The Orioles today announced that Jim Duquette, Vice President of Baseball Operations, has resigned his position after two years with the ballclub.

“I appreciate the work that Jim has done here, and I also understand his decision to resign,” said Andy MacPhail, Orioles President of Baseball Operations.  “Jim wants to continue his career with a different organization, which I understand.  I wish him well.”

“I felt it was in the organization’s best interest as well as my own to start fresh somewhere else,” said Duquette.  “I’m grateful for the opportunities the Orioles have provided.  I think it’s important for me personally and professionally to continue to develop and to look at opportunities elsewhere.”

Duquette joined the Orioles on October 20, 2005, after working in numerous capacities in the front office of the New York Mets for 14 of the previous 15 seasons, including one and one-half years as general manager.  He also worked for the Houston Astros for one year.

Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington announced today that Jim Tracy has been relieved of his duties as the club’s Manager.  In addition, the Pirates announced that Senior Director of Player Development Brian Graham, Senior Director of Scouting Ed Creech and Director of Baseball Operations Jon Mercurio have also been relieved of their duties.

“Since my appointment as General Manager I have worked diligently to gather information about the inner-workings of the organization.  After a systematic evaluation of that information, I have come to the difficult conclusion that to transform the culture and to chart the course for future success, these changes needed to be made,” said Huntington.  “These decisions have been difficult because I respect these individuals as family men, as good baseball people and as professionals.  However, I felt that to successfully implement our philosophies, visions and systems there needed to be a change in focus, direction and leadership.”

Chris Young hit a 3-run homer, and Stephen Drew tripled and drove in 2 to spark the Arizona Diamondbacks to an 8-4 win over the Chicago Cubs. Ted Lilly just didn't have it on this day as he gave up 6 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in just 3 1/3 innings. Diamondbacks lead the series 2-0.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Cubs  0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 4 8 0  Diamondbacks  0 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 X 8 9 1
W: D. Davis (W, 1-0); L: T. Lilly (L, 0-1)
HR: CHC: G. Soto (1). ARI: C. Young (1). Recapping the Game in Quotes Q. You've really held their big hitters in check, the top four in their order. What do you think is leading to that, and how important is that? BOB MELVIN: Well, we're executing pitches against those guys. Guys are bearing down against them. Every one of those guys are dangerous, starting with Soriano. Each team, to an effect with all the scouting and so forth that's done leading into the postseason, knows the strengths and weaknesses. Now it's about executing pitches. You know, Doug did execute pitches when he needed to at times. He can be effectively wild or he'll paint on one pitch and then throw one two feet out of the zone, and to an extent sometimes the hitters aren't really sure where it's going. We've executed a lot of pitches, especially in big situations, especially against the meat of that order. Q. I want to go back to the patience you've shown against the Cubs. Six walks, four of those guys ended up scoring. Talk about that. BOB MELVIN: Yeah, that's the type of team we need to be. At times this year we haven't been very patient, other times we've been very patient. As a group a lot of guys will get better and better about drawing their walks and being that much more patient, and to see a 19, just turned 20-year old kid have the patience he did and lay off some of the pitches he did today shows a little bit about his composure and his make up. You know, that's what we need to do. We need to be able to grind guys that are a little bit --at times can have problems with command and recognize when they're trying to pound the strike zone and be more aggressive, and I think we're getting better as the season goes along with that. Q. Obviously you go as far as your big boys and they haven't been able to get it done yet for you. LOU PINIELLA: Well, this Arizona pitching, I said it before the series started, we had to hit. They've done it a lot this year with their pitching. They're an athletic team, and they caught some balls out there that when they were hit I didn't think they would be caught. Look, we're going home. We've got our home fans, and we've got a chance to get it back here with a couple wins, and that's exactly what we're going to try to do. Q. On the exchange, on the homerun by Young, it appeared Lilly was more than just upset. Do you think it was just on the location or on the call of the pitch itself? LOU PINIELLA: I don't know. I didn't ask him, but I've never seen a pitcher throw their glove like that on the mound. He was probably upset at the -- I think the catcher called for a breaking ball, and I think that was it. But you know what, I'm not positive. I'm not positive. But he threw a high fastball and the kid put a good swing on it, Young, and hit it a pretty good ways. But what are you going to do? Lilly gave it his best out there, it just didn't work out for him today.