J-Rod, the girl who lives in my house, became an Orioles fan on July 7, when Erik Bedard mowed down the Texas Rangers. He faced the minimum 27 batters during a complete game shutout, allowing just two hits and striking out 15. (Both times the Rangers got hits, the next batter hit into a double play.) Oh, what a night.

Since then, the second half of the summer of 2007 has been a schizo roller-coaster ride for J-Rod and other Orioles fans. We saw them create a nice buzz with a new manager, win some games in dramatic fashion, beat the Yankees, 12-0, beat the Red Sox -- even sweep the Red Sox at home -- and then fall apart. The Rangers that Bedard dominated beat our Birds in historic fashion, 30-3, just 10 days ago. It's been all down hill from there.

J-Rod has been to The Yard for a game, and she's been otherwise glued to MASN every time the Orioles are on. And she doesn't shut the TV off when they hit the deadly 8th inning and blow leads. Despite this lousy slide that we're in, I am pretty certain J-Rod will be an Orioles fan for life. I encouraged her to blog away, and she did:

This summer I became an Orioles fan. I think you could attribute a lot of my new obsession to a teenage girl’s eye candy, Brian Roberts. It's also the idea of supporting my hometown baseball team that has me in front of the TV each night. This summer I have devoted many long nights to watching the Orioles win some and lose many. Recently, my Orioles’ spirit has been temporarily shattered, after they lost their ninth game in a row last night. The Oriole fan in me has crumbled to little more than a fan of Brian Roberts’ good looks.  Once again the Orioles are in a losing streak and once again fans are devastated. What the Orioles need is to be able to end games in the fifth inning -- they would win them all if they could do that! They start games out so well, but by the 6th or 7th inning everything falls apart. I do not know that much about baseball, but I do think that all the Orioles really need are some good relievers. Next season should be a season to redeem themselves, with some new young players and a fresh start. But for now all we can do is hope this season ends on a positive note. Win one for Dave.