Two More Debuts- O'Day & Chen

The final two players on the Orioles 25 man roster who had not yet appeared in a game for the O's have now both made their Baltimore debuts. 

Darren O'Day became the 919th player to appear in a game with the O's when he made his debut out of the bullpen during Monday's game. He pitched 1.1 innings and was the first man out of the 'pen to replace the struggling Brian Matusz. He retired the Yankees 4-5-6 hitters in order in the fifth inning but ran into some trouble in the sixth, and only was able to get one more out after allowing a leadoff homer to Andruw Jones, two walks, and a single before being pulled from the game.

Darren was nice enough to sign this postcard and card for me during my spring training trip.

I also have the below postcard and card now available for trade that I obtained in a trade following O's FanFest.

When I was looking for Darren's cards after the O's signed him, I found that he has just four MLB cards; these two Upper Deck cards from 2008 & '10, and two certfied autographs issues from 2008, so exactly 50% of his big league cards are pre-signed. Good if you need his autograph for your collection, but bad if you prefer to have him sign in-person.

Oriole #920 is starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen, who made his Orioles, as well as his U.S. and MLB, debut on Tuesday night against the Yankees. Things got off to a shaky start when he gave up a lead-off homer to Derek Jeter followed by a Nick Swisher double. My expectations for him almost immediately began to dip and I figured I might be able to catch up on some of the shows on my DVR. 

But instead, Wei-Yin turned things around in a hurry and didn't allow another hit until the fifth inning. He ran into some trouble in the sixth, no thanks to a very poorly timed Mark Reynolds error, and exited the game after 5.2 innings, having allowed seven hits, one walk, and four runs (two earned), while striking out six. All told it was a solid American debut against a tough Yankees line-up. He very well could have won the game if not for Reynolds' poor defense. 

 Chen became the first player from Taiwan to play for the Orioles and I believe just the seventh player from the country in MLB history. After last night's relatively impressive debut against a strong opponent, I think that he has a good chance to have a lot of success for the O's.