Our weekly look at one item tying together each of the Red Sox' opponents in the AL East begins with the Orioles, who got something special, and somewhat surprising, in their opener.
The reason Baltimore is receiving plenty of love in the "sleeper" category this season is the many imports they made in terms of veteran bats. Vladimir Guerrero, Derrek Lee, Mark Reynolds and J.J. Hardy will bolster what could be a pretty potent lineup in support of a talented, but unproven staff.
However, it's that talented, unproven staff that will have to become something special for the Orioles to make the leap. And with Brian Matusz, perhaps the best of the bunch, out for up to four weeks with an intercostal muscle strain, it becomes even more pressing for someone to step up.
Well, Jeremy Guthrie certainly set a tone. The veteran of the rotation, Guthrie dominated the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener Friday night, outdueling David Price in a 4-1 Baltimore victory. The Rays got just three hits in eight innings against Guthrie and never had a runner advance to third until Ben Zobrist went deep off a reliever in the ninth.
Guthrie does not get a lot of ink in a division loaded with quality arms and due to rather meager win totals on a last-place team, but he has had an ERA under 3.83 and a WHIP under 1.23 in three of the last four seasons.
Nobody is expecting Guthrie to give that kind of performance every fifth day, but he has already provided a quality example for his youthful colleagues.
