With the Yankees off, the O’s can make up their half-game deficit if they beat the Red Sox.
Hello, friends.
The Orioles! It’s always better after they win than it is after they lose, isn’t it? If you really want to be grumpy about last night’s game because the O’s probably “should” have scored more runs than they did against the Nationals starting pitcher, I can’t stop you. For me, a win is a win, and it’s great that the Orioles grabbed the split of the two-gamer against Washington rather than ending up on the wrong end of a sweep.
Check out Stacey’s recap of the game for more of the lovely totals from the game. Wednesday’s win saw the Orioles get a solid outing from Dean Kremer. It saw Coby Mayo collect his first MLB hit. Gunnar Henderson hit a homer onto Eutaw Street to finally join the 30 home run club for the season. It was good, and hopefully more good things will follow after it.
Last night’s win gets the Orioles up to 71-50 for the season. That’s playing at a 95-win pace for the full season. It’s also playing .500 baseball going back to June 10, when the Orioles reached 43-22 and were 21 games over .500 for the first time this season. There’s some understandable frustration with this fact, even if it is luckily for the O’s coinciding with the other early elite teams running into problems as well.
Not that the Yankees had any problems in dispatching the White Sox on Wednesday night. The Orioles are lucky that Chicago took one game from New York, but with the O’s slipping on Tuesday, that’s what sent them back a half-game in the division. They can take that spot back tonight if they beat the Red Sox, tying the Yankees record with the tentative head-to-head tiebreaker edge.
Next up for the Orioles is a four-gamer against a different AL East opponent, the Red Sox. Boston is heading into town fresh off losing a 9-7 game in 10 innings to the Rangers last night. Let’s hope they and their pitchers are tired, and that the O’s are up to the task of getting into a maybe-tired bullpen.
The Red Sox are two games out of a postseason position, so this is an important series for them as well. They were 33-33 at that June 10 date I mentioned earlier, so they’ve gone better since then, going 30-23 to keep themselves in the race. Or maybe get back into the race. For now, they’ve got more work to do to make it into the October crapshoot.
The three best Orioles starting pitchers of right now will all be pitching in this series. It would be nice if they can come up big, starting with Zach Eflin tonight. The Yankees are off today as the Orioles start this four-game set, and then they’ll be playing the Tigers this weekend. The O’s series gets under way for a scheduled 6:35 start.
Around the blogO’sphere
Updates on Webb, Coulombe, Bautista, and more (School of Roch)
Félix Bautista threw a bullpen session at Camden Yards yesterday! There’s no chance of him pitching for the 2024 team, but it’s still nice to see him continuing the road to a return.
Farm system rankings: Orioles fall to #3 in midseason update (MLB Pipeline)
The streak at the top is finally over as of this week. It’s another reminder that there aren’t many more big boosts coming up from the farm in the near future, and the Orioles will have to keep getting along with the guys they’ve got. Fortunately, the guys they’ve got are good enough that this isn’t disheartening to think about.
The new #1 is the Rays, who have two of the top six prospects, including just called up Junior Caminero, and four in the top 50.
Oh, and speaking of the farm system, the Orioles Dominican Summer League team (or rather, one of them, the Orange team) clinched a spot in the postseason yesterday. The players and staff had a fun time celebrating the achievement. Several players from Pipeline’s recent updated top 30 are or have been on this roster, topped by #12 prospect, outfielder Stiven Martinez.
Price hikes, season-ticket policy changes rankle fans: ‘It’s the timing’ (The Baltimore Sun)
The Orioles sent out season ticket renewals last week and they boil down to this: You pay more and you get less. The Sun spoke to a number of people who are unhappy about this. How are you feeling about the renewal situation?
Vance Honeycutt has always been fast. A growth spurt made him a ‘freak.’ (The Baltimore Banner)
If you’re looking to get excited about the Orioles first round pick from this year’s draft, there are worse things you can do than read this article.
Off to good start with new team, now Orioles look to tap into Jiménez’s power (Steve Melewski)
Jiménez hit 31 homers in 122 games as a rookie in 2019 and hasn’t gotten above 18 ever since. He’s got 12 hits as an Oriole so far, with two doubles but no homers. Finding some power would certainly make him a lot more interesting.
Brandon Hyde and a few players paid a visit to Ravens training camp yesterday.
Visiting our neighbors at work. pic.twitter.com/2H7NkGyOvn
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 14, 2024
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1975, Earl Weaver famously was thrown out of both games of a doubleheader, with the second ejection coming before the start of the second game because he renewed the argument from the first game. The Orioles lost the first game to the Rangers, 10-6, and crushed them 13-1 in the second.
One current Oriole has a birthday today, although he’s on the injured list at this exact moment. Happy 31st to Jacob Webb! Yes, Jacob Webb is 31. A few former Orioles also have birthdays today. They are: 2002 outfielder Chris Singleton, 1995-96 infielder Jeff Huson, and 1986 infielder Tom Dodd.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: general and autocrat Napoleon Bonaparte (1769), chef Julia Child (1912), actress Debra Messing (1968), actor Ben Affleck (1972), Jonas Brother Joe Jonas (1989), actress Jennifer Lawrence (1990), and rapper Chief Keef (1995).
On this day in history…
In 1281, a Mongol invasion of Japan was dealt a crushing blow by the arrival of a typhoon that destroyed many of the ships at anchor. The Japanese legend of the kamikaze – divine wind – dates to this and a similar occurrence seven years earlier.
In 1939, The Wizard of Oz had its premiere in Los Angeles. This initial theatrical release was not actually enough to make a profit on a then-massive $2.7 million film budget, or about $62 million in today’s money.
In 1965, close to 60,000 people watched The Beatles play a concert at Shea Stadium.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 15. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!