It's early.  

And there's no point in getting carried away.  

And the opponent has been in a team-wide slump since the season started.

But Orioles fans have been like starving dogs for the last six years so forgive us if we drool at the site of a fresh bone.

In the just completed three-game sweep over the Toronto Blue Jays, the trio of inexperienced Orioles starters were varying degrees of impressive...but make no mistake, all of the pitchers were impressive.  Let's take a chronological look.

On Friday night, Matt Riley benefited from a six-run second inning to win his first game of the year.  Some young pitchers lose their focus with a big lead, but not Riley.  He fired seven innings of one-hit ball, allowing only a one-out solo home run to Josh Phelps in the second inning.  He walked three but struck out seven and threw 61 of 105 pitches for strikes before he was, wisely, pulled by manager Lee Mazzilli.  When Rick Bauer took the mound in the eighth inning, Baltimore led the game 11-1.  Essentially, Riley stifled the Jays, allowing only four baserunners in seven innings, at one point retiring 12 consecutive batters.

On Saturday afternoon, Kurt Ainsworth wasn't quite as overwhelming as Riley had been, but overall he pitched an impressive game.  He allowed three runs in seven innings, but surrendered only four hits (including a solo home run off the bat of Vernon Wells).  He walked no one--though he did hit a pair of batters--and fanned seven.  Perhaps most notable about Ainsworth was the fact that every time he got into trouble he limited the damage.  The three Toronto tallies were single runs scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings.  While it would obviously be preferable if Ainsworth had kept the Jays off the scoreboard entirely, I was impressed with his ability to keep Toronto from posting a crooked number.  It's a bit of a cliché, but Ainsworth really did keep his team in the game, and that paid off after the right-hander had departed when the Birds scored twice in the ninth to win the game.  Ainsworth had a few lapses, but generally showed excellent command, throwing 57 of his 95 pitches for strikes and all but erasing memory of his dreadful start against Boston in the second game of the season.

Finally, there was Eric DuBose's performance on Sunday afternoon.  DuBose did his fellow starters one better by firing seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk while fanning five.  The lefty was consistently ahead of Toronto hitters, tossing 55 strikes in 84 pitches.  Rebounding completely from a pair of earlier, mediocre appearances, DuBose also showed striking poise by pitching around a trio of infield miscues (only two of which were ruled errors) in keeping the Jays off the board.  He was rewarded with his first win of the season.

In a season presumably filled with cautious hope, there could be no larger, more important, more inspiring story than the success of the Orioles' youth-endowed starting rotation.

It's early.  

And there's no point in getting carried away.  

But the performance of the Baby Birds in Toronto this past weekend gives us all a credible reason to hope.

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