While the Ravens' one-sided preseason win over Philadelphia whetted the appetites of Baltimore's fans who have been waiting for the 2007 NFL season to start ever since last January's playoff loss to the Colts, the Orioles continued to show encouraging signs.
The 7-6 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx was mostly disappointing in that starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie is beginning to create some doubt that his first four months were an aberration. After several months of strong, even overpowering, performances in which he was the team's hard-luck kid because he received so little offensive support, Guthrie has given up 14 runs in 14 innings over his last three starts. Along the way, he has squandered some opportunities to improve his own record, including last night when he let a three-run lead slip away on a couple of gopher balls.
On the other side of the ledger, the bullpen held fast and the offense scrambled back to tie the game, 6-6, in the top of the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera even though one runner, Melvin More, was thrown at the plate (and, no, this time it wasn't Melvin's fault but rather third base coach Juan Samuel's). The Yankees scored the winning run on a scratch hit by Derek Jeter in the bottom of the inning. But as the AL East-leading Red Sox found out in the weekend series at Camden Yards where the Orioles took two of three, most games against the revived Orioles are going to be a dogfight.
* Speaking of Boston, the Red Sox maintained their four-game lead over the Yankees with a 3-0 win over Tampa Bay as knuckleballer Tim Wakefield threw an eight-inning two-hitter. Wakefield tossed 100 pitches, 72 for strikes, and hasn't given up a home run in his last six starts, covering nearly 38 innings.
* And finally, the Ravens' first-team offense and defense were extraordinarily effective in the 29-3 cakewalk over Philadelphia at M&T Bank Stadium. I thought the most impressive part was that the offensive line -- which had a lot of youth and some inexperience -- hardly allowed the Eagles to get near quarterback Steve McNair during the Ravens' first drive (which produced a touchdown) and opened a nice hole on the left side for Willis McGahee's 16-yard run. In fact, on the six-yard touchdown pass to Quinn Sypniewski, McNair had time to pump once and continue to go through his reads to find the backup TE, who clearly was not the first option on the play. Other than on one pressure in the red zone just before the score, play-action and simply good blocking had the Eagles back on their heels and greased a 93-yard, 12-play march.
