past draft the couple of weeks was named the player of the year by "usa today". drafted by the orioles as pitcher 11-1 with a 0.92. hobgood as a hitter hit .475 with 21 home runs the most by any high school player in the country and drove in 55 runs. hobgood's fastball has been clocked at 95. orioles should be announcing hobgood's signing in a couple of days. when we come back, we'll have rick dempsey's scouting report jason berken and ricky nolasco. that story coming up on "o's xtra" brought to you by at&t, your world delivered on masn.

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the battle of the beltways resume friday evening here in baltimore as nationals come to town for three games. after the game friday night, it will be fireworks after saturday night's game, you can see the "field of dreams" on the big screen courtesy of the maryland lottery. here is a look at the upcoming games through next monday on masn. orioles conclude the series tomorrow night against the florida marlins. friday, they open up a series against the nationals friday through sunday and then the red sox come to baltimore. just a reminder when you're not able to watch masn, complete radio coverage on 105.7 the fan and join fred man from a. time for rick dempsey's scouting report on tonight's starters. we'll begin with jason berken. >> well, jason berken was having a june swoon. after a pretty good start in his major league debut and his second ballgame, he had gone into a funk in june. 17 earned runs in 14 innings. he's 0-2 in june so far with a

10.60 e.r.a. that's not like him at all. one thing i've noticed is that sinker was much better in his last game against the new york mets. 6 2/3 innings, he strowktd struck out eight batters. you heard him talk to rick kranitz about how he felt like his windup was just starting to fall into place and he delivered every pitch with the same delivery. i agree with him totally because he had some great sink on that fastball. that's what i'd love to see. >> how about the start of ricky nolasco for the florida marlins? >> well, nolasco is a little bit different. he was getting hard and has been getting hitting hard all season long. 82 hits in 61 2/3 innings. that is a lot of getting banged around a little bit. he was shaking early in april, may. he had a 2-5 record, 6.09 e.r.a. in april, 12.02 in may. in june, he's been a different pitcher now. he's backing a little now n three starts so far in june, he had a 2.50 e.r.a. and seems to be get back on track where he was last year

when he was 15-8. this guy can pitch. he's just been off to a very tough start. >> show would not be complete without rick dempsey's key to the game. >> very simple key to the game, tom. get some runners on second base because the orioles still lead all of major league baseball with a .285 batting average with runners in scoring position. so, it adds up to me. get them to second base, knock him in. pretty simple. >> troy would say it's a very simple game. i want to ask you about ricky nolasco when you see the 7.15 e.r.a. on the stat sheet when you're player coming to the ballpark, you can't wait to get out to the flight hit the guy maybe. >> you know he's going to make some mistakes and he's going to give you a good fastball to hit. if he gets behind in the count, which most people who give up a lot of hits dorks they get behind in the count, you can sit on certain pitches. he seems like he's going to be a nice guy to myth hit. let's hope the orioles are ready for that. >> one thing, rick dempsey spends kauai it et time before he comes into our masn studios.

i wanted to ask you what you've been work on lately in the way of music? >> i've been doing a lost crazy things off the field work deanna bogart on doing records and things. something special for the orioles for christmastime. we'll see later on down the road what it is. i don't want to divulge -- >> you're going to put out a christmas album? >> i don't know. we'll see. >> when you look at it, he's mr. entertainment. he loves to put together music and we'll talk more about that maybe on a separate show. that will wrap up "o's xtra" brought to you by at&t, your world delivered. orioles-marlins game two of a three-game series. jason berken pitches for the orioles. noofls nolasco goes for the -- ricky nolasco goes for the florida marlins. your orioles wind up losing last night 7-6 in 1. they'll try to right themselves tonight and start another win streak. stay tuned. orioles baseball coming up next as we continue our coverage of the orioles right here on masn 2. fios guy! where ya headed?

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