His strong start has been overshadowed a bit by his good friend and fellow Orioles mainstay Brian Roberts, but right fielder Nick Markakis leads the first-place Orioles -- that will never get old, will it? -- in batting average and has made significant contributions in each of the team's four season-opening wins.

The finest play, of course, was has game-saving, Web-gemming grab on Saturday. With two out, two on and Baltimore leading by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tampa Bay's Ben Zobrist smashed a Kevin Gregg pitch deep to right field. Markakis tracked it to the warning track, leaped and snagged it at the top of the wall. "It's a crime he hasn't won a Gold Glove by this point," Roberts told reporters afterward.

It's not a crime -- unless it's one of those unwritten rules like the one that Jake Fox broke last week -- but Roberts is right when he says that Markakis deserves to get one of those gaudy gloves for his trophy room.