Orioles: Uehara's debut

Can't wait to get to the ballpark today for the showdown between Koji Uehara and Chien-Ming Wang. It's almost impossible to predict what is going to happen, but I believe Koji will get more offensive support, so I'm going to go with the O's again.

It's no reverse lock this time. The Orioles lineup is legit and Uehara has some factors working in his favor. He's totally unfamiliar to American hitters, which should have an impact even if former Yomiuri Giants teammate Hideki Matsui holds a seminar on his strengths and weaknesses for the Yankees lineup before the game.

Nice story on Uehara by Dan Connolly in today's Sun, which you can read here. Koji says he's not nervous about his Orioles debut, and I would tend to believe him.

This is not anywhere close to the biggest game he has pitched in his career. He'll have 50 Japanese media members following his every move tonight, but he said during spring training that the large Asian media contingent isn't even close to what he had to deal with on a daily basis as a member of the Tokyo Giants.

Associated Press photo