The Orioles are back home for a weekend series against the Mets, followed by three games against the Astros.

Ryan Mountcastle, who went 11-for-13 with four doubles and six RBIs in Toronto, is batting second and playing first base. He tied the club record for hits in a series of four games or fewer. Merv Rettenmund went 11-for-18 when the Orioles swept Cleveland in a four-game series in September 1971.

In 18 games since returning from vertigo, Mountcastle has gone 23-for-50 (.460) with a 1.220 OPS, seven doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs.

Adley Rutschman is leading off and serving as designated hitter. Gunnar Henderson is batting third and playing shortstop.

Ryan O’Hearn stays in right field. Jordan Westburg is the second baseman. Ryan McKenna starts in center field.

PHILADELPHIA – Christmas carols played between innings tonight at Citizens Bank Park. A man dressed as Santa Claus danced on the field. The dining room served traditional holiday favorites like carved turkey and ham, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

The Orioles weren’t in a giving mood until they got to the ninth inning.

Bryson Stott doubled off Yennier Cano with two outs to score Bryce Harper and tie the game, J.T. Realmuto reached on an infield hit, with Jorge Mateo slow to get the ball out of his glove, and Alec Bohm singled into left field in the Phillies' 4-3 walk-off win over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 37,200.

Ryan O’Hearn homered off Phillies left-hander Matt Strahm leading off the eighth inning, his third tie-breaking hit in the last four games, but the Orioles fell to 62-39 overall and 4-2 on the trip. The Phillies won for only the second time in seven games.

The Orioles are 19-10 in one-run games. They had won six straight.

In some ways it was a familiar script for the Orioles. Big plays, big hits and another big win. In other ways it was different.

Different as in they won a big series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. In recent years they haven’t played very many big series there and certainly have won very many series of any kind.

Going into the 2023 season, the Orioles had lost 15 straight series at the Trop. A place where, from the 2020-2022 seasons, they went 3-18. They had last won a series there June 23-25, 2017. But they take three of four this series and leave there with a two-game lead atop the AL East.

With a 6-3 lead in the season series – and the Rays have won six straight season series from the O’s – they need just one win in four games when these clubs meet in September to win this year’s season series. That would be big for tiebreaker purposes. If these teams are tied for the division lead or any playoff spot when the regular season ends, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head play.

From Aug. 25, 2020, through April 10, 2022, the Orioles were 2-27 versus the Rays. The clubs have now played 25 games since that date and the Orioles are 15-10 in those games.

NEW YORK – The pitcher who spun perfection in his last start knew early that he wouldn’t do it again tonight. The pitcher with the lowest WHIP in the majors tried to keep the bases clean and hold onto the lead.

Ryan O’Hearn ended Domingo Germán’s streak of consecutive outs at 30 with a leadoff single in the second inning, and he drove in a run in the third. History could take a hike.

Tyler Wells stayed stingy until surrendering back-to-back home runs to Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka with two outs in the fifth. Wells stranded two in the sixth, manager Brandon Hyde went to his bullpen and the lead was gone.

Harrison Bader hit a 415-foot, three-run homer off Danny Coulombe in the eighth to shatter a tie, and the Orioles began their final road trip before the All-Star break with a 6-3 loss to the Yankees before a sellout crowd of 46,015.

Not everyone drives to the Hamptons for the holiday.

NEW YORK – Austin Hays and Jordan Westburg are out of the Orioles lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Yankees.

Hays is day-to-day with a left hip contusion. Westburg was hit in the back of the left hand yesterday by a 101 mph fastball.

Gunnar Henderson is leading off and playing third base, with Cedric Mullins lowered to sixth. Aaron Hicks is in left field and Adam Frazier is playing right.

Ramón Urías is the second baseman. Ryan O’Hearn is the cleanup hitter.

Tyler Wells has the second-lowest opponent batting average in the majors among qualifying pitchers at .185, behind the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani at .180, but he’s allowed 19 home runs to tie for third-most behind Lance Lynn’s 22 and Yusei Kikuchi’s 21.

NEW YORK – Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman has more to do at the All-Star Game than represent the American League.

He’s also trying to win the Home Run Derby.

Rutschman is participating in next Monday’s event at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, joining the Mets’ Pete Alonso, the Rays’ Randy Arozarena, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts, the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez.

Two more hitters are needed to complete the field.

Trey Mancini is the last Orioles player to participate in the Derby, finishing as runner-up to Alonso in 2021.

The key moments from the eighth inning of yesterday’s game could be plucked from multiple spots.

Start with the tapper near the mound that Adley Rutschman turned into his 13^th infield hit of the season, beating the throw from Twins reliever Jhoan Duran with one out. Anthony Santander saw nine pitches, including three clocked higher than 102 mph, and lined a single into center field. Aaron Hicks tied the game with a single that interrupted his 2-for-26 streak, getting the barrel on a 102.6 mph fastball.

Rookie Jordan Westburg stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and was drilled behind the left hand, the impact of a 101.3 mph heater sending the ball over the protective screen behind the home dugout. The pitch sending the Orioles to a 2-1 win at steamy Camden Yards, enabling them to avoid the sweep.

Within the chaos was a Ryan O’Hearn walk, after he came off the bench to hit for Ramón Urías and got ahead 3-0. Two curveballs and a 101.5 mph fastball missed the mark, and the Twins put him on base intentionally.

O’Hearn has struggled to reach it lately, mired in his own 2-for-26 slump before yesterday. Manager Brandon Hyde sat him against Twins right-hander Sonny Gray, a matchup that otherwise would have put O’Hearn in the cleanup spot.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The roster churn slowed yesterday for the Orioles, who stuck with the same 26 players to close out their road trip. They made it through nine innings without an injury. The flu-like symptoms that have swept through the clubhouse apparently didn’t claim a new victim.

A win achieved on a day that they lost.

At least four players were impacted – Austin Hays, Gunnar Henderson, Danny Coulombe and Keegan Akin – and others might have been ill. The Orioles don’t invite media into the trainers’ room or share dehydration data.

Seven players remain on the injured list, but Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle began their injury rehab assignments last night with Triple-A Norfolk after Tuesday’s rainout in Nashville. Reliever Mychal Givens and Dillon Tate pitched.

Mullins started in center field went 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, and Mountcastle played first base and went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. Mountcastle also committed a fielding error.

When I interviewed right-hander Tyler Wells (6-2, 3.20 ERA) a few days ago for this article, we also talked about a topic not included in the previous article. That is his innings load for this year.

At some point in the second half it will have to become a topic of discussion for the O’s front office and manager Brandon Hyde. How far can they push Wells with his innings total for this year? And keep in mind they hope he is still pitching in October too.

The most innings as a pro that Wells has pitched were 119 1/3 in the minors in 2018. At the big league level, his career most is the 103 2/3 innings he pitched for the Orioles last year. He is at 81 2/3 innings right now (17^th most in the American League). At his current pace he would pitch around 186 innings this season.

For now, Wells has tabled any discussion or concerns about his innings load for this season.

“For me, I’m not even focused on it,” he told me in Chicago. “If they want me to take the ball, I’m going to take the ball. You know that is the kind of person I am. I did that last year, taking the ball as long as I am healthy. I don’t think I’m really focused on that. I trust that our medical staff is doing their part in it and I know that Hyder is always doing his part with that. I know that the front office is too. Whenever it becomes a talking point with them, and they want to address it with me I am always listening. But for me right now I’m not worried about it.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Gunnar Henderson returns to the Orioles lineup and the leadoff spot tonight against the Rays after being scratched Sunday with the stomach flu.

Henderson is the designated hitter.

Ryan O’Hearn is batting cleanup again and playing first base.  

O’Hearn is batting .349 with a 1.003 OPS in 29 games with the Orioles. Only five players have hit .350 or higher in their first 30 games with the Orioles, and seven have registered a 1.000 OPS or higher, per STATS.

Austin Hays is 9-for-17 in his last four games and 12-for-25 in his last six. He’s collected at least two hits in his last four games, the longest streak of multiple-hit games in his career.

To get his first career win in his own division and finally slay the Blue Jays, who battered him last season, Kyle Bradish needed to outduel the pitcher who hadn’t lost to the Orioles in 12 starts.

A pitcher who was perfect through four innings and unhittable until the seventh.

Bradish had good stuff and bad timing.

José Berríos retired the first 13 batters and was still eyeing history when Adley Rutschman singled into center field leading off the seventh. Just a minor glitch for Berríos, who again brought his best against the Orioles.

George Springer homered off Bradish with one out in the sixth, a changeup traveling 437 feet to left field, and the Blue Jays didn’t seem to need anything else in a 3-1 win before an announced crowd of 16,083 at Camden Yards.

After scoring 11 runs in back-to-back games, the Orioles now have a five-game winning streak and have outscored their opponents 37-15 in that span. They are now 42-24 for the year and four games behind Tampa Bay for first place in the American League East.

The Rays (48-22, .686) have the best record in the majors and the Orioles are now No. 2. Their .636 win percentage would produce 103 wins over a full year of 162 games.

Their longest win streak of the season is seven in a row from April 16-24. The Orioles are 21-12 at both home and on the road. They are now 16-6 in series-opening games.

The Orioles have gone 4-0 against Toronto this season by a combined 31-15 score, and are 13-10 against them since the start of 2022.

Gunnar Henderson went 3-for-5 in Tuesday’s 11-6 win over Toronto and is now batting .246/.355/.475/.830 with an OPS+ of 130, which is 30 percent above league average.

Joey Ortiz is back with the Orioles for the third time.

The Orioles recalled Ortiz from Triple-A Norfolk this afternoon and optioned Mark Kolozsvary, who joined the active roster yesterday and caught the ninth inning.

The move is another response to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle going on the 10-day injured list yesterday with vertigo.

Ortiz’s last game with the Orioles was May 24 in New York. He was optioned two days later and didn’t play for Norfolk again until June 8 due to illness, but he’s gone 9-for-25 with two doubles, a triple and two home runs this month.

Ortiz is 7-for-27 with the Orioles. He’s on the bench tonight.

Ryan O’Hearn fouled off a changeup last night in the third inning, got the barrel on a slider and deposited the ball into the home bullpen.

Home is where O’Hearn is hardest to contain.

He began last night batting .462 with a 1.362 OPS in nine games at Camden Yards and .237 with a .722 OPS in 15 games on the road, though his three-run homer on May 20 at Rogers Centre qualifies as one of the season’s biggest hits.

I wrote yesterday that O’Hearn’s OPS was the highest mark for any Orioles player in his first nine home games with a minimum of 30 plate appearances, per STATS.

There’s more, of course.

Every year it seems like some of the biggest winning clubs in baseball have players succeed throughout their roster. Not only the roster of 26 players but many more that contribute in a myriad ways over the long season of 162 games.

The Orioles are getting that right now and it was on display in Sunday’s 11-3 victory that completed a three-game sweep of Kansas City by a 20-6 score. The Orioles earlier had three game sweeps at home April 21-23 versus Detroit and May 19-21 at Toronto. This was their first three-game sweep of Kansas City since the 2017 season.

At 41-24, the Orioles are playing .631 ball which translates to 102 wins for a full year. They are 17 games over the .500 mark for the first time since June 26, 2016.

But on a day Gunnar Henderson grabbed some headlines with his long home run in the eighth, Ryan O’Hearn reached base five times for the first time in his career. And he did it versus a Kansas City team he has played 342 games with. O’Hearn went 3-for-3 with two walks, four runs and he hit a changeup with a 107.9 mph exit velocity in the home eighth for his fourth O’s home run.

In 24 games with Baltimore, O’Hearn is batting .328 with a .989 OPS. Among all Orioles this year, that OPS is second on the team to outfielder Aaron Hicks, who is batting .345 with a 1.058 OPS, going 10-for-29 with eight runs and seven walks in 10 games.

MILWAUKEE – The goals have shifted for the Orioles as they near the conclusion of their latest road trip.

Don’t get swept. Try to go .500.

Try to keep the first-place Rays within viewing distance and don’t let anyone get too close.

Corbin Burnes tossed eight scoreless innings, rookie Joey Wiemer homered twice and had five RBIs, and the Brewers scored six runs off Dean Kremer in a 10-2 victory before an announced crowd of 22,320 at American Family Field.

The Orioles won two of three games from the Giants but have dropped the first two in Milwaukee. Their record is 37-24, still good for second place in the division but leaving them 6 ½ behind Tampa Bay, which got a walk-off home run from Randy Arozarena.

MILWAUKEE – Gunnar Henderson has returned to the Orioles lineup tonight for the first time since Saturday.

Henderson was day-to-day with discomfort in his lower back.

Josh Lester is the designated hitter and Ryan O’Hearn gets the start at first base.

Ryan Mountcastle and Ramón Urías are on the bench.

Adam Frazier is leading off again.

Anthony Santander gets his second consecutive start at first base tonight against the Angels at Camden Yards.

Santander hadn't played the position in the majors until last night, his experience confined to nine games in A-ball in 2016. He handled every chance flawlessly against the Angels.

Terrin Vavra stays in right field. Ryan O’Hearn bats ninth as the designated hitter.

Austin Hays is in left field and batting cleanup. Jorge Mateo is eighth.

Dean Kremer will try to stay on a roll after allowing one run over 12 combined innings against the Braves and Rays.

The Orioles shook up their roster this afternoon, and the moves weren’t tied only to Ramón Urías’ left hamstring strain.

Urías was placed on the 10-day injured list as expected, but the club also optioned reliever Keegan Akin and designated catcher Luis Torrens for assignment before he could appear in a game.

Left-hander Drew Rom, infielder/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and infielder Terrin Vavra were recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.

Rom, 23, would be making his major league debut after going 4-1 with a 2.87 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in six games with Norfolk. He’s surrendered only two home runs in 31 1/3 innings and is averaging 2.9 walks and 9.2 strikeouts. He’s wearing No. 67.

The Orioles selected Rom in the fourth round of the 2018 draft out of Highlands High School in Kentucky. He could switch to a relief role as Akin’s replacement, keeping a third left-hander in the bullpen and providing length.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are back on the road this morning, with their buses heading down I-75 south to the Twins’ complex in Fort Myers. Turn right off the Daniels Parkway exit. A left puts you on the Red Sox’s spring turf.

A helpful tip for you tourists.

Grayson Rodriguez makes his second start after registering two scoreless innings against the Tigers in Lakeland and tossing 99 mph bowling balls.

An ample amount of fuss has been made over Rodriguez, the precise level we anticipated, and he deserves. He comes as advertised. The hype is warranted.

But what about players in camp who are exceeding it? Guys who didn’t create any buzz before it opened or have pumped up the volume?