The Orioles are guaranteed a losing July but could make us feel better with a post-trade deadline day win.
Jackson Holliday is officially back with the Orioles! This might be the most immediately exciting thing that happened in the flurry of activity that happened with the trade deadline. Or at least it’s the most exciting for me, because I’m not excited about any of the reclamation projects they acquired and I’m still a believer that Holliday’s talent will win out.
Holliday is also in today’s starting lineup, so we’ll get to find out pretty quick if he can take better at-bats or not and if the time in the minors led to adjustments that he can put to use. I hope so. Striking out in half of his plate appearances the last time around was not so fun. A nicely-struck line drive would be more fun.
Another player in today’s starting lineup is James McCann. That’s not surprising to have the backup catcher in there for a day game. It’s a little surprising since he got messed up by a baseball to the face during Monday’s doubleheader and he confirmed to Orioles reporters that he has multiple fractures in his nose. He had on one of those protective masks during pre-game batting practice. I hope that his eye is less swollen now.
There is no way for the Orioles to avoid a losing July at this point. They bring a 10-13 record for the month into this final game. We will probably all feel better about them if they dispatch the Blue Jays anyway, making it 2-0 since the trade deadline and giving a sense that the vibes have changed from a funky month. A nice outing by starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez would help.
Do you think that we will see new Orioles reliever Gregory Soto today? He’s the only player from yesterday’s trades to be activated yet. The Orioles optioned Terrin Vavra and just-in-case catcher Blake Hunt while adding Soto and Holliday. They didn’t have to drop a pitcher to add Soto because they’d already removed Cole Irvin in order to get Hunt onto the roster for a day. It seems that Eloy Jiménez and Austin Slater arriving will wait another day.
Orioles lineup
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Ryan O’Hearn – DH
- Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Jordan Westburg – 3B
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- James McCann – C
Rodriguez has had two good starts in July, two okay ones, and a bad one. Let’s hope he doesn’t round out the month with one more bad one. He faced a much different-looking Jays lineup in early June and allowed just one earned run over 6.2 innings.
Blue Jays lineup
- George Springer – RF
- Joey Loperfido – LF
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – DH
- Spencer Horwitz – 1B
- Ernie Clement – SS
- Daulton Varsho – CF
- Davis Schneider – 2B
- Addison Barger – 3B
- Brian Serven – C
The Jays starting pitcher, Paolo Espino is a 37-year-old with a career ERA over 5 who has not started a game since the 2022 season. It might be a bullpen game or something. I don’t know. What I can tell you is that the Orioles need to paste whoever pitches today so that we will feel better about the offense for a little while.