O's Notes, 4.4

4/4/2011

Orioles 5 (4-0), Tigers 1 (1-3)

Oriole Park @ Camden Yards

SP: Jake Arrieta

Sorry for the lack of O's Notes for the first 3 games of the year. Truth is, I was out of town for my bachelor party this weekend and lacked both the sports nerdiness and the sobriety to watch a baseball game in the casinos, so I figured I would be better off to wait until I had seen a full game before running my mouth about it.

Great win on an absolutely gorgeous Opening Day. The middle innings were shaky with some shoddy defense and poor hitting, but B-Rob's three-run homer put us on top to stay. Relief was great and Wieters went 2-3 with a walk. What's not to like?

Notes:

- Markakis looks absolutely locked in and is really driving the ball.

- Vlad is just about the exact opposite of Nick at this point. He looks terrible at the plate, chasing everything and displaying very little patience.

- Arrieta, despite the good result, still needs to work on his control and putting batters away. It seemed like he got in a ton of 0-2 counts that ended up as walks or hits. Starts like this don't often end up like this - the Tigers were hitting it right at our fielders, and hard.

- Adam Jones looks like he's pressing badly - and three fly balls and a strikeout attest to that.

- Derrick Lee looks awesome at first base - very solid.

I know the 4-0 start won't last, but it is really exciting to see so many fans enjoying Orioles baseball. It really does seem like we've turned a corner.