when you look back at this thing and the cody ross story, cody ross is a player that i told you a little bit about him when the series began. i knew he had three grand slams. i know a lot about the marlins. he had throw grand slams to start this series at 12 home runs. he seemed to keep pecking at the orioles. >> he's really coming on. he's second on the ball club in home runs. he's developing a power swing. he's very good at looking in fastball situationings. you see that pitch on the outside corner. he gets on it and pulls it down to the left field corner. uggla comes around and scores on the play. we saw this last night. just in time. still, it's an rbi for them. later on though, again, fastball middle in. he drives it over the shortstop head. sangle and another rbi. so, cody ross, i mean, he just looks like he knows what's coming. tonight, here again too, gets that pitch middle in again and bombs it into the seats in left center field. would you think by now that we would know not to pitch this guy middle in. he's looking to power the gawl ball and he's got to try some off-speed stuf

a two rbi, three hit night for cody ross and it's 5-2, florida. >> buck: after cody ross got buzzed on an 0-2 pitch and popped up in his first at-bat, he's been locked in. two doubles. now two rbi's and three hits on the night for cody ross batting in the seventh spot. >> jim: so, matt albers in his second inning of work has allowed his second run, anunearned run in the seventh. now an earned run here in the eighth. and a strike. john baker, the catcher, 1-3. cody ross back to first. there's no activity behind albers. so, he'll finish out the inning. wes helms out on deck to pinch- hit for the pitcher. high pop, shallow left. scott is deep. charging out won't get there. that's a base hit. it falls right in front of luke scott who was very deep in left field with the left-hand batter up. perfectly placed off the end of the bat by baker. >> buck: just a little flare as he gets big with that two-seam fastball but he dumps it in front of luke scott. two-out base hit. excuse me, one-out base hit for john baker. now, the pinch-hitter, wes helms, will step in.  >> jim: the s

cody ross has a two-hit night. don't forget orioles are hosting a series of baseball camps all designed for boys and girls ages 7-16. tutorial baseball summer camp will feature a four-day instructional program with player appearance by current around former orioles plus professional instructors and you get autographs and -- autograph and photo tiewpts and daily lunch opportunities. go to orioles.com and click on fan forum to register and find out more. here is brett carroll the nment number eight batter. he takes a strike. carroll has played in each game of the series coming on defensively in right field. tonight, he got a start with the orioles starting the left- hander rich hill. check swing. he fouled it off. it's 0-2. orioles in the ninth will have wieters andino and then the pitcher -- pitcher's spot due up. luke scott and aubrey huff available on the bench to pinch- hit. each given the night off. 1-2 as he doesn't chase that pitch off the plate. paulino at second. ross at first with none down. there's another

curve ball for a strike to cody ross. >> buck: cody ross has been wearing out the orioles on this trip. last night he had three big hits including two doubles and should have had an extra rbi. he ended up with two. ground-ruled double cost him one. >> jim: fastball rode in on him. now it's 0-2. all right. let's analyze this, mr. analyst. jones going back on the ball. >> buck: looking to see where he is in relationship to the wall. casual, little bubble right there. >> jim: there's one. there's two. >> buck: got room. >> jim: not a big deal. >> buck: see how he separates his glove from his body and keeps his glove in his vision. john shelby has done a good job about that. i asked him about that. he says you always know where your hand is where you see it. it's in your field of vision. it gives you better hand-eye coordination and made adam aware you want o'keep your glove to a point where you have a sense of where it is. don't threat get up over your head where you lose that glove in your field of vision. he's done a great job separating his body from his glove, but keeping it in his ey

cody ross is there. jones retired. one down.erts halfway back pedals tofirst base. >> buck: those numbers are all intertwined when you get on base when everybody hitting is allotted opportunities. everybody's numbers have kind of fallen off because the team overall is not hitting as well as he did in the first two months of the season. >> jim: one down. here is pinto now to face markakis. dave trembley looking over to -- looking over the lineup card. he's thinking ahead to possible moves that fredi gonzalez might make. outside. ba

cody ross sends up -- ends up at third. luke scott disappeared from our view down the line and all of a sudden bo porter the first base coach sent the runner dan uggla. >> buck: yeah, i don't think luke scott had any trouble in the corner but porter was close to the foul line so he could look down the line. no problems for luke. he hits andino with a good cutoff and andino relays it, butuggla scores ahead of the tag. uggla sees the go ahead from bo porter and the throw on the money, but not on time. >> jim: wieters didn't block the plate. he tried to swipe tag and uggla was able to get around him. two walks in the game. they both scored 3-0, florida. here is baker, the catcher. >> buck: interesting that cody ross who popped up on a slider in his last at-bat after berken busted him up and in hits a hanging slider and hits it down into the corner. >> jim: he end up at third. went to third on the throw home. orioles have the infield in. it's outside, ball two. -- ball two. >> buck: walks, anytime they hurt you. down in the ord

cody ross got in the hole 0-2. chin music with the high fastball and he comes back with a breaking ball and gets the easy out on the pop-up. look at the effort. he's trying to hit this one nine miles after berken has buzzed him up and in. then, he gets underneath it and pops up for the first out here in the second. >> jim: john baker the catcher takes low. for berken with a national league game, it's to his benefit to get baker because the pitcher would come up. you have a rereal good chance for a three up, three down inning. this is he low again. ball two. john baker, the catcher. he's hit three in a row. five home runs from baker in the month of may out of those six. he and chris eye nettia of colorado tied for the most national league home runs by catchers in may. line drive to the right field. this will be in for a hit. soft line drive. baker knowing the arm of markakis settles for a single. >> buck: he ran with his head up when he hit that ball, it was headed to the right field line. look at markakis. off the

off-speed pitch for a strike. 1-1 on cody ross. so the seventh home run on the year now allowed by uehara. high pop foul that will be back in the seats. the count to 1-2. a very sparse crowd here in miami, and the weather really hurts the marlins' hainses of getting any kind of a walk-up because you're just not certain the game is going to be played. >> buck: yes, and their drawing area is probably about 90 to 100 miles up an down the coast here in southeast florida, not very deep obviously, but this is a new stadium, and it ask being constructed as we speak. >> jim: line drive. there is is a base hit up the middle. so a hard hit ball right through the box by cody ross, and back-to-back hits here in the fifth inning, and koji ueharaer, here we go, the second time through the lineup. >> buck: yes. and this has been a concern. you can see the first time through the order just like tonight, the hitters are down, .211 average. only one hit for the first nine batters and now the second time through the order, three hits down to the numb

. >> jim: and here is cody ross, the florida center fielder. 12 home runs for cody ross. he has 25 home runs, back-to- back hitters in the florida lineup. cody ross is now 28. he was acquired in may of 2006 from cincinnati. last year he hit a career high 22 home runs. you see the first 32 games very slow, but the last he's coming on strong. grabow misses low. is ---1-1 the count. >> buck: the interesting thing about cody ross. you mentioned the home runs. he has 12 home runs, be but three of the home runs are grand slams. timing is everything! >> jim: yes. that will pad your rbi total in a hurry. high pop-up. it is in foul ground. he appears to have a play and aubrey huff has it for the out. the marlins down in the second. a bis hit and a man left. hey, let's head to the beach! we're in plim t-birds have a 1- 0 lead. -- we're in miami. the birds have a 1-0 lead. ? ♪ ♪ who's watching? ♪ tell me who's watching. (muffled music) ♪ 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 ge

cody ross has three grand slams this year. so does hanley ramirez. who has hit two in the last week and a half. >> rob: sometimes you don't have to tell everything. >> bob: but if tavarez doesn't throw any strikes, a bases loaded walk will be a dagger as well. >> rob: wil nieves goes out for a little chitchat. manny acta will go out and have a little chitchat. what's going on. one of the biggest outs of the game right here, julian. >> bob: rain starting to fall again.   >> bob: this guy's almost unstoppable when a count gets to this point. >> rob: i don't think he's ever been put out at 2-0 and bases loaded. >> bob: that's ball three. julian tavarez has been in the big leagues for almost 20 years. he knows nibbling in the late innings gets you in trouble. the marlins always find different ways to beat the nats. not even close. four hitters ago there were two outs and the bases were empty. and now the marlins get a huge insurance run and lead 4-2. there's just no excuse for what manny acta has to watch here i

cody ross, good reasoned batter. good speed. >> rob: in one of his better starts, too, i'm not going to say statistically when stammen had 17 ground ball outs against the giants. >> bob: another fastball. another tapper foul. >> rob: that's the kind of stuff you want to see from young kids that they're getting the ball downment even when they miss, they're getting the ball down low. that's one thing you heard from manny acta when this kid has the ball work, everything is down in the zone, you're bet beeting him. that's what we saw against the yankees. they did not get a lot of good swings off craig stammen. >> bob: nothing but fastballs. the fact that ross is hitting over the top of the ball means that craig's got some good, late movement on that number one. >> rob: i like that on their scoreboard they do both pitchers at the same time. >> bob: the pitch counts? >> rob: yes. everybody does it different. here in florida, they dough do both guys' pitch counts on their scoreboard at the same time. >> bob: they do some n

that ball's really well hit and it is over the reach of cody ross, bounces up against the temporary seatsund rule double for josh willingham. if he pulls that ball, probably goes as far as zimmerman's did. so the nats three consecutive great at-bats here in the second. >> rob: nobody was backing josh up. right here he was so comfortable at the plate. waiting for your pitch. that's what you do. you start subtracting pitches. probably can't go after your curveball tonight. he smokes the fastball. >> bob: how about willingham, 21 hits for extra bases. nine home runs and 12 doubles. >> rob: he's kind of a big kid that willingham kid. >> bob: oh, yeah? >> rob: he's large. >> bob: he's really put together. >> rob: he's got extra base poe pension. now, this guy, he needs to be a slasher. put it in play, make some contact. >> bob: josh has always liked hitting here. he certainly did his share against the nationals in this yard. his best year with the marlins. 07 when he hit 21 homers, drove in 89 runs. he was healthy that year. and hernandez has to lay off that pitch. he did says james hoye down

he was on base when cody ross hit it out. this ball is drilled deep to left. back it goes and it is gone. all of a sudden now, it is a 5- 0 marlin lead before coming in on two swings. rich hill having a tough night. >> buck: we mentioned ease done a pretty good job of keeping the ball in the ballpark, but a first-pitch fastball just oust -- just out over the plate. uggla use that great power and hits it off the back wall above the orange seats over the scoreboard in left. his second home run in this series. he's done a pretty good job of sitting on pitches and hitting them pretty hard. 15th home run of the season now. he, too, has 45 rbi's. >> jim: rich hill one home run allowed in his first seven starts. two home runs aloud in 2 2/3 innings tonight. the marlins now a quick 5-0 lead. that's in the dirt. paulino flied out to deep center field his first at-bat if not for where he hit it that ball might have gone out, but he hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark. he goes from .404 to -- 404 to 434 to right center the deep of the part to deep left center. the

actually, five runs because there was a single that got that inning going by cody ross, and then ray came on and got the final two outs in the seventh and then did not allow a run in the eighth. 1 2/3 to get back at it. orioles sent them back down to triple-a to get his mechanics straightened out. it was sock saysful trip. breaking ball is inside. >> buck: sure was. chris ray had the right attitude when he went down to pitch in norfolk. he went down there with one thing in his mind is to get handle on his mechanics. get the ball down in the zone and make the better quality pitch. so far, we've seen that. >> jim: low, 3-2 ton bonifacio. ground ball, base hit, left field.

here is cody ross. he's had a good night at the plate. breaking ball again.his one is high. 1-0. >> buck: badden hof is loose b -- loosening up in the bullpen. >> jim: florida has already used six pitchers in this game. fouled straight down at the plate. 1-1 on cody ross. >> buck: that is another advantage of the pitching staff pitching so well, the bullpen is well rested. gip johnson and george sherrill were the only two pitching in the gym on sunday. chris ray joined the team today. he worked on sunday for triple- a. that there is a strike out the knees. and johnson is an out away of getting this game to the 11th. 1-2 in the dirt. he wouldn't chase. >> buck: this is the decisive pitch in this at-bat. and johnson certainly has the upper hand. you can go back to the curve ball that he got uggla with or you can really pound the fastball down and away to ross. >> jim: he is also a home run threat batting seventh. the breaking ball fouled off. hanley ramirez now has 10 home runs. uggla has 13 -- excuse me, 14. he has one tonight and cody ross batting seventh has

hanley ramirez has just hit his second and cody ross has three.s chris ray back from triple-a. a swing and a miss and it is 0- 2 on cantu. so felix pie comes on in left field in the double switch. reimold made the final out of the seventh inning. so chris ray and pie will bat in the nine spot. outside. >> buck: chris ray threw the ball well in triple-a. he had a 2.25 e.r.a. >> jim: outside, 2-2. >> gary: the thing for chris ray was the election of his pitches. he threw a few too many pitches up in the zone, and his focus and concentration will be to keep the same arm angle and to try to get the brail down in the zone where he is most effective. >> jim: making his first appearance for the orioles since may 27 when he pitched against the blue jays. so a tough outing for danys baez as jorge cantu gets one into right center field. jones and markakis. jones calls and he has it for the out and there is the second out of the inning. fans, on sunday, july 12th, come on out to oriole park for the debut of 2110 utah street. that is an area of the right cent

how impressed are you with cody ross? >> i don't get a chance to sthee guy enough. i like what i see. he has an outstanding swing. he's a very powerful swing. pretty good center fielder. aside of that, this guy has three grand slams on the season. he's somebody now who is really looking for pitches in certain situations. i can tell by watching those replays, he is thinking pull all the time. you know, you just got to be real care informal fastball situation when you have a guy like that who wants to get extended. he's got the bat speed and the leg power and everything to drive the ball out of the ballpark. you don't give into his wishes. you have to pitch him a little backwards at time. make him hit the off-speed stuff for a while. he'll be so anxious to swing at it he'll pop-up and strikeout a little more. >> last nice, cody ross hadthree base hits including an rbi double and rbi single. when we come back, we'll take a look at some of the problems orioles had on the field last night in south florida. that story next when we continue "o's xtra" brought to you by at&

it's up against the board, and caught by cody ross.h, if wil could have pulled that ball just a little bit, it would have been a double or his second career home run. >> rob: ricky nolasco may be running out of a little gas. that fastball right there, almost left the building. cold di ross will run it down, right up against the wall. deepest part of the park. a lot of balls have gone out there to die, or be caught. >> bob: wil knows how close he was right there. here's elijah dukes. of the guys on the bench, he easily has the most power, and manny knows that one swing of the bat might decide this game, 2-2 in the 8th. dukes is in a big-time slump though. he's four for his last 31 and they are killing him with breaking balls. >> rob: i had a great conversation with elijah on the way down here. he knows what's going on. >> bob: fastball drilled to center. too bad there's no elevation, two outs. >> rob: he got in on him a little bit. the thing about elijah dukes that i love about him, he has very good smarts when it comes to hitting. >> b

cody ross can get them in center.they have a young kid, chris coghlan, playing left field these days. jeremy hermida back in the lineup tonight. all the other regulars and john baker, a left-handed-hitting catcher killed the nats in the first week of the season. since then, hasn't done much against anybody else. he'll be catching sean west. cristian guzman steps in. it is 7:11 in the miami area and we're under way with strike one. cloudy skies and here in the evening down to 82 degrees. very muggy tonight. it was up around 90 today in town with the sun peeking in and out, but mostly cloudy conditions. wub one ball, one strike to guzman. 0-9 still hitting .325 ninth best in the national league. from the right side, cristian at .320. over to scoop it immediately, emilio bonifacio. cristian guzman still having an 0-for for this series. tim welke, the crew chief. a 26-year veteran behind the plate. ed rapuano will have the plate tomorrow. james hoye and bill we will key around the bases. marlins -- which will cee. here is

cody ross now batting. uggla on at first. >> buck: that's pretty interesting.st base after that throw no, cutoff man involved whatsoever as he became a spectator anticipating the rbilook at the throw to home, forgot to go to second. he should be in position for thescoring run with two outs and he's not. >> jim: ross, 1-2 with an rbi double. that keeps it a one-run game. good breaking ball off-speed pitch. that was a pretty good pitch to uggla. he just was able to serve it into right field. there's sanches beginning

back on it is cody ross. he has a lot of room out there and he has it for the out.he orioles go down in the second. one-out single and a man left. tonight, we are covering the bases with rich hill back to his little league days in massachusetts. no score. we head to the bottom of the second. commute. ♪ commuté. with a mcdonald's mccafé hot or iced mocha, a better day is possible. or possiblé. here you go. thanks! cubiclé. if you haven't tried a mocha yet, mccafé your day. ♪ ba da ba ba ba geico's been saving people money and who doesn't want value for their dollar? been true since the day i made my first dollar. where is that dollar? i got it out to show you... uhh... was it rather old and wrinkly? yeah, you saw it?

cody ross, rocked a grand slam in the 8th inning, today a pair of doubles, batting 34 # over the last 20 games. marlins nine and two all time in toronto, 16 and 4 all time over the jays period.le. >> cardinals and the indians, top six, pool house again and. again.ring it's gone. his 22 on the year. cardinals win 3-1. this was his 27th multihome run game. his last four games, 7 for 16, four home runs, six rbis following a slump in the previous four games. >> meantime this time tomorrow night, the lakers and magic tangle in the nba finals. players refer to it as another game. that's hardly the case in this case. one win could change the legacies of kobe and phil. >> for kobe bryant, game four wasn't exactly vintage kobe. he missed 20 shots but still ended up with 24 points. i'm mark jones. welcome back to espn continuing coverage from the am way arena in orlando. guys, kobe bryant on the brink of his fourth nba title. the big picture, if he's successful in his quest, what does it mean for his legacy? >> in my view, his legacy is intact. if he wins one more championship, in my book, it d

cody ross hits a line drive shot right at josh willingham.ristian guzman is going to go towards third base, throw out ronny paulino. so a great 1-2-3 inning, the bottom of the fourth against the florida marlins there for scott olsen. >> bob: ricky nolasco having quite a night as well. he has a pitch count that could take him deep into this game. 69 pitches through five. olsen averaging 12 pitches per inning, his first four. here's brett carroll who got one of the big hits of the game. olsen and the nats were cruising along at 2-0 when carroll doubled leading off the third, that gave nolasco the chance to sacrifice. then they had three straight hits. rob: the ast at-bat, guy hit a  came akwith  fastball. very nice. oh, yeah, take something off the breaking ball. haven't seen a lot of change- ups. he's got ñ<ñúñúñúññññúñúñúñúñññ >> bob: saw him o tonight   dontrelle, a.j., dmpster, á rr?&tneó've go  0g0om rrjridpo we just ((ó,( r

then cody ross sinking line drive, makes the catch.e the game, it's a little soggy out there. >> bob: hard slider for strike one. willingham drafted by the marlins in the 17th round of the 2000 draft. he was in the minor leagues for five and a half years before he got his shot for just 12 games in 04, 16 games in 05, then finally a lot of playing time as a rookie of the year candidate in 06. one ball, one strike. it might take one mistake and josh willingham to pull a fly ball out of here to get the nats back on top. nolasco is at 91 pitches with one out in the 7th. as he steps off, willingham steps out. ricky nolasco has been outstanding tonight. 6-1 career against the nats. eight straight since willingham's base hits. this little flair to right field will be caught by carroll. on saturday, first 20,000 fans receive mini usa flags. then sunday, family fun day. the kids run the bases after the game. or stop by the nationals park box office for tickets. here's anderson hernandez. offered bunt, he was tumbling out of the batter's box. >>

. >> buck: rich hill throwing to cody ross. ross squares up on it. you see that ball in the big part of the barrel as he hits his 13th home run. then, dan uggla same type of swing, same position on the bat barrel right in the sweet spot. he drives his 15 lt home run out. also a two-run home run. that came in the third. >> jim: mark hendrickson came on and got the final two outs in thiveth -- fifth. he stays on. 6-0, florida. orioles are having a difficult time grouping their hits. they've had base runners in every inning. they have stranded seven men on. thefd they had eight base runners, seven left on and one erased on the double play by wieters that ened the inning. fine play up the middle by hanley ramirez. bounce to short. andino waits on the hop. he gets it to first. ross retired, one away. florida is hot. they've won four in a row in 8- 11. they're thriving in these interleague games. they sure love playing the orioles. they are 5 15-5 all time against the orioles. brett carroll, the right fielder, takes one in the dirt. the difference in the d

jorge cantu, jeremy hermida, cody ross, john baker and andrew miller. >> buck: now it is time for thenc scouting report for uehara. a fastball leads the way. he has a variety of pitches, but it is all about the fastball. he doesn't give up any walks. he has four walk-free starts in 11 starts this year. a cool night here in miami. it might be good results for koji uehara. everybody is a little anxious whenever that thermometer gets up over 90 degrees. it is a cool night relative to what it has been down here in south florida. >> jim: yesterday it got up to 98 degrees in miami. the sun was out the ma majority of the day and there's why it got that warm an was very muggy. when the front went through here about three hours ago, it took some of that weather with it. coghlan, 24 years old. he is a rookie. koji misses inside, 2-1. there is the game-time temperatures, buck, for koji uehara's starts. >> buck: he had only one start in 11 where it has been 80 or higher. >> jim: roberts gets it to first and one away as chris coghlan is retired on the ground ball out. >> buck: let's take a look at

dan uggla, cody ross in center, john baker catching and sean west on the mound tonight. bonifacio, 18 infield hits this year. that's third in the national league. now, for manny acta for the washington nationals, elijah dukes .284 batting average. runners in scoring position. overall season average at .237. he has nine outfield assists. that's tops in the major leagues, but only 4-32 his last 10 ballgames. look for elijah to hopefully break out of that slump tonight against the marlins. cristian guzman leads off. he'll be at shortstop. nick johnson, the number two hole. then comes ryan zimmerman, adam dunn, josh willingham in right against his former ball club. elijah will be in center field tonight with a .237 average. second base will be handled by alberto gonzalez. wil nieves will be catching and craig stammen on the mound for the nationals with a team batting average of .258. time for nightly notes. we turn to ray knight. when you think about the addition today of nyjer morgan and burnett and you look at morgan's speed and what this will do to the nationals running g

cody ross puts it away. our 73y to over 65 cities across the country every day. woman over p.a.: this is your final boarding call. all passengers... each with an average speed of 590 miles per hour. almost as fast as you. nothing's gonna hold you down. starting august 16th, fly southwest airlines from bwi airport to boston logan for just $49 one-way. bags fly free on southwest so our low fares stay low. grab your bag. it's on. - ( ding ) - book now at southwest.com. >> bob: the marlins are hitting .355, 11th in the league. jorge cantu has done some damage against the nats this year. he's batting .400. overall hitting .283. hanley ramirez is hot, he's fourth in the league at .333. and so hanley ramirez is thriving in that number three spot after wearing out the nats for years as the lead-off man. scott olsen has pitched against his former team twice this year. it hasn't gone well. two starts, 0-1 with a 9 e.r.a. but he's healthy this time around, rob, and it will always be fascinating to watch a pitcher coming off the d.l. for the first time. actually coming off r

after an outfield error by ross allowed two runs to score. cody pinch hitting. sends st. ictorious. doesn't really good home, they go to cleveland for play tomorrow. florida also on the road in toronto. 25 hits in this game said ross about the quote, i missed it, flat out. it went right through my legs. there is no excuse. >> >> upstate from the mets and phillies. kicking it up in the top of the tenth. two outs, and ibanez is up at bat. 21st homer of the season, deep into the new york mercky sky. mets couldn't do anything in the bottom of the 10th. they go down 6-3. philadelphia extending its lead in the national league east on the ibanez home run. 21st of the season. he's a guy who averaged 21 per season since becoming a full-time player about six years ago. a career year for the 37-year-old who comes over from seattle and delivers in extra innings for philadelphia tonig tonight. >> also in the n.l. east, the pirates and the braves. not quite as much as those two teams, but they are in the nl east. >> that's true. vazquez leads the national league in strikeouts with 12 to