By Todd Karpovich, The Sports Xchange
BALTIMORE — After a successful season-opening homestand where they went 5-0, the Baltimore Orioles travel to Boston with a huge burst of confidence and momentum.
Yovani Gallardo, Mike Wright and Ubaldo Jimenez are scheduled to pitch against the Red Sox. While Wright will make his season debut, Gallardo and Jimenez were dominant in their first starts of the season with each of them earning victories.
The Orioles (5-0) are off to their best start since 1970 with a powerful lineup that has delivered big hits in each game.
“You know, we’ve got to keep playing,” third baseman Manny Machado said. “It’s great. We’ve started off the year pretty good. We’re winning at home. We’ve just got to keep playing, don’t think about the outcome. It’s still early. You don’t win a championship in April, but you definitely do learn to play as a team. We’re going to continue to do that, hopefully.”
In the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, Baltimore slugged four home runs in a 6-1 victory. A postponement Saturday gave center fielder Adam Jones (sore ribs) and shortstop J.J. Hardy (calf) another day to get healthy. Hardy was able to play in the series finale against Tampa Bay but Jones was held out for the third straight game. Showalter said the team plans to stay patient with Jones returning to the lineup.
“Any time you are dealing with that area, it’s such an unknown,” Showalter said. “It’s so tough because you don’t want to test it all the time and never give it a chance (to heal). My experience is there’s no consistency with that. We all know what it is if you pull it all the way. They don’t really think at this point that it is an oblique. He’s got one little movement at the end that he feels it just a little bit. We’re trying to get that resolved. Talking to him and the trainers, that’s close, but I am not going to push it. It is a concern because one of our best players is not playing. But it’s close, we think.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the young season is outfielder Joey Rickard, who was picked up in the Rule 5 Draft in the offseason. Rickard has provided a spark to the lineup and has started every game this season. Rickard has picked up eight hits in his 18 at-bats and has played solid defensively.
Baltimore could also get a boost to their bullpen this week with the return of left-hander Brian Matusz (back), who started the season on the DL. Matusz pitched well in rehab appearances for Double-A Bowie and provides another solid left-handed option out of the bullpen.
“Matusz is probably going to join us on Thursday, so we’ll see how that affects everybody,” Showalter said.
While the Orioles have gotten off to one of their best starts in franchise history, the challenge now will be to keep it going in their first road series of the season at Boston and Texas.
“Great base-running, playing good defense, our pitching staff is keeping us close (in) the games and we’re getting ahead,” Machado said. “So, those little things, every time you do little things early on, it will take you a long way.”