The Orioles have recorded four series sweeps of three or more games this season and can record a fifth today if they beat the Rays at Oriole Park.

The Orioles (37-19) have posted weekend wins by 3-1 and 9-5 over the Rays to get to a season-best 18 games over the .500 mark.

The Orioles have won three in a row by a combined 18-7 score and are 8-1 over their last nine games by a 55-32 score.

A look at their four series sweeps:

* April 9-11, went 3-0 at Red Sox

Considering how well he has pitched before it and after it, it's fair to ask if Craig Kimbrel's six-game slump was mostly about a back issue?

Kimbrel's start to his season included one run allowed over 10 innings. Then came his struggles which lasted about two weeks. And now over his past eight games, he has not allowed a run.

For the year, over 24 games, he is 4-1 with 13 saves in 16 chances with a 3.00 ERA, a 13.29 strikeout rate and 0.95 WHIP. Those numbers are not bad, even with his brief struggles.

Kimbrel's 13 saves rank third-best in the American League and seventh-best in the majors. A season-long question the Orioles have to answer is: How well can they replace injured closer Félix Bautista?

In his first 10 games, Kimbrel was 3-0 with an 0.90 ERA and six saves in seven chances. Over 10 innings, he gave up one run with one walk to 16 strikeouts. His OPS against was a miniscule .288.

Having gone 18 straight series against American League East opponents without losing one - winning 13 with five ties in this span - the Orioles can extend that streak with one more win this weekend.

They beat the Rays 3-1 Friday to take the opener of a three-game series. The Orioles are 36-19 for the season, 3-1 on this homestand, 20-11 at home 10-3 against division teams and 13-6 in series-opening games.

The Orioles, winners of seven of their last eight games, begin play today in second place, two games behind the New York Yankees. 

Friday was another well-pitched game by Baltimore pitchers. They have allowed one run in back-to-back games and three times the past five games. Over their last 28 games since April 29, they have a team ERA of 2.73 and have allowed two runs or less 13 times. Only the Yankees (2.43) have a better mark in baseball during this span.

O's starters have a 3.01 ERA for the year, the third-best rotation ERA in MLB behind the Phillies (2.69) and Yankees (2.72). In 28 games since April 29, the rotation's ERA is 2.26, second-best in MLB during that time behind the Yankees (2.19).

As play began on Friday night in the majors, Gunnar Henderson was once again tied for the MLB homer lead with 18 with Aaron Judge and Kyle Tucker. His OPS of .938 was fourth-best in the AL and seventh in MLB.

He’s scoring runs, stealing bases, bashing baseballs and fielding them very, very well at shortstop. Cal Ripken Jr. once won the American League Rookie of the Year one year and AL MVP the next, in 1982 and 1983.

There is talk of Gunnar being in the MVP race or near the top of such for this season after being ROY last season.

“I just try to go out there and continue to play my game each and every day. The numbers will take care of themselves at the end of the day. Just trying to help the team win and make another postseason run,” Henderson said of the MVP talk.

He led the O’s to a series-clinching win Wednesday over Boston when he hit a grand slam that was his 50^th career homer. Another successful AL East series.

After Thursday’s off-day, the Orioles return to Oriole Park tonight to begin a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. It continues a 14-game run of playing all American League East foes.

The Orioles (35-19) are on a 105-win pace after Wednesday’s 6-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox. They won that series with Boston and extended to 18 their streak of series versus AL East opponents without losing one. They are 39-19 (.672) in this stretch of series within the division. The Orioles improved to 5-1 against Boston, scoring 43 runs in those games, and to 9-3 on the year against AL East opponents.

Against a Boston pitching staff that began that series ranked second in the AL in team ERA (3.09) and starting rotation ERA (2.95), the Orioles scored 20 runs in the series on 27 hits with seven doubles, a triple and two homers, and they went 9-for-28 batting with runners in scoring position.

In the six games this season versus Boston, the Orioles have a team batting line of .271/.346/.449/.793. And in 12 AL East games in 2024 they have scored 61 runs with a .723 team OPS.

Winners of six of their past seven games, the Orioles are 19-11 at home and 12-4-2 in 18 series on the year.

Things have not gone perfectly for the Baltimore Orioles in the 2024 season. I just got an in person look in St. Louis at the Orioles being swept three straight amid all the rain delays and they looked bad in doing so. 

But in looking at this team this year, that series was an outlier.

Mostly they play well and win a lot. As of Thursday morning, they are 35-19 (.648) and on a pace to win 105 games at a point 33.3 percent into the season. That would be four more wins than last year.

As of Thursday morning, they have the second-best record in their division, the third-best in their league and the fourth-best of 30 teams in the majors.

Let’s look at the offense: The Orioles are scoring 5.04 runs per game to rank second in the AL and third-best in MLB. So one-third into the long season they rank third. This is pretty good no matter how you slice it. Sure, there will be poor nights and even poor series, like scoring eight runs in three games versus the Cardinals. But it won’t last too long.

Orioles outfielder Austin Hays got off to a terrible start to his 2024 season, there is no denying that. However, as some around Birdland see a player in decline, others might see a player that has produced an OPS that is above the American League average since the 2021 season.

His 2021 OPS+ was 107 or seven percent above the league, the next year it was 105 and last year it was 114 – his best mark in a full year in the big leagues.

He produced a .769 OPS in the 2023 season and the American League average was .729. In four of six months last season, his OPS was .800 or better.

But that OPS number has plummeted this year, a year when he was batting .073 after his first 17 games. Now, back off the injured list, Hays is trying to improve his personal stats while the team continues to win mostly. He has an uphill climb and he knows it with a batting line right now of .164/.225/.205/.430 through 30 games with just three extra-base hits, all doubles.

But before he went on the injured list on April 22 with a strained left calf, he was feeling better at the plate and taking more productive swings. He felt his bat was slowly trending up.

The last time the Orioles lost an AL East series was April 9, 2023 when they dropped two of three at home to the New York Yankees. They will need a win tonight to keep that run going after splitting the first two games against Boston. 

Since that result with New York, the Orioles have played 17 consecutive AL East series without losing one, going 12-0-5 in those series. That is the longest such streak in team history since divisions were introduced in 1969, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

During this run, five times the O’s needed to win the third and final game of a series, or win the last two games of a four-game series to split it. The most recent such occasion was mid September last year when they lost the first two of a four-game set at home with Tampa Bay and then won the last two games.

They have played the Red Sox four series during this run, going 3-0-1 in those four sets.

During the 17 series, the Orioles are playing .667 ball (38-19) within the division. Last year they went 32-20 in the AL East and this year they are 8-3. That is a combined record of 40-23 (.635) since the start of last season within the division.

The Orioles' Gunnar Henderson has been piling up some walks lately. In the season’s first 31 games, he drew only eight walks. But in the last 22 games he has 19 walks.

He got walked nine times in seven games on the recent road trip and then drew one walk in Monday’s series opener with Boston.

So what is at work here? Is Gunnar looking to walk more? Are teams pitching around him or pitching him more carefully recently?

“I mean I am getting a little more comfortable taking pitches,” Henderson said Tuesday afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “Probably earlier in the season I was chasing maybe a touch, but, yeah, just kind of really trying to pick out certain pitches and doing well at taking the ones that are kind of close. Ones that I feel I can do damage with, I usually get off a swing. That’s the biggest thing.”

Taking the close pitches that are balls should be a good thing, right?

With an offense that is producing again after a poor series at St. Louis last week, the Orioles have a season-high five-game win streak heading into their game with Boston tonight.

The Orioles (34-18) produced six doubles and a triple in Monday’s 11-3 rout of the Red Sox. They saw six different players in the lineup drive in runs. Nine of them scored and three had multi-hit games as the O's pounded out 13 hits.

This was the team's fifth win this year by eight runs or more. Their biggest win of the season was a 10-run margin, 11-1 at Cincinnati on May 5.

The Orioles improved to 4-0 in 2024 against Boston, and in those wins they have scored seven, seven, nine and 11 runs for 34 total. In the season series they are batting .293 with an .859 OPS against Boston a pitching staff that began this series second in the American League in team pitching with a 3.09 ERA and second in rotation ERA at 2.95.

The Orioles have gone 17 straight series versus AL East opponents without losing one. Another win in this series will extend that number to 18 straight.

It was Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis and in the ninth inning, down 5-3, the Orioles were trying to avoid being swept three in a row, something that had not happened in the regular season since May 13-15, 2022 at Detroit.

Kyle Stowers came up as pinch-hitter with runners at first and third and no outs. He lined a 1-0 cutter to deep right. Off the bat it looked like it might be a three-run homer for the lead, or at least get over the right fielder’s head and tie the game. But Lars Nootbaar ran back and made a great catch. Then Cedric Mullins was doubled off first base. We saw a rare sac fly/double play in which Stowers got an RBI but no at-bat. The Orioles got a run, but they lost 5-4 and indeed were swept.

But it was one of a few good swings that Stowers had had in recent days, and those swings might have told us a day like he had yesterday was coming.

Starting in right field and batting seventh against the Red Sox, he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs in the O’s 11-3 win. He is back in the lineup tonight as the designated hitter.

Stowers is 4-for-8 his past two games and is 6-for-16 (.375) with five RBIs in nine games since his latest call-up to the majors. Stowers had two doubles yesterday and set a career high for extra-base hits and RBIs and tied his career best with the three hits.

It might have been a tired team that took the field at Oriole Park Monday to face the Boston Red Sox after a challenging road trip filled with rain delays.

But they looked well rested when hitting.

The O’s posted an 11-3 win in the series-opener with Boston. They are now 4-0 versus the Red Sox on the season, scoring 34 runs and they have won nine of their past 12 against Boston.

The Orioles have won each of their first four versus Boston for the first time in any season since 1967. The best-ever start was an 8-0 in 1960.

Since the O’s got swept in St. Louis they have won a season-high five in a row scoring 34 runs to average 6.8 per game in this streak with 23 extra-base hits and an .838 OPS.

Maybe it didn’t exactly happen because of this, but it felt like it did. When O’s lefty Cole Irvin pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth this afternoon, the O’s held their 2-0 lead.

That generated some momentum and then their offense rewarded the lefty with a quick-strike, five-run inning when they did most of the damage hitting to the off field.

Today the Orioles took control of the game early.

The five-run outburst drew the approval of a Memorial Day crowd of 40,951 at Oriole Park as the Orioles hammered Boston 11-3 to take the opener of a three-game series and six-game homestand.

The good offensive vibes that started for the club during the four-game sweep in Chicago carried back to the East Coast. Today, Ryan Mountcastle had three hits and Kyle Stowers drove in four while Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins knocked in two each. 

The road trip that featured numerous rain delays and two series sweeps - one that the Orioles won and one they did not - is finally over. Today they begin a week-long homestand that will include three games versus the Boston Red Sox and three against the Tampa Bay Rays.

This starts a stretch of 14 straight games within the American League East. The Birds go to Toronto and Tampa Bay for a pair of four-game series after this homestand at Oriole Park.

Today's game is a matchup between the second- and third-place teams in the division. The Orioles (33-18) are two games behind the New York Yankees while Boston (27-26) is nine games out. Tampa Bay (26-28) is 10 1/2 back, with Toronto (23-29) in last place and 12 1/2 games out.

The Orioles went 32-20 last year within the AL East and are 7-2 this year. That combined record of 39-22 represents a winning percentage of .639. Over 162 games that pace would give the team 103 victories.

The Orioles swept Boston three straight at Fenway Park from April 9-11 in their only previous meeting this season, by scores of 7-1, 7-5 and 9-4. They scored 23 runs on 31 hits and had five homers that series, recording a team OPS of .828 at Fenway Park. The pitching staff posted a team ERA of 2.89 in the three games.

The Orioles have made it home after their 4-3 road trip to St. Louis and Chicago and now they begin a stretch of four straight series versus American League East opponents.

The Orioles (33-18), two games out in the division behind New York, host Boston (27-26), a club that is in third place but is nine games out. Today these teams start a three-game series and run of 14 games for the Orioles against Boston, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Tampa Bay.

After scoring just eight runs on 14 hits in three losses at St. Louis, the O's got more productive offense during the four-game sweep at Chicago. They scored 23 runs on 35 hits with eight doubles and eight homers in that series. They went 7-for-25 with runners in scoring position in winning the games by two, two, two and three runs.

Boston won Sunday to avoid being swept at home by Milwaukee. With that 2-1 win, Boston is an major league-best 9-0 on Sundays, by a combined 58-20 score. 

The Orioles swept Boston April 9-11 at Fenway Park, winning by 7-1, 7-5 and 9-4 scores. Baltimore is 39-22 (.639) in the AL East since the start of last year.

Ahead of their series- and homestand-opening game with the Boston Red Sox this afternoon, the Orioles have activated right-handed pitcher Thyago Vieira and optioned lefty Nick Vespi back to Triple-A Norfolk.

On Saturday afternoon the O's sent Triple-A pitcher Garrett Stallings to the Milwaukee Brewers and acquired right-handers Vieira and minor leaguer Aneuris Rodriguez. Rodriguez is heading down to the Florida Complex League while Vieira now joins the big club and will wear No. 40.

Vieira, 31, had a 5.64 ERA, 1.701 WHIP and one save in 16 appearances with the Brewers. He owns a career 6.18 ERA and 1.667 WHIP in 41 games with the Mariners, White Sox and Brewers since making his major league debut in 2017. He pitched in Japan from 2020-22.

Vieira throws some high-octane fastballs, with a two-seam sinker that averages 96.9 mph and a four-seamer at 97.7 mph. He’s averaging 4.9 walks per nine innings in the majors to go with nine strikeouts. He’s averaged 4.5 walks in 10 minor league seasons.

The Brewers designated Vieira for assignment on Monday. He’s out of options.

CHICAGO - There were rain delays and even more rain delays. And then there was the threat of more rain. And that will likely continue even today as the Orioles return home this afternoon to face the Boston Red Sox.

Are the raindrops stalking this team?

Enough already.

But a road trip that began with the sweepless streak ending and three straight losses in wet St. Louis moved on to produce four straight wins in sometimes wet Chicago. 

It was an impressive sweep despite Chicago's poor record as the White Sox played hard and gave the Orioles fits for most of the four days. But the O's won all four and produced their first four-game road sweep since Aug. 22-25, 2011 at Minnesota. It was their first four-game sweep of the White Sox since July 6-9, 1995.

After the Orioles had been swept three straight and lost their sweepless streak in St. Louis, they were hoping things would turn for the better in Chicago. They have but the Orioles have had to work hard to get three wins, each by two runs, against a team with a poor record. 

But by posting wins by 8-6, 6-4 and then 5-3 yesterday, the Orioles (32-18) can complete a four-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox (15-38) today at Guaranteed Rate Field.

After scoring just eight runs in the losses at St. Louis, the Orioles have scored 19 runs on 29 hits and hit six homers against the White Sox.

The O's were behind 3-0 going to the top of the eighth Saturday when they hit three homers in a span of five batters. The homer explosion put them in front and they won the game. 

Ryan O'Hearn's two-run shot was his seventh and allowed the O's to avoid the shutout. But the next two home run balls allowed them to avoid a loss. Anthony Santander's two-run shot gave them a 4-3 lead and Jordan Westburg's eighth homer, a solo blast, gave them an insurance run.

CHICAGO – In some ways, Orioles outfielder Kyle Stowers will always be linked with catcher Adley Rutschman and shortstop Gunnar Henderson.

That is because while Rutschman was taken with the first overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft and Henderson was the O’s next pick, at No. 42 overall. The third selection that year was Stowers, taken No. 71 overall out of Stanford.

The three are close friends and they were the first three draft selections by Mike Elias as Orioles executive vice president and general manager.

“It’s really cool. Definitely was a special draft and just really cool to come up through the system with them,” Stowers said Saturday morning in the Baltimore clubhouse. “Those guys have already made their mark on the league and hopefully I am heading that way as well.”

Rutschman, Henderson and Stowers have pushed each other to be better both on the farm and in the big leagues.

CHICAGO – With Dean Kremer going on the injured list Friday with a right triceps strain, the Orioles, at least for today, are moving right-hander Albert Suarez back into their rotation.

In 10 games, three starts this year, he is 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA. Over 25 1/3 innings he has allowed 18 hits and just one home run with six walks and 21 strikeouts. He has given up a .198 batting average and .560 OPS.

The team is 2-1 in his three starts. In his first two against the Twins and Angels, he pitched a combined 11 1/3 scoreless on seven hits with two walks and nine strikeouts.

In his last five appearances, all out of the bullpen, he has thrown 5 2/3 scoreless giving up three hits.

Right-handed pitcher Erick Fedde (4-1, 3.10 ERA) will make his 11^th start and get the ball today for the home team.