Gary Roenicke, 1985 Donruss #123

It's really difficult to curb my giddiness over the Orioles' late-season success under Buck Showalter. The latest fun stat: After losing their first 12 games against the Blue Jays in 2010, the O's just swept a three-game series from them. In each of the last two games, they beat up on the sons of ex-Orioles.

In last night's game, they flat-out abused Josh Roenicke, Gary's offspring. In one of those weird cosmic coincidences, Josh was born the day before I was. I don't know if we were in the same hospital, but his birthplace was Baltimore. He is now in his third major league season and has shown promise, but has yet to put it all together. He entered Tuesday's game in the bottom of the seventh with two runners on base, one out, and the Birds ahead 3-0. He failed to retire a single batter of the five he faced, surrendering RBI singles to Adam Jones and Matt Wieters before walking the unwalkable Cesar Izturis to load the bases. Rookie Josh Bell (0-3, 3 K at the time) tried to help him out by hitting a weak comebacker, but Roenicke failed to field it cleanly and threw wildly to first. 6-0, bases still loaded for Robert Andino, a career .213 hitter. Andino lined the first pitch into the left field corner for a three-run double. Cito Gaston mercifully pulled Josh from the game with the scoreboard reading 9-0.

Tonight, Toronto's much-heralded prospect Kyle Drabek made his major league debut as starting pitcher against Brad Bergesen and the O's. The 22-year-old is the son of Doug Drabek, who ended his career with a gruesome 1998 campaign in Charm City. Doug and the rest of the family were in attendance at Camden Yards tonight and the team apparently upgraded them from seats just below the press box to new seats behind the dugout. The elder Drabek looks good for 48; his hair and mustache are silver, but he got rid of that trademark mullet. Anyway, Kyle's final line tonight didn't look bad - he gave up three runs in six innings to meet the minimum definition of a quality start. But the Orioles actually got their licks in with nine hits and three walks. Some baserunning misadventures and other missed opportunities kept the game close. Of course Bergesen didn't need much help, as he shut out the Jays after allowing a first-inning home run to Jose Bautista. He allowed seven hits and no walks and wrapped the game up in a tidy 1:55. (Note to self: the next time you want to go to the park on a work night, make sure Brad is pitching.) Bergy ties his 2009 total with win number seven and spoils Kyle Drabek's first major league game.

It's a shame the Yankees don't have any Oriole offspring on their pitching staff. We might have been able to pencil in another win on Friday.