O's game blog: The road trip begins in Boston

O's game blog: The road trip begins in Boston
Two teams trying to get it going meet tonight in the first of a three-game series at Fenway Park. The Orioles (38-75) are out to break an eight-game losing streak. Boston (66-51) has lost six of eight and 11 of the last 14. The Red Sox are 11-15 since the All-Star Game. This is the Orioles' second trip this year to Fenway Park, and their first went quite well. It was the first series of the year and the Orioles posted wins by scores of 3-0, 4-2 and 11-3. They swept the opening series by an...

Trey Mancini on Chris Davis and other O's notes

Trey Mancini on Chris Davis and other O's notes
Trey Mancini had been teammates with Chris Davis for a long stretch. Mancini came up for the end of the 2016 season, was active that year for the American League wild card game and had been teammates with Davis since then. After the Orioles lost to Detroit on Thursday, Mancini talked about Davis announcing his retirement earlier in the day. "I was sad," Mancini said during a postgame Zoom interview. "You know, Chris, I've been playing with him for a long time and I've known him for quite a...

Means allows three homers, Tigers finish sweep (updated)

Means allows three homers, Tigers finish sweep (updated)
With ace lefty John Means on the mound today, the Orioles certainly felt like they had a good shot to end a losing streak. And Detroit's Miguel Cabrera, sitting on 499 homers, sat out, waiting to play his next game at home on Friday. But the Detroit Tigers didn't need any longballs from Cabrera today. They hit three off Means without him, building an early 5-2 lead and went on to beat the Orioles 6-4 on a sweltering afternoon at Camden Yards. The Orioles (38-75) capped a homestand by going...

Hyde on Davis' retirement and Wells' return

Hyde on Davis' retirement and Wells' return
As he sat in the dugout for his pregame interview today, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was asked about the retirement of first baseman Chris Davis. Hyde managed Davis for 105 games in the 2019 season and 16 games last season. "I want whatever is best for Chris and Chris' family," Hyde said. "We traded texts this morning. We've stayed in touch this season. Always got along really well with him, really like him. He's done so many great things for this organization, the community here, so...

A few thoughts on Chris Davis' retirement

A few thoughts on Chris Davis' retirement
When we saw former Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy at Camden Yards for his O's Hall of Fame induction over the weekend, it brought back a lot of good memories. He was a huge part of the core group of players that took an organization that had 14 straight losing seasons and turned it back into a winner. A winner that led the American League in victories from 2012 through 2016 and that made three playoff appearances, advancing as far as the 2014 American League Championship Series. It was a special...

O's game blog: John Means faces Tigers in series finale

O's game blog: John Means faces Tigers in series finale
As the Orioles wrap up a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers this afternoon, Baltimore's Anthony Santander can homer for the fourth game in a row and Tigers great Miguel Cabrera could hit a milestone 500th home run. Cabrera could, but he will have to do it coming off the bench as h is not in the starting lineup. The Tigers return home to Comerica Park after today's game for a six-game homestand. Cabrera blasted home run No. 499 in Detroit's 5-2 win last night. He connected against a...

A few notes on O's latest loss and more from Adley Rutschman

A few notes on O's latest loss and more from Adley Rutschman
On a night the Orioles losing streak was extended to seven with a 5-2 loss to Detroit, there were a few positive signs that some better days could be in the offing. For one, it was good to see Matt Harvey return, throw four scoreless innings before he ran into trouble in the fifth and get through his start doing fine physically. This outing was pushed back a few days after he tweaked his right knee in his last start. With lefty Bruce Zimmermann likely to rejoin the rotation this weekend, this...

Adley Rutschman on his move to Triple-A and more

Adley Rutschman on his move to Triple-A and more
For the player who is now baseball's No. 1 ranked prospect and seems to always be a marked man, his first day at the minor leagues' highest level produced a strong debut. He had two hits and caught a game in which the opposing team had just one. In Triple-A Norfolk's 4-0 win Tuesday night over Memphis at Harbor Park, catcher Adley Rutschman caught a three-pitcher one-hitter. At bat he went 2-for-4, with an RBI single in his third at-bat and a double in his fourth. Rutschman said he was...

O's game blog: Matt Harvey faces the Tigers at Oriole Park

O's game blog: Matt Harvey faces the Tigers at Oriole Park
The Orioles' homestand continues at Camden Yards tonight, and they are looking for their first win during a homestand where they have gone 0-3 versus Tampa Bay and 0-1 against Detroit. O's pitchers have allowed 40 runs in the four games. Overall the Orioles (38-73) have lost six in a row, allowing nine runs or more in each of those games. Last night they became the first team to allow nine or more in six in a row since Kansas City in 2002. The major league record for this is seven games in a...

O's losing streak continues; Elias on Rutschman's Triple-A debut

O's losing streak continues; Elias on Rutschman's Triple-A debut
It was night when too many streaks continued for the Orioles. They lost their sixth game in a row. They allowed runs in the eighth inning for the sixth consecutive game and they allowed nine or more runs for the sixth straight game. Captain Obvious called to state this was not a good development. The Orioles (38-73) lost the series opener 9-4 to Detroit last night and have been outscored 63-23 during the losing streak. Where once they were 10-6 since the All-Star break, now they are 10-12. On...

O's game blog: The series opener against Detroit, plus farm notes

O's game blog: The series opener against Detroit, plus farm notes
The Orioles homestand continues tonight as they welcome the Detroit Tigers to Oriole Park for the first of three games. They will also host Detroit on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. The Orioles got swept three straight over the weekend by the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. They lost by scores of 10-6, 12-3 and 9-6. They scored 15 runs in the series but gave up 31 runs with more than half of them, 16, coming in the eighth inning. As the Orioles (38-72) have lost five in a...

Mullins keeping good company, plus the rotation and more

Mullins keeping good company, plus the rotation and more
There is no one stat in baseball that gives us a complete picture of player. No one stat that provides a thorough overview of that player's skills and run production on offense. But OPS - on-base percentage plus slugging percentage - is not bad to provide solid context. Through Sunday's games, the top two in the American League in OPS are kind of in a class by themselves. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is first at 1.047 and Shohei Ohtani is next at 1.015. Oakland's Matt Olson is third at .954, and...

Skipper made right moves with bad results, plus other notes

Skipper made right moves with bad results, plus other notes
There is no doubt it was a frustrating weekend in Birdland. The Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays were tied 5-5 in the eighth on Friday, the O's were down 5-3 in the eighth on Saturday and they led 5-3 in the eighth on Sunday. But they gave up 16 runs total in the eighth innings of those games and lost all three. It is pretty remarkable for a team to score that many runs that late to win all three games. But the Rays improved to 11-1 against the Orioles this year and to 6-0 at Oriole Park, where they...

Jorge López solid, but bullpen gives it up again

Jorge López solid, but bullpen gives it up again
Before another implosion by the Orioles bullpen turned a potential series-ending win into a loss today, O's starter Jorge López was very solid and Cedric Mullins became the seventh 20-20 player in team history. But after scoring five runs in the eighth on Friday and again on Saturday, the Rays got six in the eighth this afternoon. Paul Fry walked three in the inning and Dillon Tate allowed a tiebreaking grand slam to Brett Phillips as Tampa Bay swept the Orioles with a 9-6 win. The Rays...

O's game blog: The Tampa Bay series finale

O's game blog: The Tampa Bay series finale
The Orioles will wrap up their series with the Tampa Bay Rays today looking for a win to avoid a three-game sweep. The Rays won 10-6 Friday and 12-3 last night. At 67-44, they have the best record in the American League and lead the AL East by three games over Boston, 5 1/2 over New York, with Toronto seven games back in fourth place. Right-hander Jorge López (3-12, 5.91 ERA) will get the start in the series finale for the Orioles. He is coming off of one of his best starts of the 2021...

Looking at the recent 'pen struggles and more notes

Looking at the recent 'pen struggles and more notes
On Monday night, right-hander Jorge López allowed just one hit and one run over six innings. The Orioles won the opener of a three-game series in the Bronx 7-1. But since that game, not a lot has gone right for the Orioles, who were 10-6 since the break after that win. Now they are 10-10 since the All-Star break and have been outscored 45-13 the past four games. For the first time since the club moved to Baltimore in 1954, the Orioles, according to STATS, have allowed 10 runs or more in four...

O's game blog: Spenser Watkins faces the Rays at the Yard

O's game blog: Spenser Watkins faces the Rays at the Yard
The Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays were tied 5-5 in the eighth inning last night. Both clubs loaded the bases with no outs. The Rays turned their rally into five runs while the Orioles scored just once as Tampa Bay won 10-6 in the series opener. The Orioles have allowed 13, 10 and 10 runs in losing their past three games by a combined 33-10 score. The Orioles (38-70) are two-thirds of the way into their season with 54 games to go, which projects to a final record of 57-105. They have struggled...

A debut worthy of a backflip, plus remembering Mo Gaba

A debut worthy of a backflip, plus remembering Mo Gaba
When he made his way to a major league mound on Wednesday night at New York, right-hander Dusten Knight gave up two runs in the last of the eighth inning. But the bigger story is the long odds he beat to get that far. He made his major league debut at age 30. He was drafted in round 28 in 2013 by the San Francisco Giants out of Texas-Pan American, and there were only 851 players drafted ahead of him. Along the way, in addition to throwing in 223 minor league games, he pitched in Mexico. In 2019...

O's game blog: The homestand begins against Tampa Bay

O's game blog: The homestand begins against Tampa Bay
After completing a 3-4 road trip to Detroit and New York, the Orioles are back home tonight at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They begin a three-game series against Tampa Bay, which is part of a six-game homestand. The Orioles (38-69) went 2-2 at Detroit and 1-2 at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles are 17-31 at home and went 4-1 on their last homestand against Washington and Miami. The Orioles are 14-21 in series-opening games and are 6-10 in series-opening games at home. The Orioles beat the Yankees...

Honored and humbled: Hearing from the O's Hall of Famers

Honored and humbled: Hearing from the O's Hall of Famers
One day before they officially go into the Orioles Hall of Fame, the new class was honored this afternoon at a luncheon at the Warehouse at Camden Yards and spent a few minutes answering questions for reporters. The class of 2021 includes former shortstop J.J. Hardy, former outfielder Mike Devereaux, former broadcaster Joe Angel and O's superfan Mo Gaba, who passed away last year. Hardy spent the last seven seasons of his 13-year career with the Orioles from 2011-17 and won three straight Gold...