Uehara impressive in major league debut

Koji Uehara allowed one run on five hits in five innings pitched and earned his first major league victory on Wednesday night as the Orioles defeated the Yankees 7-5. Uehara didn't exhibit pinpoint control with all of his pitches, but he walked only one batter and certainly outpitched Yankees' starter Chien-Ming Wang (3.2 IP, 9 hits, 7 ER, 0 Ks).

Uehara was pleased with his performance: "I'm real happy. Right before the game, I was a little bit hyper, but right now I'm calm."

A comfortable lead evaporated in the ninth inning after Dennis Sarfate allowed a two-run homer to Derek Jeter to cut the Yankees' deficit to three. But George Sherrill recorded the final out (after giving up an RBI double to Mark Teixeira) to pick up his first save of the season.

Nick Markakis paced the Orioles' offensive attack with three hits, including a two-run home run and an RBI double.

The Orioles go for a three-game sweep today in an afternoon game as A.J. Burnett squares off against the surprising Alfredo Simon, who had an impressive spring.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

There's nothing wrong with O's fans booing Teixeira

In an article about the Yankees-Orioles opening day game yesterday, Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated has a message for Orioles fans after their loud booing of Mark Teixeira, and it apparently goes something like this: Stop being mean.

Heyman writes:

Teixeira, the native Marylander, and third member of the Yankees' offseason haul, was dissed and hissed here for no good reason. As he said about his call to go to the rival Yankees for more money ($180 million) and a better October chance, "I think anybody in my position would have done the same thing."

Then later, he confided, "The Orioles weren't really involved."

The Orioles made an early and quick pass in a seeming attempt to show their fans they were involved for the great Severna Park, Md., star. But they really weren't.

Orioles fans don't know that, so they boo him like crazy. And Teixeira pleased them by doing nothing, by going 0-for-4 with a walk, and by grounding out with the tying run at third base in the eighth inning.

"I didn't get it done today," Teixeira said.

That makes two of 'em. Between Sabathia and Teixeira, the Yankees got zero return on their $341 million investment.

First of all, just to bring some logic into this discussion, it's just one game. Sabathia and Teixeira will do just fine. I also seriously doubt that Teixeira went 0-4 just because O's fans were booing him. Though I must say that, while I couldn't watch the game on TV, it was still awesome to hear on the radio.

Anyway, this whole notion that "the Orioles weren't really in the running for Teixeira, so fans shouldn't be mad" is overlooking the point that Teixeira talked about the possibility of coming home to Baltimore for at least two years and led countless O's fans on about his intentions.

Did he really want to play for the Orioles? Probably not. Did he make it seem that way? Yes.

And even though the O's didn't offer him as much as the Yankees did, it's not like they offered him chump change. Teixeira used the Orioles and Nationals to drive up the price. The Yankees probably would have paid the same amount anyway, but the plan still worked.

The whole thing really isn't that big of a deal. Fans have the right to boo -- and they did. So what? Fans can be pretty smart, and they don't have to rely on certain Sports Illustrated writers to fill them in.

Teixeira's goal was to make the most money possible, and he did that. He may have been sad for a few minutes during or after the game (I doubt it), but all he has to do is look at his next paycheck to feel better.

If the goal was to have everyone like him, then Teixeira probably made a poor choice in signing with New York.

So Heyman, calm down. There's definitely a good reason to boo Teixeira besides the fact that he wasn't entirely truthful: He's a Yankee now. If he needs some help dealing with a little hate, all he has to do is walk across the clubhouse to A-Rod's locker.

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Apparently Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports also thinks Orioles fans went overboard yesterday:

Orioles fans had no rational reason to boo Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira on Monday, unless you believe that a free agent should give his hometown team a $30 million discount and ignore that team's 11 straight losing seasons.

If you say so, Ken.

LeBron 'absolutely' thinks Yankees will land Sabathia

I'm not really sure why this is an MLB headline on ESPN.com, but apparently LeBron James, a huge Yankees fan, is positive that CC Sabathia will eventually sign with the Yankees.

"Asked before Cleveland's game against Utah on Saturday night if he thought the Yankees would win the Sabathia sweepstakes, James smiled and said, 'We're gonna get him. Absolutely.'"

No word on whether Caron Butler thinks the Nationals have a shot at Mark Teixeira or not.

O's offense still producing

The Orioles put up 16 runs against the Detroit Tigers today to take the third game of the series and two out of three. The O's (60-63) went 4-3 on their most recent road trip which included four games in Cleveland.

With so much unexpected production from Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora, Adam Jones (before his injury), and Luke Scott, the Orioles' offense is in some pretty impressive company at this point in the season. The offense is fourth in MLB in runs scored with 618 -- 32 more than the Yankees have scored. The O's are also 10th in HRs (138), tied for 11th in on-base percentage (.336), 7th in slugging percentage (.438), and 6th in OPS (.780).

The O's can attribute their offensive explosion to very strong post-All Star break numbers. Since the break, the O's rank first in MLB in the following categories: runs (179), OPS (.864), batting average (.304), RBI (172), total bases (514), and extra base hits (115). They're also fourth in home runs with 37.

The significant amount of home runs is especially shocking since many of the same players in the lineup last season have already eclipsed their 2007 power numbers with 39 games still left to play this season.

Here are the numbers for part of the current lineup with their home run numbers from 2007 and so far in 2008. Remember, Luke Scott played with the Astros last year.

Brian Roberts -- 12/8/-4
Nick Markakis -- 23/17/-6
Melvin Mora -- 14/20/+6
Aubrey Huff -- 15/26/+11
Luke Scott -- 18/21/+3
Kevin Millar -- 17/18/+1
Ramon Hernandez -- 9/12/+3

These seven players have combined to hit 14 more home runs than they did last year. Roberts and Markakis haven't hit as many HRs, but they're also both having better seasons. Roberts is stealing fewer bases -- 30, compared to 50 in 2007 -- but his OPS is 38 points higher, and he's also hitting more doubles (44 up to this point). Markakis is also playing very well with an .894 OPS, which is 46 points higher than in 2007. He's also drawing tons of walks -- 76 so far -- and has a very impressive .401 OBP.

Mora's amazing post-All Star break numbers also deserve to be recognized. After a 5-6 day against the Tigers today, Mora is hitting an astounding .432 in 28 games and has a .461 OBP and a .780 SLG. That's right, Mora has a 1.241 OPS after the break. Even in 28 games, that's extremely impressive. Other notable stats during his superb run: 51 hits, 22 runs, 9 HRs, 43 RBI, and 92 total bases.

No one knows for sure what the future will bring for the O's. Some of these players may be traded before the start of next season, and all of them probably won't be back. But as a unit, they've all worked hard to put up plenty of runs and prove a lot of people wrong on how the Orioles would fare this season.

If they can do it for a little while longer, the O's may actually end up at .500 this season -- a task few people figured the Orioles could accomplish this season.