Homerun Derby in Baltimore, Orioles Come Up Short

Last night was quite the spectacle, the Orioles and Reds combined for nine homers but the Orioles came up on the short end of the stick once again losing 10-5.

There are a couple things we need to talk about:

Brian Matusz: How freaked out should we all be?

Well, on a scale of 1-10 (One being Mr. Rogers after three cups of Sleepytime Tea and 10 being Andrew WK after 10 cups of espresso) I would say a solid five. You have to be concerned about Matusz at this point. Since coming back from injury his velocity has been way down and it hasn't gotten better. His command has been spotty and last night he simply got torched last night, but that has been par for the course. After two encouraging starts in June against Seattle and Oakland in his last three starts he has only pitched 11.1 innings and has given up 14 ER and six homers. Last night he was torched for three, two by regining NL MVP Joey Votto who had five RBI off two completely smashed homers.

I think Orioles fans need to be a little patient with Brian. To listen to some fans talk they are already beginning to wrote Matusz off as a bust; it's not that bad yet guys. Matusz is struggling there is no doubt about that but there is no reason to think that this is more than him struggling to get back from a nagging injury. Should he be DL'ed or sent down? According to MSNBC the Orioles have no plans to do that. He needs to work through things up here - but if things continue along these lines the Orioles will have to make a decision.

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