MILWAUKEE -- Follow the microphones, and you'll find Andy MacPhail. Baltimore's president of baseball operations is with his team as the Orioles head to Chicago's Wrigley Field, the home of his last employer. MacPhail said that he's looking forward to going home but hoping to avoid becoming a center of attention, a job that may be easier said than done.

"I'm really not looking for that," MacPhail said about the unremitting media spotlight, which he knows will likely find him. "I've thought about it, and I would try to lay low as much as I can, but obviously, you're going to face more of an issue if you're going to duck the media. [The Cubs] have the White Sox on both ends of us, so it should be fairly quiet."

MacPhail has been back to Chicago since taking the job with the Orioles, but he hasn't been back to Wrigley Field in a highly visible role. Several other Orioles have ties to the Cubs -- including manager Dave Trembley, pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Alan Dunn -- but MacPhail knows that he'll likely bear the brunt of the attention.

The Orioles and Cubs have made a few trades since MacPhail took over in Baltimore, with the deals for Freddie Bynum and Scott Moore standing as the most prominent. And perhaps most famous is a deal that never got done. MacPhail and the Cubs reportedly discussed a deal for Brian Roberts last winter and all the way up to Spring Training, but the deal fell short of completion.

The bottom line, though, is that MacPhail is looking forward to his homecoming. His Orioles are playing better than anyone expected, and he has a soft spot in his heart for the several good years he spent in Chicago.

"It was a great experience for me," he said of his Chicago stewardship. "I really got exposed to a lot, learned a lot. It was really a unique opportunity, and I enjoyed it. I had the benefit of being able to be with my family, [and] my two young boys watched a lot of home baseball because of the day games. I was really fortunate to have that opportunity when I did."

Pitching matchup
BAL: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (3-7, 3.51 ERA)
Guthrie has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 13 of his 16 starts this season.

CHC: LHP Sean Marshall (0-0, 4.15 ERA)
Marshall will be making his first big league start -- and his 14th appearance -- of the season.

Bird bites
The Orioles walked a season-high 10 times on Sunday and stranded nine runners on base. ... Roberts doubled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 10 straight and 18 of the last 19 games played. ... Nick Markakis walked four times on Sunday to set a new career high. ... Baltimore is 22-12 at home and 16-24 on the road this season.

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Up next
• Wednesday: Orioles (Brian Burres, 6-5, 5.24) at Cubs (Ted Lilly, 7-5, 4.71), 8:05 p.m. ET
• Thursday: Orioles (Radhames Liz, 1-0, 6.27) at Cubs (Jason Marquis, 6-3, 4.43), 2:20 p.m. ET
• Friday: Orioles (Daniel Cabrera, 5-3, 4.46) at Nationals (Odalis Perez, 2-5, 4.09), 7:35 p.m. ET