Next Up: the Baltimore Orioles.

Brian Burres is up first for the Baltimore Orioles. Burres has faced the Sox once before this season. He threw four innings on June first and gave up seven runs on twelve hits (including two home runs-one of them was Manny's five hundred and first.) He walked one and struck out two. They were hitting him at a .571 clip. Overall, Burres does give up a lot of hits but not a lot of home runs. Lefties tend to have a field day against his sinking fastball, slider, and change up.

The Orioles starter for Saturday is Radhames Liz. Liz's fastball can reach the high nineties. He also throws a curve ball, a slider, and a change up. He's subject to bouts of wildness and he walks too many batters for comfort. He does get a good number of swings-and-misses, though.

On Sunday, the Orioles plan to start Daniel Cabrera. In three starts against Boston this season he's got a 1-0 record. He's given up eleven runs, twenty-three hits, and four home runs. He's walked six and hit two. He's given them two complete games so far this season and it's likely (given the state of Baltimore's bullpen) that they'll try to get the most they can out of him.

The new face on the Orioles offense is Brandon Fahey. He was called up when Alex Cintron went on the DL with a strained hamstring. In fifty at-bats he's got twelve hits (including five doubles and a triple), six RBI, a walk, and eight strike outs. He has made two errors defensively. Melvin Mora has gotten the errors under control at third to make him a slightly above average third-baseman. When I was thinking about what to write about the Orioles the other day, they were in an interesting spot. They had won forty-four games up to that point. They had lost forty-four games up to that point. They had scored four hundred and fourteen runs. They had allowed four hundred and fourteen runs. They've since dropped two games and ruined the symmetry but I liked it at the time.