Cade Povich, come on down. You’re the next contestant on the Price is Right!
Hello, friends.
The Orioles can’t win them all. It only feels like they have to when the Yankees are playing their permanent punching bag, the Twins. That wasn’t a fun one in Toronto last night, with the offense that scored ten runs the night before mustering just two, and with the game being lost from a sequence of events that followed a pickoff throw turning into an error that sent the winning Blue Jays run into scoring position with no one out. Bummer.
Check out John Beers’s recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals. If you would like to try to take one positive away from the game, consider this: Ramón Urías has got his OPS up over .700. This may not even be a positive for you if you wanted to see Urías designated for assignment upon Jorge Mateo’s return in order to keep Connor Norby at the MLB level. Hey, I tried.
The Orioles have guaranteed at least a split of the series since they won the first two games, but it would be nice if they can win the four-gamer. That’s doubly true since today is going to bring the major league debut for another prospect. Following Wednesday afternoon reports that he was on the way to join the team in Toronto, the O’s officially confirmed after last night’s game that lefty Cade Povich is starting the series finale.
Povich is currently the #9 Orioles prospect on the MLB Pipeline ranking. Hopefully his family members have passports to make the trip to Canada, which apparently the Norby clan was not able to do.
At Triple-A Norfolk this season, Povich has pitched to a 3.18 ERA in 11 starts. The league ERA overall is 4.90, so he is doing quite a bit better than average. Notably, he’s shaved about a third off of his BB/9 from a year ago, with 3.3 BB/9 this season – while striking out 11.9 per nine. Those are good rates. He’s pitched six innings in four of his 11 starts and has never gone beyond six, so I’m not setting my hopes higher than five for his MLB debut.
Hopefully, Povich can make a nice impression. We won’t have to wait long to find out. It’s an afternoon game to close out the series. The two teams will be back in action in Canada at 1:07 Eastern. Yusei Kikuchi brings a 3.66 ERA for the season into this start against the O’s.
Along with the excitement of the debut of another prospect comes something else that might make people nervous. Povich is only making his debut today because the Orioles chose to push back Kyle Bradish from what would have been his scheduled start. Manager Brandon Hyde was vague when asked by Orioles reporters about Bradish’s status before yesterday’s game, not committing to Bradish starting at all in the four-game series against the Rays that begins tomorrow.
You could read that as Hyde being cagey and not wanting to give anything away to give the Rays a chance to prepare for one guy or another. You could read it as there being possibly concerning things going on with Bradish. You could discount that possibility because the Orioles are fanatical about maximizing their roster space and if they thought Bradish had an IL-worthy injury, he’d have gone on the IL days ago to give the O’s an extra reliever in the meantime.
We can’t know for sure until either they tell us or one of the reporters sniffs it out before they tell us. The Orioles are inscrutable. Sometimes they’re predictable even as they won’t tell anything, but other times they are not.
Around the blogO’sphere
Bradish’s next turn not yet set (Steve Melewski)
Some more extended quotes from Hyde here. Further context is that he says the Orioles could end up listing TBA starters a lot in June as they try to juggle extra rest for pitchers when they can.
Connor Norby is on the Orioles to fill a role. There are few drawbacks if he struggles. (The Baltimore Banner)
Yeah, but they actually have to play him! He started the first two games, but not last night. We’ll see if he’s back in against the lefty Kikuchi today.
Behind the scenes of Connor Norby’s MLB debut (Orioles.com)
If you need something to feel a little better after last night’s loss, here’s some more stuff from Norby about his debut and about getting his first MLB hit/homer in his second game.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
The most recent Orioles victory on this date happened three years ago, when the O’s drop-kicked the then-Indians for an 18-5 victory. The 21-38 O’s were on pace to finish 58-104. Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, and Ryan Mountcastle all had three hits (as did DJ Stewart), with Mullins adding two walks. Ramón Urías had a pair of hits, including a homer. Not a bad start to a better O’s lineup. Jorge López allowed three runs in five innings as the starting pitcher.
Of all the players to ever play for the Orioles, only one has a birthday today. Happy 81st to Merv Rettenmund, an outfielder who posted a 133 OPS+ across the 1968-73 seasons for the team. There were some good years in there.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: “Painter of the Revolution” John Trumbull (1756), poet Alexander Pushkin (1799), Abercrombie & Fitch co-founder David Abercrombie (1867), baseball Hall of Famer Bill Dickey (1907), Apollo 15 commander David Scott (1932), tennis legend Björn Borg (1956), and actor Paul Giamatti (1967).
On this day in history…
In 1832, the anti-monarchy June Rebellion was stamped out after two days of activity in Paris. This rebellion is the backdrop for the climactic action of Les Miserables.
In 1944, during World War II, the Allied armies launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied continental Europe with amphibious landings on the beaches of Normandy. “D-Day” of Operation Overlord brought more than 150,000 troops across the English Channel, among them my grandfather.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on June 6. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!