Can you name the two currently-active Orioles catchers without looking it up?
Hello, friends.
How ‘bout dem O’s? The Orioles get an off day to enjoy the fact that they just swept three games from the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. The Braves are a team that’s been disappointing about as much as the Orioles have, and this weekend could have just as easily gone the other way with the O’s bumbling and losing. Instead, the O’s stay hot enough to keep things interesting.
Dating back to the low point of the season, when the Orioles suffered a walkoff loss to the Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader on May 24 to fall to 16-34, the O’s have rallied to a 24-15 record over their next 39 games. That’s a solid month-plus with the team playing at a .615 clip, which over a full season amounts to a 100-win pace, rounded up.
There have been some really stupid losses in there to make it feel like the Orioles remain in the dumps. The fact that they’re still just 40-49 after playing .600 baseball for so long goes to show how bad it was early on.
It’s not like the chaos has stopped. Injuries keep piling up. With Gary Sánchez hitting the injured list yesterday, the Orioles have four catchers on the IL. Their current catchers are Jacob Stallings and Alex Jackson. If your response to that is, “Who?” then yes, that’s exactly the point. The Orioles are winning some games even in the middle of all of this.
Seeing some good pitching from Charlie Morton and Trevor Rogers has been encouraging. Dean Kremer was on a good run until getting blasted a bit by the Braves on Saturday. In the bullpen, Seranthony Domínguez, Bryan Baker, and Félix Bautista have been doing well over the last month. This is a team that, if it hadn’t dug itself such a big hole early on, would belong right in the back of wild card contenders.
Instead, the team got a sweep this weekend and they gained no ground on the third wild card spot. That’s because the Mariners also got a sweep, beating the Pirates three games straight. The Orioles are still 7.5 games back with seven teams to pass. They’re within a game of one team, the Guardians, who’ve lost ten straight. It’s tough math. The Orioles have to play very well while hoping no team ahead of them plays even modestly well.
Today is an off day. The Orioles bullpen could probably use the rest, with a number of guys pitching in both games of the Braves series. The Mets will be in town to play a series that starts tomorrow night. The Mets are a lot better than Atlanta has been this season, so if the Orioles are going to keep this stretch of baseball rolling, they’ll need to find a way to beat a team that’s contending for its division lead instead of another disappointment like the Braves have been.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Catcher Gary Sánchez hits injured list, Orioles acquire catcher from Yankees (The Baltimore Banner)
Rounding up the latest on the Orioles catching situation, which is so far beyond ridiculous at this point that it’s hard to know what to even say about it.
If the Orioles are going to make a move, now would be the time (Baltimore Baseball)
I think the cake is probably baked as far as the Orioles ending up as sellers, but, if they want to go 4-2 or 5-1 headed into the All-Star break just to make things more interesting, I won’t complain.
Ryan O’Hearn remains only Orioles All-Star after full rosters announced (Camden Chat)
This one is mine from yesterday. It would have been nice to have multiple Orioles All-Stars, but then, if we had that, the season would probably be going a lot better than it is.
Top 40 trade candidates for the 2025 deadline (MLBTR)
There are seven Orioles on this list and I still have to imagine a lot of them will be traded. It’s not a strong market, and I doubt teams that try to buy will pay much for what is available, including some of the O’s candidates.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1995, the Orioles acquired pitcher Scott Erickson from the Twins in exchange for Scott Klingenbeck and a player to be named later that eventually became Kimera Bartee. From 1995 to 1999, Erickson notched 15.2 WAR while starting 170 games and pitching at least 196.1 innings every year. He threw a complete game shutout for 2130 later in that 1995 season.
There is one lone former Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 76th to Baltimore-born infielder Tim Nordbrook, who appeared in 73 games for the team across the 1974-76 seasons.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: composer Gustav Mahler (1860), baseball Hall of Famer Satchel Paige (1906), author Robert Heinlein (1907), baseball Hall of Famer Billy Herman (1909), The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (1940), basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie (1972), and figure skater Michelle Kwan (1980).
On this day in history…
In 1456, a retrial was held for Joan of Arc, 25 years after she was found guilty and executed on charges of heresy. The retrial ended with an acquittal.
In 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company, who had been granted use of inventor Otto Rohwedder’s automated bread-slicing machine, put sliced bread on sale for the first time. This just so happened to be Rohwedder’s 48th birthday.
In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was nominated to become the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States. She was confirmed by a 99-0 vote in the Senate.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 7. Have a safe Monday.