Orioles season begins with tough last-minute loss to Rays

With presumed backup catcher Chad Moeller gone in favor of the inexperienced Craig Tatum and two players (pitcher Chris Tillman and infielder Robert Andino) who many thought would make the Orioles' 25-man roster designated for assignment, the O's management have certainly raised some eyebrows as spring training ends and the long baseball season begins.

The news of Andino's reassignment is the most recent. Three days ago, Andino, who was regarded as somewhat of shoo-in as one of the O's utility infielders (he and Ty Wigginton routinely subbed for injured or overplayed infielders last season), was ousted in favor of infielder Julio Lugo, who was traded to the O's from the St. Louis Cardinals. "I'll be honest, I'm a little irritated," Andino said, according to MLB.com. As of right now, it doesn't look like there's any news about whether Andino has cleared waivers. If he does, he'll be back in Triple-A Norfolk soon.

But back to Opening Day. Here is the starting lineup for tonight's game, the Baltimore Orioles at the Tampa Bay Rays, which is currently in progress, but will probably be over by the time I publish this post.

2B Brian Roberts
CF Adam Jones
RF Nick Markakis
3B Miguel Tejada
DH Luke Scott
C Matt Wieters
LF Felix Pie
1B Garrett Atkins
SS Cesar Izturis

There really aren't many surprises there. It will be interesting to see Tejada develop into that third-base spot, which used to belong to his good friend Melvin Mora. The one that some people are having problems with is the choice of Pie over sometimes-left-fielder Nolan Reimold. Reimold, however, did have Achilles surgery in the off-season, which is a big contributing factor to the choice of Pie. The big debate here is that Reimold, though a rookie last season, offers both good offense and defense. Pie, though he proved himself a little bit by upping his average toward the end of last season (including a game in which he batted for the cycle), still struggles defensively (e.g. a slightly-off throw to home that allowed a Tampa RBI in the fifth). Hopefully, Reimold will get some playing time soon and one of these two young guys will emerge as the starting left fielder.

Game highlights:

The Orioles have proven they have the bats, with three single homers by Jones, Scott and Wieters. Every player in the lineup, except Roberts and Tejada, had at least one hit, with 11 hits total. Jones was 3 for 5 with the homer, a single and a double. Wieters was 2 for 4 with the homer and a single. Izturis was also 2 for 4 with two singles. Also impressive was Markakis' throw to home, which ended the fifth inning and protected the O's one-run lead at the time. However, the O's struggled where they always seem to struggle most and that is in the left-on-base department. This team would kick so much ass, pardon my French, if they did not continually strand men on the bases (obviously there are several other issues, but this is one of them--not scoring enough runs). The O's ultimately left 10 men on base, I believe seven of those in scoring position. Any one of those seven could have been converted to RBIs to give the O's some extra insurance runs.

Millwood, the pitcher who the O's acquired in hopes of bringing a veteran presence to the team, did pretty well for his first official outing as an Oriole. He pitched five innings, allowed nine hits and two earned runs (including a homer by Evan Longoria), but struck out five.

Also lending a hand were bullpen members Matt Albers (who seriously always makes me nervous when they bring him in, but he pitched 1.1 scoreless innings), new meat Will Ohman, Jim Johnson and Michael Gonzalez. Gonzalez almost gave up a two-run homer in the ninth with one out, which would have given the Rays the game, but the O's held on for another batter. Following an intentional pass, Carl Crawford then came in with bases loaded and hit a line drive to right field that allowed two RBIs. The O's, who led until these final seconds, fell 4-3 in their season opener. What a freaking bummer.