So my whole approach was to show confidence ikn not only him
I've never sinced,i/> from him a panic or anything like that
Eaton kept it simple when he was sizine up his performance.

---a few too many beers at the park tonight Peter?

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Pete's reply: As Kevin Costner liked to say in "Tin Cup"..."Perfection is unattainable."

Any chance we can get our grounds crew to dump that "hill of beans" onto the pitcher's mound in Fenway?

Here's hoping Adam Eaton can get a standing ovation a few more times at Camden Yards. He certainly earned it tonight with an excellent pitching performance.

So it was a great game in Norfolk. Player observations:

David Hernandez:
He was working quickly and throwing lots of strikes. The first inning he threw 4 balls total with 2 quick K's. He was throwing heat all night low 90's to 97, although the gun wasn't working early on in the game. He has wicked "offspeed" stuff, I only say that because he was throwing 89-90 mph curveballs throughout the night (again according to the gun that I don't quite trust, but he was nasty nonetheless.) He gave up his first hit after 3 1/3.

Scary moment in the third. Shattered bat on a double play ball, but I completely had visions of Hayden getting splintered as the bat exploded towards Hernandez. Luckily he escaped unscathed and got out of the inning.

All in all it was an efficient night for David even though he gave up a few runs through 6. The stolen base that turned into a run + was a great sequence that could've been called either way. Hammock's throw was spot on maybe 2 inches to high but otherwise was as close as they come. If they had gunned him, they would've been out of the inning unscathed. Hernandez was very impressive all around and imo would be an excellent long man in the BP, if not a starter.

Wieters:
He was driving the ball, straight up. Had a good eye considering the layoff and even though he flied out twice --DEEP both times-- and k'd once. He almost had an RBI in the fantastic Tides 1st inning (3 singles, 2 doubles, 3 runs) and probably would score on most nights on Salazars double from 2nd, all hamstrings aside he looked great.

Salazar:
This guy is all hustle. It's a shame that I and probably most people just can't find him on the roster in B'More. He's just to blocked. He was on base all night and was tremendous in RF. A couple of plays he followed pure fundamentals and hit the cutoff man to keep singles NOT doubles.

Nolan:
Has a great eye. He can hit the ball to all fields from what I've seen. He's not afraid to be aggressive on the base baths either. He has 3 sb's on the season and was involved in quite the "bang, bang" play at home. He had a great try and slide around the tag, slap homeplate but just barely was beat. I love his enthusiasm and pure hustle.

Kam:
Pitched efficiently and a solid 2 innings. Yet another steal of the Bedard trade.

Turner:
Made some more fantastic plays to both sides. Diving throwing on target, hitting -- He is the true gem of the Ramon trade. I've also noticed he's switching game to game from 2B to SS.

more to come....

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Pete's reply: Impressive. Thanks for the update.

I am still stunned over the very good pitching performance by Eaton tonight. Very classy move on the fans part to give such a huge ovation because Adam deserved it, but he also deserved the criticism for his 1st two starts because they were atrocious.

Here is hoping to a better weekend series against the Rangers than what we all saw last week against the Sox.

I'm sure I wasn't the only fan hoping he would be pulled in the middle of an inning so we could give him that standing O. I love watching a pitcher throw strikes.

Great pitching all night. Sherrill going 1-2-3 was a treat, and Johnson pitched well, too. The rbis came because Thome dropped a ball weakly into left-center against the shift -- even if they had been important runs, you couldn't blame Johnson for that.

A chilly but fun night at the Yard.

Pete:

Do you spell check much? LOL That was a great performance and I, one of Adam's critics, is applauding him and Trembley today!

Wow. You need a copy editor.

"I've never sinced from him a panic or anything like that.''

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Pete's reply: Yeah, lots of blogs have copy editors.

So, was Eaton impersonating a real pitcher? The question is: Was this a fluke performance, or a sign of good things to come?
Being an Oriole fan means we will not likely see a repeat of last night's performance. If I was a betting man, my money is on two more bad outings resembling the first two by Eaton.
That would be the modern day Oriole Way.

Good for Eaton, hope he can put together another good outing next time.

I figure the next start like that from Eaton will be when the economy recovers. Can you predict that?

Wow Pete,

Was it a late night with so many spelling mistakes?

"sinced and sizine"
don't mean to be too critical, but don't you have spell check?

It may very well never happen again, but for one night in April, an old pro showed the young studs how it's done.

And I, for one, was thrilled to see it.

Very encouraging start from Eaton last night. This team shows glimmers now and then of what we all hope it can be for the long haul. It's such a roller coaster ride following these guys.
One day they look brilliant, the next they look like a little league team. We'll see if they can keep it going against Texas, but hey, they've won 4 of their first 5 series so far, and the lineup is as potent as any other one in the league.
Kind of reminds me of the Ravens for so many years, a top notch team in so many respects but forever lacking that last piece. Eaton showed us we may be closer than we thought last night, lets just hope it wasn't a fluke.

sinced? sizine? Just busting your chops Pete, I love the blog.

sinced? you are sitting too close to Maese

So... many.... typo's....

Can't.... read... words...

:)

If he could only produce this 28 more times, he will be up for CY Young.

The games were pretty exciting last night.

I ended up in the RF restaurant at Harbor Park to check in on the O's and was absolutely astonished that they were up 5-0...I had to triple check the score! I got there just in time to see Nick driving in AJ to push it to 6-0, loving the top of our lineup.

In Norfolk last night, Hernandez got the win because of a sharp sequence in the bottom of the 6th. This was right after David had given up the last of his 3 runs and the game was locked up 3-3.

The 2 Justins (Turner and Christian) were pure hustle. Turner got it started with a sharp single to LF and moved up to 2nd on an errant pickoff throw. Christian came up and hit a nice single to RF (where the rightfielder, Ray Sadler was getting heckled relentlessly in a good natured sort of way). Anyhow, Sadler made the right throw to the cutoff man instead of trying to gun Turner down at the plate and they ended up catching Christian in a run down. As he turned back to first just narrowly missing being tagged out by the 2nd baseman, he really turned on the jets and managed to get back to first diving in just ahead of the tag.

Christian is FAST indeed. He's made some great plays in CF as well, tracking balls well and even throwing out a runner at home the other night. I'm glad to have the dude down here.

You have many many typos there... Might wanna fix those, bud.

But what I want to say is that I am a bit disheartened at how fickle the fans whose writing I have been reading are. After two (maybe three?) spring training starts and another two regular season starts, they were ready to have Eaton released outright, and they were even more outraged that he got a spot over Brad Bergesen. I'll admit I would have rather seen Bergesen than Eaton, but the man has been a professional pitcher for years, and he has certainly been serviceable. I know that I personally did not expect to see seven almost shutout innings from this guy, but I DID expect to see him turn in some good starts. We will most likely not see this again, but Eaton is a guy who can hold a 4.00 ERA as long as he does what he did last night and throw 75% of his pitches for strikes. When you mix speeds the way he did, and throw strikes at the same time, hitters don't know what to do. They have to swing, but they can't get their timing right. I think he's gotten himself on track to perform pretty well.

has anyone else had enough of Felix Pie? he's lost at the plate and looks like a deer in headlights in left. i swear the look on Adam Jones' face last night after he caught the ball Pie was calling was saying "get this guy outta here."

on a related note, you gotta love Lou Montanez. this kid is classy and is a stud. he fits right in with the team whose overall demeanor seems to be a quiet confidence, which i love. the only guy on the team right now not fitting that description is Wiggington who does not seem to be backing up his cockiness, save for some pretty fine defensive plays (albeit salted with a couple bad ones).

Pete,

I thought you had just encrypted the blog and forgot to tell us! Keep up the great prognostications, I won't even make a blind guess tonight!