Melvin Mora is preparing to finish up his time with the Orioles. Mora, 37, ranks in the top 10 in most of the franchise's offensive categories. "If I go in 10 days and be a free agent, I'll go with my head up. That I did everything I was supposed to do with the Orioles," Mora told the Baltimore Sun. "Whatever I am going to be next year, I'll never get tired of thanking the Orioles, because I made my career here." The club won't discuss the situation, but the Orioles will not pick up Mora's $8 million option for the 2010 season. "I have been here with that a long time, rebuilding," Mora said. "I was part of rebuilding in 2000, and after that there were veteran players and they left. Then Erik Bedard came, had a great year and he left. George Sherrill came in as part of the rebuilding and he left. I cannot wait too long. I cannot wait for it to take four more years to see what happens, because in four more years, I will be out of baseball."

The Orioles are expected to shut down rookie pitcher Brian Matusz soon. Matusz has thrown 157 2/3 innings this season, his first in the professional baseball. He has thrown 44 2/3 of those innings for the Orioles. "It's really just a function of the innings and what is best for the kid," Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail told the Baltimore Sun. "Whether it's a good outing that he ends on or a bad one, it's really a mathematical equation. He really was here before I would have preferred him to be here and he's acquitted himself to this point extraordinarily well." He is 5-2 with a 4.63 ERA this season. "I think you have to do the right thing no matter what, whether a guy is pitching good or not, but I think it's a little easier, if, in fact, you did shut the guy down, that you leave him with the game that he had [Saturday]," manager Dave Trembley said. "That could be the swan song, so to speak. I always think you look at the whole body of work and the entire situation and you base the decision on that."

Four men have been arrested for stealing a large aluminum No. 8 that commemorates Orioles great Cal Ripken outside Camden Yards. Surveillance cameras captured video of the men placing the monument in the bed of a pickup truck, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones could miss the remainder of the season after spraining his left ankle on Tuesday. "We've got five weeks left; of course I want to be there on the field with my teammates. There's nothing I'd rather do," Jones told the Baltimore Sun. "But at the same time, you've got to be smart. Is it smart enough to come back for the last couple of weeks, or is it smart enough to just let it heal all the way and come back next year?" Jones, the team's only All-Star, hit .277 with 19 homers and 70 RBIs in 119 games this season. "It's frustrating on that level. I haven't been swinging the bat as well as I was earlier in the year," Jones said. "I just wanted to have a strong finish and this I wouldn't say eliminates that, but it hurts my chances for me coming back for the rest of the year."