the foltion following i masn presentation! >> jim: it's the final season of baseball at the metrodome metrodome in minneapolis. game two of the three-games series -- three-game series. >> jim: on a beautiful tuesday night in plin police, it's orioles baseball on masn in the

metrodome. mid of of the three-game series as the orioles take on the minnesota twins. hi, everyone. i'm jim hunter. last night it was a good, old- fashioned baseball game. twins held on to beat orioles. orioles are becoming more and more competitive in the close games all because of the experience being gaint gained by the young, starting pitchers. last time through the rotation, the orioles have been as good as any group in baseball 3-2 overall. there are the numbers last time through. chris tillman last night a hard- luck loser just two runs in 5 1/3 and minnesota won by a final of 2-1. buck martinez, when you look at how the young pitchers are coming along, it gives you an idea they're going and it might not be too far down the road. >> buck: i think you're right. tonight's starter brian matusz has made dramatic strides. matusz is beginning to understand the value of his fastball. last time out against tampa bay, he was very good. 14 strikeouts just three walks

necessary last two starts. brian matusz is really starting to get it. you can see what he's done in his first four starts compared to other oriole rookies with the strikeouts. mike mussina leads the way. he and jimmy haynes had 22 strikeouts. there's brian matusz. 20 strikeouts in his first four games and he's cut down the walks sw. he's starting to look comfortable. >> jim: it's interesting tonight. tonight he'll be on the mound and the more experience the pitcher in the game. when we come back, buck will chat with andy macphail. it's the o's-twins on masn. @x

 >> jim: orioles baseball on masn is brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by corona and corona light, official sponsors of the time- out. relax responsibly. >> buck: chris tillman was a tough luck loser last night losing 2-1. andy macphail president of baseball operations was here in the

ballpark. i asked andy to give me his impressions about what the big left-hander did last night. >> i thought he did fine last night. i thought he was interested in his comments after the game when he got in trouble in the sixth, things moved a little faster for him there which i don't think is uncommon. i was very pleased. i think there have been some times he's gone out there without his best weapons. he's been able to make the adjustments he's had to keep himself in the game. we all look at things from our own self-interest. i think if he had gotten a call or two in the critical inning particularly against cabrera, that whole inning might have evolved a little differently than it did. it is what it is. i thought he handled himself well. for a 21-year-old kid, i think we should be delighted with the progress he's made at this point. >> buck: we had a great opportunity last night to compare joe mauer, the all- star, to your up and coming catcher matt wieters both about the same physically. talk about the comparison of what you saw early in joe mauer

and what you've seen this year in matt wieters. >> i haven't seen that much of mauer early because when i was in a different league at that time. i just know him by reputation. i know that he clearly was a top one, two or three pick. the twins, i think, did a smart thing. that was a good year to be drafted high because you had prior, mauer, mark teixeira. you had a lot of good, young talent. if you were picking high, it was hard to do badly. it seemed to me he was a natural pick for minnesota. this is where he was from. their kind of player. he's done a marv plus job for them offensively and defensively. there really aren't many like him in the game. i don't think we require matt to be everything that mauer has become here to be a very productive and contributing member of our team, but that's a pretty good blue print to follow right there. >> buck: with matt wieters now doing the majority of the catching and dweght an opportunity to really work with

all the pitchers, what do you look for from him behind the plate as you kind of evaluate his first year here in the big leagues? >> i think he's had the benefit of being with these kids most of them as they have progressed through the system. he has some familiarity. they're learning together. they have to rely on the scouting reports to a large degree because they don't have that experience themselves yet. they've got to go through it. i think by and large he's been a pretty calming influence. i think they're comfortable with him. he's going to have to grow just like the pitchers are going to have to grow and he's going to have his ups and downs. the thing that's impressed me about matt and our pitching staff is that their demeanor, their aggressiveness, their competitiveness. it's what you want to see at this stage of the game. >> buck: another guy that's been a very pleasant surprise has been your left-hander nolan reimold. i know there's some concern about a nagging injury kind of a chronic achilles problem. how is that and how might that be addressed as you get into

the postseason? >> well, it's something that's required treatment for most of the time since we've had him. he plays through it without any ill effects. he's look as are we to see if we can do something in the offseason that's going to reduce the requirement for him to get it treated on an every day basis that he's had now. i know that dave is going to be careful with him. dh him periodically when he can. we have wey got a little issue now with adam, so we're running out of outfielders which we can address september 1. it's a good thing we have felix here to play center or left when we think we've got to get one of the other guys off their feet. >> buck: this time of the year has always been a challenge for this franchise recently. the last couple of weeks of august into september. how do you evaluate the play now? wins are going to be tough to come by given all the contending ball plubs clubs you'll be playing. how do you evaluate this ball club from this point to the end of the season? >> well, i think back -- think back a year ago when we went to

tampa the last couple of times. we played six games there, and i don't think we were remotely close to winning one of them. i think we were totally overmatched and outclassed in 2008 going into tampa. we played the last seven games, we're 3-4. i don't know that we've been out of any of those games really. i think the players are playing with the proper amount of intensity. it's not -- we do have a tough schedule. we're going to do the new york and boston thing 11 or 12 more times. the other teams we play are texas and tampa that are in it as well. you know, we've had the angels at home recently. we got the twins here and the white sox. it's not easy. it's not supposed to be easy. think think you're looking for people that continue to compete independent of where you might be in the standings and have a lot of pride in their performance and they want to do well. >> jim: interesting thoughts from andy macphail here with the orioles in minneapolis. southwest airlines starting lineups for the birds.

brian roberts in the leadoff spot. pie, reimold, markakis with scott in left field. matt wieters will catch. melvin mora, michael aubrey, four-game hitting streak he's hit in each of the at-bat and cesar izturis shortstop. armando gabino, fastball, slider, changeup. he has made the transition this year from a reliever to a start. you can see he's work out of the stretch. that reflects his bullpenbackand he's the 14th triple-a player from the rochester red wings to play for the twins this year. >> jim: 25-year-old out of the dominican republic and roberts takes down and in, 1-0. brian brings a two-game hitting streak into tonight's game. batting average overall now at .294. he drove in the orioles only run last night with yet another double and he takes high, ball two. >> buck: armando gabino's record from triple-a. last two starts 2,-0 with an e.r.a.

under 2.00. he happened to be the hottest pitcher down there so he gets the spot. they've taken a beating in their starting rotation with injuries. >> jim: there's a strike taken by roberts, 2-1. brian has four hits in his two-game hitting streak. 4-8. he said some kind of a road trip ahead of gabino, 2-1. hard-hit ball right to the shortstop. orlando cabrera plays the top and gets it to first. one away as roberts is retired and welcome to the big leagues, armando gabino. he's now recorded an out. he's now in the baseball encyclopedia. cabrera gets it to first. one down. he was originally signed by the indians and minnesota, buck was talking last night as felix pie comes up, buck was talking last night about how minnesotacontinues to develop players and the twins got him in the minor league portion of

the rule five draft. their scouts saw them in the lowindians minors and they liked him. he has it for an out and two down in the first inning. >> buck: well, i like his pitch efficiency. behind gabino, he'll see speedy outfielders. just scachg catch down in left- field line last night. harris, cabrera, casilla and morneau and joe mauer pretty major league target for a starter to play in his first major league game. >> jim: theep they've had a lost stability here. tom kelly was here for a long time. he retired and went into scouting for minnesota. gardenhire, who was a coach on his staff, took over. reimold dhing tonight. nolan had his 10-game hitting streak haflted last night batting in the number three spot with adam jones out again.

down and away. 1-1 the count. i briefly saw adam before the game and i said how are you doing? how is the back? he kind of grunted at me. i took that to mean he's still not feeling as well as needs to be to get back in there. you mentioned something -- here is the 1-1. a good movement on that pitch. reimold can't reach it. 1-2. >> buck: that's the good slider as it's got tight spin on t when it's got tight spine, you -- spin, you don't see any seams. you think it's a fastball and it's out of the strike zone. it started out on the outer half and got reimold to chase. >> jim: ball and two strikes on reimold. takes low. ball two. >> buck: it's interesting, challenging assignment for joe mauer. gabino was with the twins in spring training. didn't pitch very much. he was kind of a guy just

around to get his feet on the ground first spring training camp. >> jim: 2-2, taken down and in. reimold over the past 11 games has 12 base hits and he has three home runs and 15 rbi's since the all-star break. there are the numbers including his 0-for last night and 0-3 that snapped the hitting streak. full cowfnt with two down. bases empty. a tie ball four. there's a two-out walk. got ahead of him 1-2 and got reimold back in the at-bat. >> buck: a little spriegz with the call a3-2 cut fastball. kind of overpowered it and throw well out of the strike zone. >> jim: the orioles cleanup hitter with a man on and two down. .307, 85 rbi's sixth best in the leagues and sixth in best

hits now. he has 155 hits on the year. first time in the stretch. outer part of the plate. >> buck: we talk about the goal to hit .300. if you get 30 hits a month, you close in on 200 for the season. you can see the only one he missed out on was may. every other month up over that 30-hit plateau. >> jim: 0-1. span has a play. moves towards the line. a two-out walk and a man left. we'll head to the bottom of the first. minnesota is coming to bat. it's... no, not yet. it back that way. it's on.

( ding ) book now at southwest.com.

 jitd. >> jim: here comes machine  bottom of the first. southwest airlines starting lineups for ron gardenhire's club. denard span off spot, six rbi's a-couple of triples over the past six games. cabrera, mauer and morneau with cuddyer in right field. harris, young, gomez and alexi casilla at second base. >> buck: tnt scouting report, -- pnc bank scouting report. he was so conscience of how good his breaking ball and curve ball were he used them

too much. there have only been three left- handers play against him in the four games. bobby abreu, carl crawford and adam lind of the blue jays and he's handled them with ease. >> jim: 0-8 with a walk and he'll face three left-handers in the lineup tonight because ron gardenhire has three every day players who bat left-hand. here is the first, denard span so, three -- total in his first four starts and he gets three tonight. ahead of denard span, 0-1. >> buck: span was destined to be the center fielder after torii hunter was dealt away and allowed to go to free agency. then they made the santana deal and ended up with carlos gomez. >> jim: popped up foul, wide of third. morneau over hoping for a play and he -- mora over hoping for a play and runs out of room. ran into the camera as well. >> buck: it's an unusual

ballpark in that the fans are about 12 feet above the playing surface right around the infield. melvin got over to the wall, but obviously the ball was well beyond his reach. you see how high above the playing surface the fans are in that first row. >> jim: 0-2 on denard span leading off in the minnesota first. chase down in the dirt. 1-2. one thing brian matusz has carried over from his minor league career, and i say that loosely because it was 19 games, but he averaged 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings in the minor leagues. he's averaging exactly the same number 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings in the major leagues. here is the 1-2. swung on and foul tipped held by wieters. there's the strikeout. matusz gets his first. one away. >> buck: you always look for newwrinkles from young pitchers. this is a pitch we have not seeb from -- seen from matusz down and in with the fastball.

look at wieters. he overpowers a good, left- handed hitter with a fastball. down and in and it had good, late movement on t that's just a terrific pitch after he had throw breaking balls -- thrownbreaking balls and fastballs away. see how the strikeout numbers are beginning to climb. >> jim: orlando cabrera now takes ball one. cabrera picked newspaper a trade with minnesota. twins wanted to solidify the shortstop position. so, they gave up a minor league player for cabrera. he's in his 23rd game now with minnesota and takes outside, ball two. brian matusz won his big league debut. then he lost his next two starts. he won in his last outing in tampa. falls behind orlando cabrera 3- 0. minnesota trying to stay in the race in the central. they have won four straight games, moved back within a game

of .500. cabrera taking all the way. there's strike one. orioles saw cabrera earlier this year when he was with oakland. there's a strike. >> buck: the one thing you'd like to see with pitchers is their delivery is repeatable. that certainly is the case with brian matusz which means he can get back into the strike zone because it's very solid. >> jim: there's a line drive into left field with a base hit. cabrera now has an eight-game hitting streak. let's head downstairs. for the first time tonight, let's welcome in wjz mark viviano. >> when you talk about building a competitive field about a team, that's a good thing. foremost among the surly was last night starting pitcher chris tillman who was advisely upset after falling short in the loss to the twins.

caught up with tillman today. he cooled off a little bit but admitted he's a sore loser. manager dave trembley said that's a good thing. they're not in the big leagues just to learn how to play. they're here to win. >> jim: that's a very good point because the sooner they get that mindset, sooner they'll turn it around and get more and more consistent. they certainly are, buck, going through the learning process. it's learning how to succeed and not just be satisfied you're in the big league. >> buck: the difference with this corps is they have won in the minors. they know what it is to taste victory and play in the postseason. so, they don't like the fact that they haven't had too many wins since they've joined this ball club. >> jim: brian matusz, 11-2 in the minor leagues this year. this is his first professional season. first-round pick last year. signed late so he didn't pitch until the arizona fall league and now in the big leagues facing joe mauer.

mauer, the league's leading hitter. .374 average and he has the best batting average in his own ballpark in the league at .293 -- .392. cabrera still can steal a base. he has 12 on the year. matusz falls behind mauer, 3-1. >> buck: he's not gotten in a rhythm. you see how herky jerky he was in that delivery. that pulled him out of the strike zone. needs to be smoother to be most effective. >> jim: cabrera extends his lead. he has one foot on the carpet. hard-hit ball, base hit right field. so, mauer is on. back-to-back singles. mauer was 0-4 last night and he's coming right back with a base hit in his first at-bat. >> buck: a little different in look in the outfield with scott

in left field. pie, replaces adam jones in center. mora and izturis had a terrific defense last night as did brian roberts. michael aubrey making his second consecutive start at first base. matt wieters behind the plate. >> jim: dave trembley of the birds. orioles as andy macphail mentioned to buck, 3-4 on this trip. here is morneau. he takes ball one. matt is falling behind -- matusz is falling behind. >> buck: don't be mistaken. these are good hitters. they'll make you throw strikes. they have not seen matusz before obviously, so they want a good look at him and see with a he's featuring. >> jim: cabrera and mauer on. orioles have the infield at double play depth. there's a strike at the knees. 1-1 on morneau. matusz in his four starts has allowed four home runs. the one number he'd like to

bring down, but it's already been contributed to here is the base hits allowed. he's allowed two hits here and now 33 base hits against him since joining the orioles. fouled back the other way 1-2. that works out to an average, buck, of 15 hits per nine innings which is well above what he's accustomed to. >> buck: yeah, he's faced the best hitters he's ever seen. they make adjustments quickly. it doesn't take long for them to get some information. first, look at the video of his previous four starts. then, they'll go up and look for firsthand knowledge when they face him for the first time. >> jim: here is the 1-2 to morneau. called strike three! wow, he froze him at the plate. gets a big first out. >> buck: take a look at first and second and one outment he misses with a fastball away. comes back and catches outside corner 94. slider, swing and fouled off. then, fastball right down the

middle. morneau just didn't pull the trigger. good sequence of pitches in a tough spot. >> jim: two outs each by strikeout. that brings up michael cuddyer who has been a hot hitter. cabrera takes off. pitch is taken and he'll steal third base. mora didn't even break to third as cabrera had a big jump. >> buck: with two outs and a right-handed batter, you don't want to give up your defensive position early in a ballgame. you see mora held his ground should cuddyer put the ball in play. >> jim: so, runners on the corners with two down. that one well off the plate. ball two. >> buck: if matusz can get through this inning before he really gets into a groove with his delivery. he is fighting his delivery a little bit here in the first inning. >> jim: it's his fifth start into the major leagues and fourth start on the road. that's just a quirk of the

schedule when his turn comes up four times it's been in road starts. >> buck: this is first time he's gone against a pitcher that has less experience than he does. >> jim: the other guy soarld, but matusz has more big league time. there's a four-pitch walk to load the bases. >> buck: again, a veteran lineup the minnesota twins making matusz work. >> jim: that brings up brendan harris minnesota third baseman. wieters out to talk to matusz. >> buck: matt wieters has really come -- is really coming along as a leader behind the plate. much more comfortable with the pitchers he's caught in the minor leagues, but at the same time an interesting conversation with him about how he has taken a step further away from the scouting report. when he first got here, he was so conscious of going letter by letter by letter of the scouting report, you can't do

that. that's just going to create too many problems trying to pitch to weaknesses every single pitch you call. he's been much more free thinking and much better because of it. >> jim: bases loaded, two down. there's a strike to brendan harris who has got a three-game hitting streak going. cabrera at third, mauer at second, cuddyer at first with two down. brendan harris will turn 29 tomorrow. he's been well traveled. he has been in the cubs organization, montreal then went with montreal to washington, cincinnati, tampa bay and now minnesota. there's a strike. 0-2. he was part of the trade with tampa bay prior to last season that got him here with delmon

young. two key players going the other direction. 0-2 on harris as matusz tries to work out of this first inning jam. off the plate. he doesn't chase. 1-2. dave trembley looking on. so, one trend has ended here for matusz as the mauer base hit, the first base hit picked up by a lefty. now he's trying to keep minnesota off the -- off the board. the 1-2 bounced towards third. melvin mora will fire to first in time to get hustling harris and inning ends with two hits a- walk, three men left. we'll head to the second. no score. hey i'm worried about mrs. lowenberg next door.

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call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v  >> jim: tonight's contestan stormy miller of clear spring, maryland. stormy mass a chance to win $99 in scratchoff tickets from the maryland lottery for every home run hit in the game tonight. you can have a chance to win tonight. enter by logging on to masnsports.com. no score as we go to the second. orioles had a two-out walk of reimold. he was left stranded. minnesota missed a big chance loald loading the bases with two on, one out and bases loaded with two down, but matusz got out of t here is luke scott playing in left field tonight. wieters and mora will follow.

luke in the five spot facing armando gabino luke scott fouls it back, 0-1. you can see gabino is more comfortable pitching from the stretch because in the minor leagues this year in triple-a n-36 games, he came out of the bullpen 31 times. so, when you're accustomed to coming into an inning or a game with men on base, you get comfortable pitching from the stretch. even with no one on base, he's going that way. 0-2 on luke scott. luke is just 4-22 on the road trip. that batting average .182 on the trip. gabino, 6-3 goes .210.

he's ahead of scott 0-2. luke skies it to left. another play for denard span. third fly ball already for the left fielder. he has it for the out. one down. the yankees make their final trip of 2009 to oriole park next week. it's a three-game series against the birds all begins on monday. great seats are still available for each game, but they're going fast. on tuesday, don't miss ollie's bargain night presented by ollie's outlet and all upper reserved seats are just $8. 888-848-bird or go on-line at orioles.com. so, three fly balls to left field and a ground out. here is matt wieters. takes ball one inside. wieters has hit in three straight games. he's 2-8 in the modest streak.

we are seeing some of the signs of the bat speed and how hard this young man can hit a baseball with the balls he's hitting off the walls that have gone for singles. he's hit it so hard he didn't have a chance to get to second base. he hit one of those last night. >> rob: he's a big guy that hits the ball on the line more often than not. we're going to see him develop. it was interesting in his pregame interview he suggested that matt wieters didn't have to match joe mauer to be important and valuable assets. i thought that was pretty good. everybody has been talk about the comparison. said, you know what? joe mauer might be one of a kind. >> jim: 2-1 pitch ripped into right field. there's a one-out single for matt wieters. so, orioles have their second base runner of the night. melvin mora will come to bat.

now, melvin mora is a student of the game and before the game during batting practice when the twins were batting, the legend tony owe leiva is is by the batting cage. he saw melvin mora stretching and took off his hat and extended to melvin as sign of respect. melvin said, wait a minute. i need to show you the respect, so melvin took his hat off and tipped it and then went over and shook his hands and had a conversation with him. tony owe leaveo told mep melvin he likes the way he plays the game especially on defense. he said if i was making a team, i'd want more guys like you. melvin said it was really interesting because he certainly knows what have tony owe leaveo did as player. he certainly had almost 2,000 hits and if not for bad knees, he probably would have played more and gotten more hits. melvin mixing it up with tony

olivo understanding his importance of the game. i was told downstairs if there's a cuban on the team, he goes to the clubhouse to meet the cuban because olivo grew up in cuba. tony told me his family and the olivo family were very close. in fact, tony olivo's brother was danny's first pitching coach and tony olivo knows danny's dad and grandfather. he said in ciewn cuba where he's from, leon was preaty good player, but olivo is a legend. they used to hang out all the time and he has fond memories when he was 5 years old hearing about the legend of tony olivo. it's nice that he cans goes out of his way when teams come to minnesota to meet with them and greet with them and show respect to his former players. i think it's great. >> buck: he's a special man.

certainly enjoyed loot of success in his playing days continues to be part this have twins organization. >> jim: he is third all-time on the machine minnesota hit list. 1-2 on mora. he'll loop it into center field. the orioles have something going now. two on and one down. kerby pocket, 2,304, then pocket and then olivo as a twin. it's also nice to see the younger players, certainly younger than tony olivo respect what he's meant to the game. i like that. think some of the younger guys don't understand fully what the guys before them did. >> buck: yeah, tony oliv. so pretty special and certainly an important part of the wing tradition here in machine mann going back to the '65 world series. >> jim: michael aubrey takes

ball one. michael getting another start at first base tonight. he's swung the bat very well speaking of hits. 4-9 as an oriole. he's been in five games. one of those was a defensive replacement. he did get an at-bat. anticipates four-game hitting streak working. chance to give the orioles the lead. lined towards the gap in right center field. on the run is cuddyer and he reaches up and can't get it! melvin mora head to go third. he's being sent. here is the throw to the plate and the slide. he is safe! safe at third base! orioles have a 2-0 lead as michael aubrey drives in two. >> buck: his first two rbi's as a member of the orioles. he's been swing the bat very well. what a big hit right there in that situation with one out, two aboard. that inside fastball. he's a line drive hitter. he lines it overt head of michael cuddyer. melvin mora with the sliding

tomb be across home plate to score the second run and the orioles are out on top early. michael aubrey just picked up from the indians and this is his family. matlin, his two daughters, matlin and abery and his wife, christy, just flew into minneapolis to visit dad. they haven't seen him for quite a while. >> jim: here is cesar izturis. >> yeah, michael aubrey wasn't supposed to be in the lineup. luke scott was to be at first base, but decided he wanted nolan reimold to stay in the lineup but he would have to dh so they moved luke to left and aubrey making the most of it just his second consecutive start for the first time. told me i'm in the big leagues. i'll do whatever they want and he came through here. back to you. >> jim: 1-0 pitch. base hit to right field for cesar izturis! here is aubrey to score and the orioles have put three on the board against gabino in the second inning. four con ses secretaryive hits getting three runs in. >> buck: -- consecutive hits

getting three runs in. >> buck: well, izturis in the ninth spot adding to the two- run double. he gets a breaking ball over the plate and pulls it pass the drawn in infield. bottom part of this order doing a number on armando gabino. his first major league start and he's been roughed up here in the second. >> jim: so, rick peterson -- rick anderson the pitching coach out for a chat. >> buck: he's had doubles, hit home runs, on fire every aspect of the game. he drove in only run of the game last night. been stealing bases very effectively and played very gooddefense at second base. got involved in a double play here last night in the second inning. longest active streak reaching base. 26 straight games for the orioles second baseman. he's hit . 3-9d 0 over his last 13 games and he's three shy of his franchise record in doubles

with 48. >> jim: continues to lead the american league in doubles. he has 63 extra-base hits out of that leadoff spot. takes low, ball one. brian ground out sharply to shortstop his first at-bat. there's the 1-0 well off the plate. 63 base hits, that's tied for second most in the league. here are the leadoff hitters in the american league. he is a big advantage in extra- base hits from the leadoff hitters. >> buck: yeah, you look around baseball. brian roberts doing a good job of getting those extra-base hits. he and atkins letter of texas, jimmy rollins of the phillies, scutaro and granderson among the leadoff hitters with extra

bases. brian has a comfortable lead over them. >> jim: he is the only leadoff hitter in the top 10 in extra- base hits in the league. he's tied for second. fouls it back the other way. 2-1 the count on roberts. >> buck: big numbers on the road including four home runs and nine rbi's. within more game after this to complete the road trip. if we can win these last two games in minnesota, it would be a pretty nice trip through tampa bay, chicago and minneapolis. >> jim: izturis at first drove in a run. orioles have a 3-0 lead. pitch to roberts fouled back the other way. we talked about the orioles starters in our game open how well they pitched the last time through the rotation. minnesota won four in a row and in large part because of their starters. they have three of the wins and

a combined e.r.a. four-game winning streak for their starters 2.77. you have a rookie tonight making his big league debut and suddenly finds himself behind 3- 0. 2-2 on roberts with izturis at first. he has a throw pass morneau. izturis thinking about going to third. he's going to try. throw across from casilla is cut off by morneau. that will be a two-base throwing error on the pitcher. >> buck: we're seeing a great example of the young pitcher having the games unraffle in a hurry here in the second inning. izturis didn't look like he was thinking about running and now joe mauer out to calm him down a little bit. you can bet his heart is racing here trying to pickoff izturis. it's not a big lead. actually looked like morneau had a chance to catch it just got underneath his glove. izturis alertly moves all the way over to third base.

>> jim: now the orioles with a run. izturis got to third. ron gardenhire is going to move the infield in. will get up in the minnesota bullpen in the second inning. 2-2 is high. ball three. >> buck: the last thing the twins wanted to see is having to get their bullpen going early in a ballgame. they weren't sure what they were going to do in this spot. ron gardenhire knew he needed a starter. there was a chance it could have been r.a. dickey the knuckle baller just dispatched to triple-a to stretch out to get into a starting mode. >> jim: the 3-2 bounced to the strorp. -- shortstop. gets roberts at first for the second out. good comeback there by gabino to get brian roberts. >> buck: that doesn't hurt. cabrera comes in trying to encourage the young pitcher.

let's g let's get the last out and get the lead runner out there. three looks a lot better than four in one inning and they have plenty of at-bats left. >> jim: there's felix pie with the runner at third and two down. he pops it up. second time he swung at the first pitch. denard span in left field towards the line has it for the out and the inning is over. productive inning for theorioles. michael aubrey with a double to the gap drives in two. melvin mora sliding in and the orioles grab a 3-0 lead.

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pnc. leading the way.  >> jim: orioles baseball on masn brought to you by southwest airlines. book your next trip at southwest.com. and by pnc, pnc leading the way. downtown minneapolis as you look over the metrodome. on this tuesday night. there's brian matusz who has a 3-0 lead after scuffling in the first inning but getting out of a ja. gets ahead of delmon young 0-1. delmon young, eight home runs on the year as you'll see as he's hit five in the last 12 games. pulled foul, but if you're minnesota, you have to be disappoint in the production of delmon young in particular what you know you gave up for him. >> buck: yeah, they were expecting delmon young to come over and contribute 100 rbi

season. he's yet to contribute 9 3. just 69 last year. he's always been a guy that's been able to hit for a high average but we've en never seen home runs outside of his first two years in the minor leagues. he's a big guy. anticipates powerful swing. as jim mentioned, he's been hitting the long ball lately. that's what they hope to see a little more free qebt consequently from him. >> jim: he's still only 23 because he came up so young with tampa bay. there's a base hit into left field. that one looked like this hung and delmon young was able to slow down the swing and then made good -- make good contact. >> buck: stays on it with a two- strike approach after battling off a fastball. look at the location of this 0- 2 pitch. that thing is down around his ankles. he rips it pass melvin mora into left field. good two-strike approach. >> jim: matusz allows his third hit and fourth base runner.

that brings up carlos gomez hitting at .242. high fastball. 1-0. gomez was one of the players that came back from the mets when the mets traded johan santana. he is everything as advertised defensively. that's near the bottom of the twins lineup. that ball hit to center field slicing away from pie and he makes the catch! felix pie takes a base hit away from gomez! that ball kept slicing away from him. somehow he was able to get his glove on the ball and take an extra-base hit away from gomez. >> buck: what a terrific play by felix pie because off the right-hander's bat, this ball is slicing away from him. great concentration. watch how the ball slices away from pie, but he has enoughspeed to run it down and make the catch slide to go a

stop. there's delmon young. he then sees that the ball was in the glove. he has to hustle back to first base as pie got up and made a strong throw. what a play. that saved a run. >> jim: oh, absolutely. delmon young was already up pass second base and he had to retreat as casilla fouls it back. felix pie playing again in center field with adam jones out with back issues. that's where the good speed comes in and pie certainly has it. outside. >> buck: i've got to tell you i see a different felix pie the last month of the season than i saw earlier. a little better focus, better routs to the -- routes to the outfield a little more concentration. bat is coming around. he looks like he might be a very good extra outfielder.

>> jim: over below to casilla. >> buck: he told us yesterday he's going down for winter ball and will play every day for hishometown team in the dominican -- dominican republic looking forward to it. a chance to use his new swing every day. >> jim: check swing appeal to first. did he not go said todd tichenor. >> buck: pie had a couple of hits in last night's game including a leadoff triple that came around to score. that's a tough one to call ball, no swing. pretty far out in front of there. he had a leadoff triple in the sixth and came around to score the first of two runs. >> jim: 3-1 blooped towards right field. that will fall for a base hit. markakis charging in, but can't get there in time. young to second. casilla to first. two on with one down. on sunday, don't miss american classics days at the -- day at the ballpark presented by the maryland lottery. all fans at the game 1:35against cleveland can enjoy

$1 hot dogs and $1 sodas. gather your family and friends for a more affordable day for baseball. 888-848-bird or on-line at orioles.com. four hits already allowed by matusz. that turns the lineup over. here is denard span. there's another base hit. that one into the gap in right center field. that will go all the way to the wall. two runs are going to score. span is head to go third. so, matusz gives up three hits in the inning and minnesota is right back in it. >> buck: span has been impressive in this series. no stride whatsoever. he just used his -- uses his hands and drives it up the power alley in right center. all the way to the wall. great speed on the bases. casilla running from --

castillo running from first base. look at his size. he knows he has a triple and coasts into third. >> jim: , so a two-run triple and he's the tying run at third with one down. matusz has now allowed five hits and six base runners in 1 1/3 inning. >> buck: he's fortunate that felix pie made an outstanding catch on a line drive off the bat of carlos gomez. >> gary: there's -- >> jim: there's orlando cabrera who has a hit. >> buck: one thing wieters is trying to do consciously as you look at the infield, trying to really emphasize a lower target. he and chad moeller identified the glove would creep up at pitch was being delivered.

>> jim: 0-1 pitch outside. 1-1. >> buck: he's really trying to emphasize and make the target really stand out for the pitcher. >> jim: ball and a strike on cabrera with span at third. outside, ball two. >> buck: well, chad moeller has done a nice job visiting with wieters all the time coming back talking pitch selection, sequences, talking to the pitchers. >> jim: there's another towards second base. roberts will freeze span and get it to the first to get the second out. span could not get to the plate on that one with the infield drawn in. big out for matusz as roberts gets his man. two men down. >> buck: yeah, you don't gamble with the drawn in infield when you have joe mauer coming to the plate. you make sure it comes through when you commit toward home.

mauer gets a chance to hit here with two outs and a man at third. >> jim: mauer singled sharply to right field in his first at- bat. he not only leads the league in batting. he's leading the league in on- base percentage. there's a strike on the outside corner. perfect pitch. >> buck: i always thought that was interesting how the statistician around baseball you've got to improve your on- base percentage to be better. well, you know what? good hitters have good on-base percentage. you hit first and the on-base percentage comes with it. >> jim: the thing about him is he has tremendous bat control and he's a good batting eye and he's patient. he'll not be a 100 walk guy like a jim thome is, but he still makes you come to him.

span leads from third with two down. that one is high. he lays off. >> buck: the on-base percentage as joe mauer top of the heat. kevin youkilis a great hitter. same with miguel cabrera. ben zobrist having a breakout season. bobby abreu always over .400. first thing you think about this list, they can all hit. >> jim: now the count is in mauer's favor, 2-1. outside, ball three. matusz is getting an education in how patient big league hitters are. he has walked one tonight. and he's allowed five base hits in two runs trying to hold this lead. 3-1 to mauer lined right to melvin mora at third and ends the inning. the defense helping out brian matusz. twins get back in it. we'll head to the third, 3-2

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condolences to the angelos and kosares family on the passing of alicia kosares. nolan reimold leads off for the birds as we go to the third inning. so, gabino got out of a jam and his team got him back in the game. reimold takes strike one. buck mentioned how important that runner at third cesar izturis was because four looks better than three. it's even bigger now. got to pad that lead. it's foul down the line. >> buck: yeah, the minnesota twins have enough offense where they're going to score runs. very difficult to shut them out especially in in ballpark. anytime you get a chance to add on, you better take advantage of it. >> jim: reimold in the three

spot tonight. it's the 0-2. he got him. good pitch down and way from the swing and one away in the third inning on the first strikeout in the big leagues for gabino. the birds are back in town on thursday. it begins a 10-game home stand. on thursday, don't miss kids' night. all kids 10 and under can receive a free, upper reserve seat when accompanied by a paying adult up to free kids tickets big 3weu a paying adult. 888-848-bird or orioles.com. that's a dea hereckarkakis.strike at the kn  hits in 20-23 games in august. he was held hitless last night. there's poiain his walk d . eyh

pitches. decent movement on the slider. that's a pitch he struck out >> jim: 1-1 to markakis. swung one mi me two. so, almostthree strikeout to one walk ratio. 25 years old cing markakis. a ball antwstrikes with none on markakis pulls towards corner. that's in trouble. it's off the baggy fr a base hit and markakis flying to second base with a one-out

double. on a 1-2 pitch, he came inside and markakis turned on it and he's in scoring position with e this is going to be tight. it's a good pitch off the baggy. michael cuddyer, the right fielder, throws very well. plays the ball perfectly off the baggy and throws a strike. so, markakis knew it was going to be close play at second. >> jim: so, nick picks up another double. he's fourth in the league in doubles. now has 40 and here is luke scott with a chance for an rbi. there's a strike. there's an instance where he totally missed the target, but he's still got a strike. mauer seemed to be setup outside. he came across the plate but was able to catch it on the inner part of the plate for a strike. >> buck: when i was catching young pitchers early in their careers, i just wanted them to

get it in my direction. >> jim: roll it to me! -- throw it to me! >> buck: you don't want to ask him to be too fine. good location and all that stuff you want, but don't sit on the corner. they're having tough time enough just controlling their emotions. just give him that outside target. make them think you're work the corners, but sit behind the plate and present a very consistent target for them to zero in on. you can see they're using sequence of pitches with outside cares and the fingers become involved. >> jim: ball and a strike on scott. well off the plate. 2-1. elsewhere in baseball tonight, texas and the yankees -- texas-yankees, 7-5, texas lead. they're in the fifth. hamilton already 3-3 with a couple of ribs for the rangers. rangers are not going away. >> buck: joba chamberlain, eight days rest and he's been

hammered at yankee stadium tonight trying to minimize his innings. wild card race is heating up. texas right there on the heels of the red sox. the red sox are up 2-1 over the white sox in the top of the seventh at fenway. tampa bay handled toronto easily last night and they're up 7-2 tonight at the rogers centre. >> jim: and texas began the day five back of the angels in the west. 3-1 on scott and it's outside, ball four. second walk allowed by gabino. and the orioles have two on with one out. >> buck: and tampa bay right now as rick anderson comes out of the dugout to talk to his young right-hander, brayan pena hit two more home runs tonight -- carlos pena hit two more home runs tonight. he's on fire right now. he got his average up to .220. when we saw tampa bay, he was down in the .210 range.

>> jim: the central is really tight. they're only a game out of first place. the tigers can't put them or the white sox away. philip humber up for a second time. so, gabino has his chat with zeros. markakis and scott at first and second and matt wieters up who got the scoring going in the second with a one-out single. matt has a three-game hitting streak going. orioles look for add on runs here in the third inning.

>> buck: pitch count all over the map. second inning cost him three runs on four hits and he threw 22 pitches. going to have a short leash with him i would think and with philip humber up for a second time, not trying to wait too long on gabino. >> jim: well off the plate. 1-1 the count. >> buck: you can see he's really strug welling his command obviously. he's a little nervous not able to control his emotions. his stuff is there. you can see that. he hasn't been able to repeat the pitches. >> jim: gabino now slowing down his pace in the third inning. outside. 2-1. >> buck: gabino, you can see his work exclusively out of the

stretch tonight. he start out work in the bullpen and didn't get regular work in rochester. then, they needed a starter. they put him in there. did he ok. you can see he's really struggling with his command. >> joe: >> jim: 2-1 the count on wieters. he'll get a good pitch here. off-speed pitch it looked like and he took it. >> buck: if you're joe mauer, why not? throw a changeup there in a situation where wieters didn't expect it because gabino has been all over the place with his fastball and slider. >> jim: 2-2. gabino trying to stay in this game. wieters bounces it foul behind t-bone shelby. >> buck: another changeup. mauer just getting his first look at armando gabino. he's a rookie starter. what the heck. let's throw back-to-back

changeups. he's getting it close. >> jim: well, 2-2 on wieters. orioles scored three in the second. twins came back with two in the bottom of the second. hard-hit ball to first. morneau has it. he goes to second for one and no throw back to first. so, the inning will continue on the forced play of luke scott. orioles have runners on the corners, but now two men are out. >> buck: morneau can really play first. the reasoned first baseman who oklahoma city and makes a strong throw to the shortstop cabrera. i don't think cabrera had gotten to first base in time. i thought they had a shot at two. cabrera didn't think so. >> jim: so gabino one out away from getting out of a jam. melvin mora will bat. he helped out in the second inning with a base hit and a run scored. for melvin, it snapped an 0-14

drought. first and third, two men down. melvin has only nine rbi's since the all-star break. he has a chance here with markakis at third wieters takes his lead from first. markakis from third. breaking ball is low. 2-0. >> buck: you can really be selective here in mora's situation knowing that gabino is having trouble throwing

strikes. >> jim: gabino has really slowed down his pace in this inning. there's a 2-0. it's high, ball three. 3-0 on mora with michael aubrey on deck. dave trembley looking on from the oriole bench. birds had a 3-0 lead. it's now 3-2. trying to get a two-out rbi here in the third inning. that's low, ball four. melvin wasn't sure. that's going to be it for gabino. here comes ron gardenhire. so, the rookie's big league debut will last 2 2/3 innings. he can lose. he cannot win. he has walked three, two in

this inning. so, gabino will leave. humber coming on. orioles have a 3-2 lead in the third. ♪ ♪ i always feel like (announcer) it's right here, it's easy... ♪ somebody's watching me. ...it's the money you could be saving with geico. ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) (announcer) it's right here, it's easy... ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ it's the money you could be saving with geico.

 >> jim: very brief big leag debut for armando gabino. he goes 2 2/3, allowed three runs on five hits and a struck out. here comes philip humber one of the players in the trade with the mets.

he's been helping down in triple-a this year now working in the minnesota bullpen. >> buck: yeah, he was at one time a pretty highly touted prospect in the mets system as a starting pitcher. he has worked exclusively in limited action this year. he's had a rough go of it. seven innings of work. 15 hits. what an opportunity right here for michael aubrey. a big night and get yourself a little cushion here as the orioles have the bases loaded and two outs. >> jim: aubrey drove in two runs in the second inning with a double. his first two rbi's as an oriole. breaking ball inside. 1-0. markakis at third. wieters at second. mora at first and two men out. michael aubrey looking for more run production here in the

third inning. ball two. anticipates good eye. >> buck: he's a good hitter. he's always been a good hitter. he's a former number one hit. fans might not be aware he came out of tulane in 2003. indians took him in the first round. he's hit in the minor leagues has a couple of major league home runs that came last year with the indians. >> jim: ball three. it's high. >> buck: his home runs came against voax of the reds -- volquez and javier vazquez who was with the white sox last year. >> jim: 3-0, bas are loaded. nowhere to put michael aubrey. it's down and in. ball four. there's a bases-loaded walk to drive in a run. markakis comes in. you take them anyway you can.

markakis scores. he had doubled with one down to get this rally going. >> buck: it's one thing that has been plaguing the orioles. in fact, they haven't been able to add on runs. a lost crooked numbers on the board. >> jim: cesar izturis, bases still loaded. a run in. there's a strike and a borderline pitch. izturis does not take ahold of gary darling. >> buck: nice work. caesar jumped back. take a look at the pitch track. might have caught the inside corner. joe mauer moved the glove. put one on izturis. high, 1-1. >> buck: he's not close. you have to be very, very patient here don't swing at anything borderline even though he had a call go against you.

>> jim: a ball and a strike on izturis. izturis liked that ball even less. 1-2 the count. >> jim: orioles have been hurt quite a bit this year from production out of the eight and knight nine spots out of the lineups. all four rbi's by the orioles tonight have come from eight and nine. izturis at the plate has one. the orioles tonight turning it on minnesota. the 1-2 is swung on and missed. izturis is down on strikes and that ends the inning. orioles do get one, but leave lead it. middle of the third. ♪

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 >> jim: here is tonight's f trivia question. which dome had the highest seating capacity. the astro dome, the kingdome in seattle or the metrodome here or the olympic stadium in montreal? the astrodome was the eighth wonder of the world when it was built. they had an olympics in olympic stadium. >> buck: hence the name. >> jim: yeah, that didn't get my me. you would allow -- assume they had a lot there. the metrodome, i'm curious with our crack committee here, we have a chance does that mean football capacity or does that

mean baseball capacity because -- talking baseball capacity. that would kind of take some of the seats away from olympic stadium. i'm going to say the astrodome. i have no idea if i'm right. >> buck: i'm going to sit at kingboam. i think it was a little bit bigger. >> jim: i'd like to go with olympic stadium. i don't think it was that big for baseball. >> buck: that's a pretty good stadium. >> jim: i'm going with olympic stadium. >> buck: you can't. you already picked. come on. you want to pick two out three? >> jim: yeah. >> buck: there's only four up there. anything else you'd like to pick? >> jim: yeah. [ laughter ] >> jim: morneau struck out his first at-bat. matusz gets ahead 1-2. it's high, ball two. brian matusz now has a two-run lead. allowed two runs in the second inning was helped out by his

defense or it might have been worse. ball three. morneau now 0-9 last. he had an inner ear infection and side lined a bit. he had a bad reaction to the medication he was on for that. high fly ball to right. he pounded that one! back it goes! it is gone! justin morneau hitting his 29th and once again it's a one-run game. >> buck: former american league mvp is a strong, strong man. generally say you can overpower them upstairs. you'll see a batter overpower an upstairs fastball. watch where this pitch is out over the plate. he topple hocked it high above the wall in right field.

-- tomahawked it high above that wall in right field. over that press box in right field. man, he crushed that ball. >> jim: so a-leadoff home run. here is cuddyer. swings through an off-speed pitch. 0-1. fifth home run allowed by matusz in his fifth start in the major leagues. matusz was ahead one ball and two -- and two strikes in that at-bat and he couldn't put him away. 29th home run, 95 ribs for morneau. ground ball to second. brian roberts has it. cuddyer is retired. one down. we're going to get the answer now. the ford trivia question, which dome had the highest seating capacity for baseball? buck says the king dome. i say the astrodome. oh, i did olympic stadium is the answer because buck wouldn't let me change my pick.

60,111 for baseball. >> buck: yeah, big ballpark. big stadium, of course. it was the stadium for the oang opening ceremonies and the track events in montreal. the orioles did play -- >> jim: orioles did play in theinterleague in that stadium. >> buck: big ballpark. boy, was it big and empty at the end, of course. >> jim: problem with that stadium there was too much concrete. there was no atmosphere whatsoever. that's a long foul off the bat of harris. >> buck: well, there was a lot of atmosphere when the expos were playing well. a lot of people showed up, of course. unfortunate demise of the expos in '94 when they were playing so well and the season was altered because of the work stoppage. they had an outstanding team,

and were destined to go to the postseason. >> jim: 2-1 on harris. lined to center field. pie in on it makes the catch. was that ball hit hard. wow. that's got to be a tough play for pie coming right at him and it looked like it had a little spin as well. two down. pie gloves it for the out. and there's a ground ball through the middle by delmon young for a base hit. delmon young is 2-2. >> buck: he's pitching in the major leagues. you can have all the stuff you want. you can have all the pitches you want. until you can really command the strike zone and commanding

the strike zone doesn't necessarily mean throwing all strikes. it means throwing quality strikes, keeping hitters off balance, adding and sub strablght strakting and very -- subtracting and velocity and occasionally and getting uncomfortable at the plate. this is a learning process. as good as they are and as promising that's might be, you have to remember in brian matusz' case, this is his fifth major league start. his first professional season of baseball. >> jim: two-out single. >> jim: viv. >> speaking to burt blyleven during the years he played with machine mann and his 23-year career, his observation of chris tillman who pitched last night was very impressed. once gets control of the fastball on the outside corner, tillman will be quite a professional. buck said they've got to learn to control the pitches that they can throw and blyleven went on to say he broke into the big leagues wefns just 19

and had jim cot and jim perry to learn from. did he learn a lot from them. orioles don't have that luxury as far as the elder statesman on the staff, but that being said it doesn't matter. they still got to learn to pitch. they've got to learn to play. they have to command as buck had mentioned. back to you guys. >> jim: all right, viv. here is gomez. swings through it. it's 0-2. blyleven was a good one. he certainly has enough credentials to be in the hall of fame. for some reason, he can't get in there. there's the 0-2. check swing and a breaking ball. no appeal asked for. >> buck: blyleven i think certainly and jack morris both belong in the hall of fame. i think too tommy john probably belongs in the hall of fame when you consider their career numbers and some people say they just simply pitched a long time. they pitched a long time because they were good. >> jim: a ball and two strikes on gomez.

that's high. 2-2. one of the things, and i realize it's a numbers game, no doubt about it. i think another criteria is the year you pitched in, praw dominant player and/or pitcher in that era and both the guys you talked about were. jack morris was as much a gamer as anybody. called strike three. gets towft without any further damage. home run by morneau once again brings minnesota closer. we'll head to the fourth. it's a one-run game. 

 >> jim: we're at the metrod in minneapolis as the twins send the 25-year-old rookie to the mound armando gabino. pie with an outstanding play to help out brian matusz. matusz not his sharpest that he's been since he's joined the orioles. morneau just took him deep. the orioles do have the lead as we head to the fourth. four runs on five hits for the orioles. three runs on seven hits already by minnesota. philip humber on in re relief of gabino. brian roberts will lead off. there's a strike. brian twice has grounded out to shortstop. those at-bats against the starter armando gabino. foul wide of third. that will be back in the crowd. >> buck: i just get a sense that the orioles are going to need to tack on some more runs here tonight. it looks like the twins have their hitting shoes on.

they've always been a very good offensive ball club now. it's up to philip humber to keep the orioles in check if he can do that. >> jim: orioles have had a base runner in each inning. that ball is pulled foul down the line. that ball was hit hard, but roberts pulls it foul.   roberts has 43 multihit gam markakis leads the orioles with 44. and roberts now has cracked into the top 10 in base hits off the strong road trip he's had he's had 146 hits which is tied for ninth in the league.

and a called strike three. brian doesn't appear to agree with the call of gary darling and one away here in the oriole fourth inning. attention, youth sports team coaches and players, call the orioles today and get your team signed up for youth sports day. red sox are in town. your foonl, hockey larks cross, basketball, hockey, any sports team will take a pregame parade around orioles park and enjoy great group prices on tickets. 888-848-bird or on-line at orioles.com. three batters since philip humber came on. pie pops it down the line and that ball will stay back in the crowd. 1-1 on pie.

>> buck: he mentioned bye pie in the way he improved his hitting. he's swing the bat very well. he's worked long and hard with terry crowley. what crowley has tried to do is get him to recognize strikes. he's always been a wild, free swinger swinging at a lot of balls out of the strike zone. >> jim: 1-1 fouled back to the screen. >> buck: he had a pivotal walk to load the bases ahead of brian roberts' grand slam. numbers dramatically improved in the second half of the season. >> chris: fouls it off his foot. adam jones is still sitting it out. he had the back spasms in the game on sunday in chicago as he was facing mark buehrle.

that was the base hit following a swing and a miss. when the inning ended, you can see he's in discomfort. richie van sells attending to jones. he couldn't get it loose and he came out of the game. >> buck: yeah, never had problems with his back. he didn't know what to expect. now with this artificial surface, the orioles being very conservative with adam. he feels like he can play, but at the same time there's no reason to exaggerate or aggravate that injury. >> jim: 1-2 on pie. that's high, 1-2. pie getting a chance to get some extra starts. he's had a good trip. he's had six hits on the trip. philip humber on in relief of gabino. 2-2 is high.

ball three. >> rob: that's a pitch -- >> buck: that's a pitch that pie would have chased early in the season. with two strikes, didn't have the patience or the confidence to take pitches close. >> jim: count full with one down and it's inside. ball four. so, pie draws the walk and he's on with one down. orioles still have not put a ball in play against humber. four batters, two walks, two strikeouts. humber was a very high draft pick. he was one of the trio of pitch he was -- pifs pitchers on that rice team. we talked about the other night when nemmen pitched against the orioles. >> buck: all coming out of right in 2003. number one picks. boy, that's unusual to get a number one pick at one university, but to have three in the same pitching staff is pretty exception a. they were

all highly touted. it's interesting that neem is the one who has come on. he's now 12-5 for the season. >> jim: here is nolan reimold. pie runs. base hit to right field! perfect hit-and-run. pie was just deep at second base. doesn't know where the ball is and gets back to second base. alexi casilla deked felix pie. he was convinced that ball was coming there. he didn't pick up his coach and almost ran into an out. >> buck: watch. this he has his head down. doesn't know where the ball is and he's looking at the infielder because now he's not sure. then, he almost goes back to first and reimold was standing there. hit and run like, that take peek to see where the ball is. he never looked at the batter and almost ran into an out. >> jim: instead of being on third where he might be able to score on a fly ball, he's at

second. he fell for the deke of casilla and it nearly cost him an out. here is markakis. there's a strike. >> buck: yeah, that's a tough baserunning mistake because you have the opportunity to be first and third with nick markakis hitting with one out. certainly puts a will the more pressure on a humber the pitcher when markakis can can put in a run with a sac fly. >> jim: 2-6 for the birds with runners in scoring position. minnesota 1-5. that's high and away. 1-1. those are the things that don't show up in box scores that you don't know if it has an effect on a game. simply by making a baserunning

mistake. more bullpen activity for mann mile-per-hour. you might cost your team run. that's inside. markakis gets the benefit of the call. >> buck: those types of plays when you're playing good teams will come back to haunt. you you can't afford to make mental mistakes and brushing mistakes. only muft -- baserunning mistakes. orioles only mustered four hits in last night's game and lost 2- 1. >> jim: inside, ball three. 3-1 on markakis with two on,

one down. not even close. ball four. another walk and the orioles have the bases loaded, one down. what a contrast and the pitching to last night and tonight. >> buck: joe mauer out to talk to humber. take a look at the pitch sequence by nick markakis thinking changeup or strike one way out in the zone with a fastball. again, markakis borderline pitch juch upstairs didn't get the call. humber struggling to find the strike zone misses badly on ball four. juan sam we will, just another reminder of felix pie getting hit and run signs. ongoing process as the same is true out on the mound now. rick anderson, the pitching coach. >> jim: the orioles have loaded the bases for a second

consecutive inning. here is luke scott. one of these days, luke is going to break out. this would be a good spot for it. pie, reimold, markakis on base third to first with luke scott coming up. luke has just two home runs and seven rbi's since the all-star break. more than a month of games. bases load, one down. it's high, ball one. >> buck: with one out, the infield playing for double play. wt with a left-hand batter, justin morneau is deep at first base. markakis has an opportunity to really get a good jump on contact should luke scott hit something on the ground. he can create havoc at second base should there be a potential double play ball. >> jim: humber now is having trouble finding the strike zone. he has walked three since

coming on. luke can really be selective here. 2-0 and nowhere to put them. takes a fastball for a strike. high pitch. talking it over with gary darling. >> buck: orioles have had their differences with the home plate umpire tonight. cesar izturis on two pitches. brian roberts on the pitch he took for strike three in this inning and now luke scott didn't seem to think that had hit the strike zone. >> jim: you saw darling was peeking over towards the oriole bench. there must be somebody down there barking at him. 2-1 on scott. fouled back, 2-2. >> buck: he got a pretty good pitch to hit right there. something to drive deep part of

the field. >> jim: dave trembley -- manager dave trembley might have been the one barking. base loaded, one down. another big chance for the orioles. each team has scored in each of their last two at-bats. and a called strike three a slider breaks in there. scott down on strikes. two away. that was a perfect pitch, but scott is still upset at that strike one call. >> buck: you can't have that effect the entire at-bat. it's a curve ball that splits the heart of the plate. you've got to protect the plate with two strikes and a chance to drive in some runs. >> jim: now it's up to wieters battling with -- batting with two down singled and scored in the second bounced into a forced play in the third.

inside, ball one. >> buck: great opportunity to add on to your lead here. markakis walked to load the bases. two walks and a base hit sandwiched between two strikeouts. >> jim: so far, the orioles of the six walks have really taken advantage of only one of those. that was the bases-loaded walk to michael aubrey gabino walked three. 2-0 on wieters. he takes a strike, 2-1.

>> buck: pie, reimold -- >> jim: pie, reimold, markakis third to first with two men down in the fourth inning. a breaking ball for a strike. >> buck: he came back with that good breaking ball and got him in last two at-bats. struck out luke scott with the breaking ball. here he drops one in to even the count at 2-2. >> jim: now the fans back in it cheering on humber as wieters has the count even 2-2. deep down the left side. long run for span, but he can't get there and it's back out of play. >> buck: yeah, that's a good approach. obviously, we have seen two orioles take a called third strike in this inning. you can't take anything close with a chance to drive in some big two-out runs. you really have to expand your zone and just protect the plate here for matt wieters.

roberts was called out and then luke scott was called out. now wieters has a 2-2 count. >> jim: humber staying from the stretch. 2-2 is outside. ball three. it's a real unusual line for humber. he's faced seven batters and only one batter has put the ball in play. it was a base hit by reimold. three strikeouts and three walks in the seven batters. >> buck: yeah, i wouldn't be surprise if he throws a 3-2 breaking ball here. >> jim: runners will be off with the pitch. and the 3-2 is outside! ball four! wieters took a close one and he got the call. that's the second bases-loaded walk to force in a run. here is ron gardenhire out to the mound. four walks by humber. two of those came with the

bases loaded. >> buck: they were close pitches. what about the other four walks? >> jim: so, humber leaves. here comes bob keppel as the orioles add another run. still have a big chance here. bases loaded, two down in the fourth. ÷x÷:l:lzúz0z

 >> jim: philip humber fifth reef leaf appearance for him. he lasts just one inning. he's allowed one run on only

one hit and walked four batters. here is bob keppel. >> buck: bob keppel originally from the new york mets system made his debut with the kansas city royals a couple years ago and now trying to get out of the bases-loaded jam here in the fourth inning. >> jim: minnesota pitching has walked seven in this game and two have come with the bases loaded. reimold, markakis, wieters third to first for mora. there's a strike, 0-1. keppel was called up on june 23rd. 27 years old. mm-hmm melvin fouls it back the other way -- melvin fouls it back the other way. 0-2.

>> buck: pitching hasn't been a strong suit for the twins. starter on your right and the reliever. they've combined for seven walks. >> jim: the orioles have allowed minnesota to stay close in the game. they haven't been able to get the big hit. seven walks. you really want to take advantage of that. it puts them in the run column. dave trembley looking on. a ball and two strikes on mora with two down. melvin fouls it off. >> buck: keppel last worked in the major leagues with the rockies back in 2004. he appeared in four games after spending a majority of the summer at colorado springs as a starter. last year he was a starter in

albuquerque. >> jim: down 1-2 on mora. down and away, 2-2. he has a ton of triple-a experience. he's pitched in triple-a with the mets at norfolk, with the royals at omaha, colorado springs with colorado and last year he spent the entire year in albuquerque with the dodgers triple-a team. 2-2 on mora. two down, bases loaded. melvin chops it foul. >> buck: quite a battle here by mora. certainly a big hit right now to take advantage of this bases- loaded situation. >> jim: they are playing mora straightaway. morneau is behind wieters at first. 2-2 on mora with two men down.

and mora down on strikes. orioles miss another big, big jam. birds do get run a. leave the bases loaded. middle of the fourth, 5-3, o's. it's... no, not yet. it back that way. it's on. ( ding ) book now at southwest.com. what is it to lead? at pnc, it's doing what most benefits our customers. whether that's building more certified green buildings than anyone on earth. creating online banking tools for the next generation. or making a 10 year, $100 million investment in kids.

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time for a hot dog, buck. there's dave trembley and juan sam yule the third base coach likely -- samuel talking about the felix pie play. pie did not pickup his coach and stop. >> buck: you can't pickup your coach in that situation. tough look at the batter. glance at the batter. see where the ball s you can see it off the bat. if it's behind you on a line, you've just -- you just as well run to third base. if it's caught, you'll be doubled up anyway. never picked up the fly to the ball to the plate. didn't see contact. because of that, he was lost. >> jim: 1-1 on alexi casilla leading off the minnesota fourth. that's outside, ball two. matusz is really battling his command here. orioles have left eight men on base through four innings. they have left the bases loaded in each of their last two at- bats. low, ball three.

casilla singled and scored in the two-run inning for machine mann in the second inning. -- for minnesota in the second inning. there's a leadoff walk. matusz walks his second and minnesota has the leadoff man on again. oriole fans, when it comes to tickets, you deserve major league service. go to stub hub official fan to fan ticket marketplace of the orioles. there's a look at the upcoming schedule. one game remaining on the road trip. that's tomorrow night against minnesota and then the orioles head home. >> buck: cleveland indians come to town for a four-game series at oriole park at camden yards. that opens up on thursday with david hernandez opening up against aaron laffe, the young left-hander who is 7-3 this year. >> jim: span takes a strike. matusz still this inning and next inning so qualify for a win. he is very much so battling his command here. he's only walked two, but he's

been in so many deep counts. 0-1 pitches inside. 1-1. >> buck: yeah, you can see him. he's been battling himself all night long. we noticed it in the first inning when he threw 27 pitches. he's not a had a real comfortable delivery all night long. because of that, brian bass has beguto throw down n. fourth answered doesn't have an out yet. minnesota left the bases loaded in the if i remember -- in the first. scored two and left one on in the second. scored onend left one on in the third. runner goes. pitch swung and missed. throw to second. not in time. casilla steals the base. his ninth on the year. %%-- >> buck: he had a pretty good

jump at first base, too. first move by the pitcher. casilla is off and running. the throw is to the shortstop side the bag. %%--wieters but it's just too late off the mark. ninth stolen base for the twins second baseman. >> jim: 1-2 the count ton denard span who tripled a drive in two in his st at-bat. skied to left. luke sco, ng run towards the line will get there and makes the grab for the out. >> buck: that's not a productive out. that's what they were looking for after the stolen base to feet. e the runner r 90 >>ere's smiling at felix pie . it's been a while since luke has been out there. the majority of his at-bats as a dh. he's been getting starts at first base. >> buck: luke is never going to let anything happen by chance.

you can bet he was out there taking fly balls off the bat. hasn't played left field since the 11th of july. he got in somework earlier and it's still an adventure when you're not out there just because you haven't been. >> jim: the orioles were on the road in the interleague. since the trade of aubrey huff, they've been trying to get look at him at first base. orlando cabrera shows bunt. appeal to first. he did offer at it. that's a strike. todd tichenor emphatic. >> buck: he knew t he jabbed at it. he recognized way too late it was low. tried to pull it back beings but couldn't talk the umpire into it. >> jim: cabrera is 1-2. a strike on the outside corner.

0-2. i tell you what. it is equal opportunity for gary darling. he's not only had a wide strike zone. he's been all over the place. 0-2 on cabrera. deep to left field down the line. that's hooking back and is foul. that had much too much of the plate on an 0-2 pitch. matusz keeping an eye on casilla in the dirt. wieters loses it momentarily, but it's right at his feet. >> buck: wieters didn't get down and block it totally as it

belted off his glove. watch how the glove knocks it down. not sure where the ball is. by the time he finds it, casilla wasn't sure where the ball was either. he couldn't risk going over to third. he had to hold his ground. >> jim: and two -- a ball and two strikes on cabrera. popped up. roberts out. markakis in. markakis calls and has it for the second out. so, matusz battling back to get span and cabrera, but he's not out of it yet. here is. mr. mauer, the league's leading hitter. >> buck: he hit a bullet last time up with a couple aboard. a man at third base and two outs hit it right at the third baseman melvin mora for the final out of the second inning. singled in his first at-bat.

sharp ground ball into right. >> jim: alexi casilla at second with two men out. he walked and stole second base with none down. breaking ball for a strike, 0 4- b 1 -- 0-1. >> buck: a lot of managers when they're dealing with a left- hand opposing pitcher will separate left-handed hitters. when you've got mauer and morneau, you don't separate them. they can hit anybody as we saw morneau went deep for the 29th time in his last at-bat. >> jim: swept to first base for aubrey. he'll go to the bag unassisted and matusz gets out it have. leadoff walk and one left. we'll head to the fifth and orioles have a 5-3 lead. why? i don't know she's wandering around the lobby, yammering about fios tv, internet and phone all for $79.99 a month.

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 >> jim: time to bring you u speet with the at&t rapid rewind. >> buck: big night nor michael aubrey making his second consecutive start at first base hits a two-run double back in the second inning and then takes a bases-loaded walk in the third a-double and three rbi's tonight. >> jim: at&t, the nation's fastest 3g network. at&t, your world delivered. here is michael aubrey. amazing how that works. you talk about him and here he is. >> buck: perfect timing.

he has always been a pretty good hitter. he's a line drive hitter. not always as much power. he doesn't strikeout much either. >> jim: looks it over low, 1-0. >> buck: it's got to be uncomfortable for him coming into an organization he's not familiar with at all as he was picked up in a late-season move. >> jim: bounces this one to second base and a big out for casilla. one down in the orioles fifth inning. this copyrighted telecast presented by authority of the orioles and may not be reproduced and retransmismitted is any form and accounts and descriptions this have game may not be disseminated without the express written consent of the orioles.   >> jim: bob keppel got the final out of the fourth. he got morneau to strikeout. now he gets michael aubrey leading off in the fifth. cesar izturis takes ball one. orioles have scored five, but they've left eight men on base.

twice leaving the bases loaded. ball two. so, matusz for the first time did not allow minnesota to score in the same half inning that the orioles scored for him. izturis pops it up. third baseman brendan harris sofer and foul ground puts tae way. izturis retiredment two quick outs. >> buck: keppel slowed the batters down. at least he retired the first two. far different than the first two pitchers. armando gabino walked seven over 3 2/3 innings. >> jim: brian roberts batting for a fourth time already as the orioles bat in the top of the fifth. he's hitless with a strikeout and a couple of groundouts.

brian late on the swing, 0-1. keppel was born in st. louis now resides in st. charles, missouri. ball one, outside. roberts gets into one in right field. cuddyer is there and he has it for the out. the orioles for the first time tonight go three up and three down. 5-3, birds. ♪

♪ tell me who's watching. (announcer) it's right here. it's easy. ♪ i always feel like somebody's watching me. ♪ it's the money you could be saving with geico.  >> jim: freeze cam brought you by frost-brewed coors light the world's most refreshing beer. >> buck: goamses gomez caught

by type. this ball was fliesing away -- slicing away from pie. he made a terrific catch. that probably would have led to a twins run, but he guns down -- he catches the ball and keeps gomez from getting an extra-base hit and keeps delmon young at first. outstanding play. that came back in the second inning. >> jim: so, pie helping out the pitcher brian matusz. >> buck: a high fastball out of the strike zone and he tomahawked it off the facing of the press box in right field. his 29th home run. he now has 95 rbi's for the season. >> jim: he hit that out at about the 45-yard line. that is his football press box that is in deep right field when the vikings play in here the field goes from a first base dugout out towards the left field wall and that's the main press facility for the

football right there. fair well to the metrodome for the twins as morneau swings through a vicious cut, 1-1. matusz has a two-run lead looking for his third big league win. what you like about matusz is in his first four big league starts, he has a decision in all four. he has had a direct impact as to how each of those games came out. >> buck: again, you can't overemphasize this is his first professional baseball season. he's made it all the way to the major leagues and just a young guy just truly learning his trade. >> jim: in center field moves in on it and morneau is retired for the first out in the fifth inning. >> buck: you can see he's talk about the location of that pitch. not exactly where he wants it. mind you, every mistake a

pitcher makes is not going to be hit out of the ballpark. you'll get away with some pitching. with tillman and matusz and perkins and hernandez, they're all learning as they see what happens with particular spots in the strike zonement they'll be able to make appropriate adjustments. berken won his first game on sunday matched up against mark buehrle . >> jim: popped foul out of play. >> buck: when you see the young guys coming up, they're constantly make adjustments. it's not as if they're polished by any means. matusz has the full complement of pitches. just a year ago, he was pichtion in -- pitching in college. chris tillman started throwing two seam fastball last night a new wrinkle. started to get more movement on his fastball. when you get up here and all of

a sudden you say, hey, i have pretty good stuff and these beleaguers are starting to make adjustments, so you have to counter those adjustments. >> jim: 2-1 to cuddyer. high pop-up. and it is pie who calls and makes the catch and may have been stepped on by markakis. in this dome, you have to keep your eye on it. somebody had to take charge and pie at the last minute took it. >> buck: you can see both pie and markakis calling for it. pie catches it. looked like markakis might have stepped on his foot as they both converged on it. that's what happens when you have a guy that is filling in in center field, but the metrodome is always a challenge for outfielders to try to communicate to make sure that somebody catches it. >> jim: if you're not careful,

you'll end up with a black eye. ball come off your glove. brendan harris up, two outs, none on. matusz one out away from his first three up, three down inning. three runs on seven hits allowed by brian matusz. just off the plate outside. harris is hitless on the way. off-speed pitch. 2-1. >> buck: off-speed pitch down in the zone. we talked about matt wieters trying to consciously lower his target in general not so much on particular pitches, but in general. when sets up, there was a tendency for him to creep up

with the target a bit. >> jim: swings through that one, 2-2. >> buck: as these pitchers become more accomplished, that won't be an issue. they'll be able to make appropriate adjustments. right now you want to focus in on it. that's your bull's eye, if you will. that's where you really make your concentration on that glove. >> jim: 2-2 inside. ball three. another three-ball count by brian matusz trying to get his first 1-2-3 inning. bounced foul.

3-2 on harris with two down. that one is pulled foul. another off-speed pitch. that one was a little higher in the strike zone. >> buck: our conversation with andy macphail prior to today's game beings he mentioned the consideration of using possibly six starters in september. they have gone through a stretch with just one off day in 40 games and then they're going to have three off days. they're concerned about these young pitchers. >> jim: weakly hit pass the mound. roberts has t he'll get harris. there's the first three up, three down inning for the left- hander brian matusz. pie and markakis. pie hauled it in for the out. no harm, no foul. nce from the, there's an app for that. if you're an avid baseball fan and want to catch a game-winning run live-there's an app for that. and if you're an avid tennis player and want to play on... center court...there's an app for that too. because there's an app for just about anything.

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 we are back at the proa metrodome in a game that featured two rookie starters. we check into the minor leagues for an oriole hopeful to be a rookie at this point sometime this year. jake arrieta for norfolk goes seven innings last night in a win against rochester. two hits, just two runs h-six strikeouts pitching to a 3.92 earned run average is jake air yetia in his last four starts had an e.r.a. 1.72. now, to jim hunter and buck martinez. guys? >> jim: viv, thank you very much. jake air yetia late in the year pitching a fine game seven scoreless innings f you're wondering whether arrieta might be one of the call ups, that probably will not happen. if it does not happen, it has nothing to do with what the orioles thought about his

season. air yetia is not on the 40- minute roster and this offseason he does not yet have to be added to the roster. if you put him on, that takes up another spot for the offseason where you will need to add other players or they'll be exposed to the rule five draft. pie pops it to shallow left. this is trouble. the shortstop gets out there cabrera, but he can't make the play and pie will end up at second base, so a bloop double. if the orioles were to bring up air yetia, that would mean he'd be on the 40-math man roster and one of the other place they have to add the spot wouldn't be available. >> buck: a leadoff double as it's a little flare over the outstretched glove of -- he almost missed first there too. cabrera couldn't make play on it. pie gets to second base. sixth double of the season. that's a good start here as they try to pad their two-run lead as we play in the sixth.

>> jim: here is reimold with a chance. you were involved in the discussions. it's a delicate balance because there's no d. l. in the offseason. once you set the roster, it has to be 40. somebody has to be protected and you run out of spots, sometimes players do change teams. >> buck: one thing you want do is make sure you don't get into a spot where you make somebody available that you don't want to. you have to -- you like to go in there with a spot or two open in case you should make a trey trade. somebody becomes available. you could add them to your roster. >> jim: 1-1 on reimold. high pop-up foul ground near the oriole dugout. morneau coming over hopes for play. mauer there as well. mauer got it. pie tagging trying to go to third and he'll be tagged out by harris. mauer disappeared from our

view, made the play and then gets pie who for some reason thought he could get to third. >> buck: joe mauer one of the best catchers and then morneau makes the catch. look at morneau immediately looks at pie. i don't know what pie was thinking that he could make it to third. the play was right in front of him and you just eliminate that leadoff double. too many mistakes too. many mistakes on the bases. not knowing how many outs there are. not knowing what the situation is. time and time again. >> jim: the orioles lose run aer in scoring position in this two-run game with their best hitter at the plate. ball one inside. you can't make nose kind of mistakes. >> buck: you're playing a good team they'll come back and bite you every time. you hit a bloop and they be then make a mistake running into a double play when there

was no need to. >> jim: ball two to markakis. nick, 1-2, a double and run scored. he's also walked. keppel, third pitcher used by minnesota tonight. strike at the knees. >> buck: you have to believe the twins are fueled by the orioles making mistakes saying they're not going to add any runs. we're going to come back and get this game. >> jim: they have left eight men on base have the orioles. good eye, low, ball three. when you play playoff hopeful teams and/or contenders and ron gardenhire's team believes it has a chance to get to postseason. markakis pops it foul. that will be in the crowd.

you have to be as good or better than them in your approach got game because you know they're going to be that way. >> buck: well, and right now they have more experience. they're more talented. more depth. you can't make mistakes when you're outgunned. tough play a clean game. >> jim: 3-2 to markakis bounced toward the hole. cabrera a-long throw off the bag and markakis has a base hit. so, another huletty hit game for nick. his 45th. he now has 157 base hits. he is now 43 shy of 200 for the year and here is luke scott. markakis with a double and

infield single. luke scott batting now and that gets through mauer and ricochettes towards the orioles dugout and markakis down to second base. there's not a lot of room behind mauer behind home plate. wild pitch the official scorer's ruling. >> buck: yeah, that hit the backstop hard and markakis moves into scoring position. again, got to take advantage. come up with a big hit here with two outs. take a little bit of the heat off felix pie. >> jim: he might have scored on that wild pitch. luke scott works through it. 1-1. -- swings through it. 1-1.

orioles have 37 games left including tonight. markakis tries to make run a at 200 base hits. with two tonight, he's 157 so he's 43 away from 200 hits. as consistent as he's been, he might have a shot at it. you have to have a huge september, but more he gets in remaining games in august, gets him closer and closer. 2-2 on scott. >> buck: scott had a pretty good swing at that pitch. couldn't believe he didn't hit it. he was not over the plate. a little late movement on the fastball. >> jim: felix pie on the bench. 2-2 on luke. runner at second. two down. well off the plate.

ball three. the way luke is swinging right now, if you're keppel you should come right at him. 4-24 on the road trip. 3-2 is grounded foul. nearly got down the line for a base hit. terry crowley and skipper dave trembley looking on from the bench. looking for a two-out base hit to get another run in. there's a line drive to right field. that ball is for a base hit.

markakis being sent. here is the throw from cuddyer towards the plate. it is cut off. they have luke scott hung up. markakis scores. scott trying to get back to the bag being run down and he'll betagged out. so, a smart play by luke scott and a good play by morneau as he cut it off. luke got into the rundown to allow markakis to get in. orioles add a run. birds lead it 6-3. ?  



>> buck: brian matusz never into a groove here tonight's didn't have great command. he makes a great pitch to strikeout the first batter of the night. gets morneau early, but then once he went around the lineup once, it caught up to him. they had a three-run second inning over the course of his night, five innings, three earned runs. again, he gives up four hits innings pitched, a couple of walks, three strikeouts. 99 pitches. it was a real battle, but he is in position for his third win in his fifth major league start and he turns things over to the bullpen and brian bass. >> jim: and the orioles bullpen has been pitching very, very well in particular on this road trip. here is delmon young. takes ball one from bass. yowrchg young has a perfect night going. sharply hit towards the hole. there's another base hit. 3-2 for delmon young.

he is on leading off in the sixth inning. minnesota has had the leadoff man on in the second, in the fourth, now in the sixth. so, 4-6 at-bats.   >> jim: foul off the foot o carlos gomez. >> buck: gomez in last night's game was 0-2. he had a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning's hit into a double play and flied to left again tonight 0-2. a strikeout. >> jim: breaking ball stays inside. ball and a strike on carlos

gomez. bass last worked in chicago on saturday. he allowed one run in two innings of work. hit to mora over the head of mora bouncing into left field. luke scott gets to it quickly to keep young at second base. there's a turf hit for you. here comes minnesota. brian bass, back-to-back singles to begin the sixth inning. >> buck: this bouncing ball off the turf takes a high hop over melvin mora's glove. melvin couldn't flag it down. gomez has his first hit and that's the perils of playing on this artificial surface. those balls hit into the dirt in front of home plate get top spin and bounce right over the infield. now they're guarding against a bunt. nineteenmelvin mora will talk to brian bass to give him his assignment. mora will give a signal to the rest of the fielders to tell them which play they'll put on

him here. >> jim: casilla has two sacrifice bunts on the year. he does square and miss it is. 0-1 boits a sacrifice bunt. everybody in the ballpark knows you're doing it. turn around early. see how he jabs at this. never got himself in position. that's a great ball to bunt because it's down in the zone. because he wanted to surprise everybody, he was late squaring up and bunted right through it. >> jim: he's been on base twice. bunts it out in front of the plate. that's a foul ball? >> buck: yeah, the ball hit home plate and came straight up and now bass is saying it hit him and darling is going to say, no, it hit the bat. watch the ball come off the plate and bounce right back up and hit the bat. it's a foul ball right there. it's a dead ball right there. darling made the good call. bass was going to come in and

see if he couldn't talk into the ball hitting the batter, but casilla never left the batter's box. >> jim: so, good call by gary darling. he's the crew chief of the umpiring crew and it's 0-2 on casilla. now the others not looking for a bunt. takes one inside. 1-2. mark hendrickson getting loose in the orioles bullpen. >> buck: that's with joe mauer and justin morneau probably the focus of his attention. >> jim: high fly ball to right. markakis goes back object it -- on it. still going back. it's over his head against the wallment one run will score. markakis fires in. play at the plate is too late. cut off by aubrey. how about that? casilla can't get the bunt down and he doubles to drive in a run. and minnesota is back within two and two are in scoring position with none down.

>> buck: bottom of the order doing a number on the orioles pitching staff tonight. that's center cut right down the middle and he hits it off the bottom of the fence in right field. markakis waits for it. gets it back to the infield. delmon young started with a single and he scores. it's a one-run game. >> jim: so, bass has come on and given up three consecutive hits. goamses gomez at third, casilla at second. nobody out. breaking ball outside to denard span. >> buck: the twins ball club, they will come back at you all night long. bottom of the order has six hits tonight. >> jim: that was a strange play a bunt attempt that he bunted foul. runner at third wasn't -- >> buck: yeah, it's a safety squeeze in this situation that a fast base runner at third you give span the opportunity to

bunt a ball and then the base runner waits until it's on the ground safely. >> jim: ball and a strike on span. ball two. orioles have missed so many opportunities to add runs in the game leading eight men on and minnesota is hanging around. ball three not even close. three balls, one strike with span and orlando cabrera on

deck. ball four. brian bass does not appear to have it tonight. he's faced four batters and all four have reached. rick kranitz is going to come out for a visit. this will probably be his last batter as buck pointed out with hendrickson getting loose. mauer and morneau followed cabrera. >> buck: at the bottom of this order has really done a job on the orioles pitchers tonight. they are 6-8. they have scored three of the four runs. they have been a thorn in the side and that's one concern dave trembley always has. get the bottom of the order out, you don't have to face the meat of the order. now this will be the fourth time through the lineup here in the sixth inning. good hitters in this lineup getting too many at-bats. >> jim: the orioles will play the infield back for a double play ball. gomez, casilla and span, third

to first. cabrera fouls it off. sob just -- somebody just lost their popcorn. that was -- he's upset with himself. not because he lost his popcorn, but because he missed the ball. 0-1 on cabrera. outside. orioles will gladly let goamz goamses score from third if they can get two to try to short circuit the rally. the infield at double play depth and mora deep at third. good slider there. he couldn't reach it. >> buck: cabrera has taken two wild swings at botheredline pitches walks and neither one of the pitches were close. >> jim: a ball and two strikes.

bass tries to recover here. same pitch that. time he didn't chase. 2-2. jesse crainlet getting loose for minnesota. after a 2-1 game last night, different caliber of pitching tonight. >> buck: that's the best pitch bass has thrown in this inning. that's a sinkling fastball right in on his hands. the pitch that might lead to two. >> jim: 2-2 on cabrera. ball three. now he is faced with the situation of having to come in

to cabrera because with the bases loaded, there's nowhere to put them and mauer is on deck. from a ball and two strikes to a full count. 3-2 to cabrera. hit him or ball four? i guess it's ball four. darling didn't indicate. that one wasn't close. it forces in a run. it's a one-run game. brian bass faces five batters. all five reach and minnesota is now back in it threatening to get the lead. >> buck: that ball went out of the strike zone. did not hit him, but certainly led to another run. >> jim: so, bass will leave. hendrickson will come on. he inherits a mess a run in, bases loaded, nobody out in the sixth. it's... no, not yet. it back that way. it's on.

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or if you experience muscle pain or weakness, as they may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. how close are you to where you want to be? ask your doctor if caduet can help you go... for both your goals.  >> jim: brian bass shaking head on the oriole bench. orioles have been fantastic on this road trip, but bass has put the orioles in a huge jam and mark hendrickson comes on. he inherits bases load and nobody down, two runs in and the orioles lead is down to one rowen. >> buck: hendrickson faced one batter in last night's game. he's had a -- he had a sac fly and gave way to cla meredith who got out of the sixth inning. >> jim: casilla, span and cabrera, third to first. mauer has one hit on the night.

he takes a strike. 0-1. you just had a feeling all those missed opportunities by the orioles would come back to haunt them and we're seeing it now as brian bass has allowed minnesota mann to rally back in the game. too many missed chances to get extra runs. -- extra runs. strike two. >> buck: that's what you got to do if you're mark hendrickson. he's never faced joe mauer. take it to mauer. pitch aggressively. don't give -- don't give mauer an opportunity to see all your pitches. now he's really in the driver's seat. chris ray loosening behind mark hendrickson. >> jim: 0-2 on mauer. outside. doesn't chase. 1-2. .325 career batter with the

bases load. couple of grand slams. 46 rbi's in these situations. 1-2 on mauer. 2-2. here is another at-bat. bass got ahead of cabrera, 1-2. couldn't put him away. now hendrickson goes 0-2 on mauer. mauer takes back-to-back pitches well out of the strike zone. >> buck: mauer has a great eye. he's always confident he can hit with two strikes. >> jim: ground ball towards second base. roberts back to second, back to first by izturis. there's a double play. the tying run comes in as casilla scores. the orioles do get two outs on one string, but now this game is back even. no rbi for mauer.

the run will be charged to bass who has allowed minnesota now to tie this game and the go- ahead run is at third with two down. so, matusz has pitched to a no decision and gabino the starter made his big league debut tonight for minnesota has pitched to a no decision. there's justin morneau. now you go back to the top half of this inning but with pie's running mistake on the bases, the two hitters that followed reimold's pop foul that was caught by mauer both got base hits. orioles might have a bigger outing going. instead, they had to settle for just one run. little low. 1-1 on morneau. >> buck: yeah, you never know how an inning is going to develop. there was no reason to tag. it was a pop right in front of the dugout. morneau made a fine play,

turned around immediately to check pie and unexpectedly tagged and sprinted toward third. >> jim: bounced towards second base. roberts gets the hop. what a job by mark hendrickson, but minnesota does rally. it's a brand new game. we'll head to the seventh tied at 6-6. whether that's building more certified green buildings than anyone on earth. creating online banking tools for the next generation. or making a 10 year, $100 million investment in kids. it's how we've always done business. and will for a very long time to come. pnc. leading the way. why? i don't know she's wandering around the lobby, yammering about fios tv, internet and phone all for $79.99 a month.

she seems crazy. actually, fios customers get that price for six months. it's like getting three services for the price of two. so am i the one that's crazy? no? (announcer) get fios tv, internet and phone for just $79.99 a month, plus a free dvr for 3 months. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v  >> buck: had a tough night tonight. it started on the base pads

early on. on a hit-and-run by nolan reimold, he lost track of the ball in right field. he wasn't sure where it was. he had to stay put there at second. teahen pop-up gets stepped on by nick markakis. he caught the ball, but he's had a rough night. then, justin morneau catches a pop-up with nobody out and unexpectedly, felix pie breaks towards third. there would be a couple of base runners that reach after him to. his credit, he's played well second half of the season, but he's have a forgettable night tonight. >> jim: , so it's a new game. 6-6. new pitcher on for minnesota. here is jesse crain, fourth pitcher used by the twins. minnesota fortunate to be in this game. here is wieters. ball one, high.   wieters has a hit. bases walked with an rbi.

high fly ball down the left side slicing away from span who runs over and runs out of room. the friendly bullpen down there, minnesota's pen. the closer there on the end. he got the save in last night's game. orioles did make it interesting because joe nathan walked two batters with two men down. ball and a strike on matt wieters. ball two. >> buck: back to square one obviously here in the seventh inning and the twins have to feel like they've gotten away with one after the first two pitchers they use the in the game walked seven batters in 3 2/3 innings. bob keppel calmed things down a

bit. he allowed a run on three hits over his 2 1/3. jesse crain trying to stablize things here in the seventh. >> jim: he's been a career twin drafted in 2002 and in his entire professional career, he has never started a game. he's been used in relief ever since he was drafted. weakly hit towards shortstop. cabrera waits on it. he'll get wieters one down in the orioles seventh inning. we are counting down the days for baseball here in the metrodome. they'll move into their new target field outdoor ballpark next year. starry nights, real grass

stains. there's a strike to melvin mora. skyline sunsets. i can't figure this one out. countdown to ch-ch-ch-chh -- oh, sprinklers. they'll have to water the grass now. wieters swings through it. 0-2. melvin has singled, walked and struck out. 0-2 is outside. melvin's base hit in his first at-bat snapped an 0-14 drought. he has only two base hits on the road trip. he did contribute to the rally in the second inning and then again in the third. then he's down on strikes.

two men out in the seventh inning. two orioles will be out in birdland in the community this week meeting fans and signing autographs. thursday, heading over to espn zone in the inner harbor. meet ty wigginton. he'll be there noon till 1:00, then, cla meredith will sign autographs on mount airy road in slues bury. for all orioles -- shrewsbury, for all orioles outreach, get on-line at orioles.com. he takes a strike. aubrey doubled a drive and two back in the second. he has an rbi on a baitses- loaded walk. morneau will flip to the pitcher crain and the orioles go three up, three down in the seventh. tonight seventh inning stretch brought to you by jack daniels'

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 >> buck: now it's time for geico game highlights as you look at michael aubrey as he comes up with a big two-run double all the way out in the gap. that puts the orioles up 2-0. span comes up within -- with an rbi triple. two runs score in the second inning as they bounce back and made it a one-run game. then, justin morneau hits his 29th home run to leadoff the third inning that. made it 4-3 at the time. matt wieters takes a leadoff walk. that would come in the fourth inning off philip humber and brian bass came in and didn't retire a batter as he had a leadoff walk that came in the three-run inning. finally, mark hendrickson was able to get the final three outs that have inning. that's where we stand 6-6 in the seventh inning now as chris ray comes on to work the bottom of the seventh inning. >> jim: the fourth pitcher used

by the orioles. hendrickson goes an inning and did allow an inherited runner to score but did not allow machine mann to get the lead. ray misses outside. 1-0 on cuddyer. delmon young will follow. ball two. >> buck: we had talked about the bullpen how well they have pitched of late on this road trip 20 innings just two earned runs allowed and chris ray has a lot to do with that. he has really thrown the ball well. >> jim: ball three. >> buck: kam mickolio on theright. cla meredith on the left. they have pitched well. meredith pitched in last night's game. mickolio has been a pleasant the am aga nce he's ined minnesota has put the leadof

man and now they have venth. harris looking down at the third base coach scott ullger to make sure he has he. he's on deck, 3-3 with three doubles and he scored three runs. melvin mora comes in to tell ray his responsibility. he's there guarding against the bunt.jim: rogaenre does. if he gets the lead in the seventh, he could go to setup man, closer in the thisill be a lose if the orioles can't get lead back because they have more opportunities to break

this open. matt guerrier gets up. harris again bunts. ray has it. he looks to second. throws to first for the out. , gardenhire playin eters s chris a at second base delmon young, everything has hit tonight every pitch tot. has thrshsingles to left. >> jim: fouls to have the back of the plago piece of it. >> jim: matusz went five

innings, three runs on seven hits. bass not record an out. hendrickson a-scoreless inning and now ray. >> buck: got away with one right there. threw a high breaking ball and he didn't like the feel on that one. he doesn't want to throw that pitch again. trying to go down and away with a slider. got underneath it. it sailed up out of the strike zone and delmon young went after it. he was flirting with danger up there. >> jim: there's cuddyer at second base. the potential go-ahead run. poked to right field. it will hang for markakis. nick has it for the out. that's the second out in the inning. >> buck: good pitch there. he got the breaking ball down and away. young took a very awkward swing and plays it into right field.

>> jim: here is carlos gomez as delmon young is retired. gomez scored a run 0-1. good pitch. >> buck: yeah, he got that breaking ball down where he wants it and that's the one thing that has been much improved in chris ray since he's been back is his location both on the breaking ball and the fastball. that's why he's been so effective here of late. >> jim: fouled back. it is quickly 0-2. cuddyer -- sacrificed to second. there now with two men down. 0-2 on carlos gomez.

just missed. >> buck: two strikes. going hard away with a fastball. come right back with t don't throw him anything he might be able to pop and hit on the ground. >> jim: here is a blooper. roberts back on it and brian has it for the out and the inning is over. so, the leadoff walk doesn't hurt. one left. we'll head to the eighth inning at the dome tied at 6-6. @@x@

 >> buck: 6-6 here in minneapolis. it's been back and forth. michael aubrey had a couple ofbig hits. felix pie has an up and down night. a couple of baserunning mistakes. goamdz has been interesting all night long. morneau hits his 29th. the twins come back. felix pie had a couple of baserunning mistakes and been kind of an adventure all night long, but it's 6-6 in the eighth inning. orioles still have a chance to regain the lead. >> jim: jesse crain stays on. izturis, roberts, pie coming up in the eighth inning. the tie, 1-0. caesar, rbi single came in his first at- bat. he's since struck out and popped foul to third. crain on for his second inning of work. he had a three up, three down seventh. there's a strike. 1-1 on izturis. motorcycle motorcycle now get

-- kam mickolio getting loose in the pen. he looks like he'll come on and work in the eighth. breaking ball inside. ball two. >> buck: crain retired all three batters he faced in the seven. one of the very few 1-2-3 innings tonight by either team. >> jim: orioles have gone in order twice. minnesota has gob in -- gone in order only twice. izturis pops it up. center fielder goams gomez moving in on it. -- gomez moving in on it. one down in the eighth inning. crain, four up, four down. now he'll go to work on brian roberts. crain 28 years old.

he's a canadian born in toronto. roberts for his fifth at-bat. takes a strike on the outside corner. brian has ground out twice, called out on strikes and lined out to right field. a fastball. 1-1. matt guerrier and jose mijares. we saw mijares last night. one of the pitchers for ron gardenhire and guerrier who was up last inning once again getting loose. high, ball two. >> buck: obviously, love to get roberts on board here. see if thek they can't get something going. they have really pitched him well all night long. as you mentioned, 0-4 to this

point. >> jim: takes the pitch. looks like it was off-speed, 2-2. roberts taps it toward first. that's a fair ball. morneau will get him. so, roberts is retired. two out here in the oriole eighth inning. >> buck: and jesse crain has been the most effective pitcher here tonight retiring all five batters he's faced. >> buck: minnesota's bullpen ha