Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino was heading back indoors around 3:30 p.m. when he found out that the Dodgers weren’t starting Tyler Glasnow tonight at Camden Yards.
“My watch just buzzed me when I was walking in from early BP,” he said.
“I thought somebody was messing with me, but apparently not.”
No, it was true. The Dodgers scratched Glasnow with back tightness and are pushing him to early next week.
Mansolino kept the same lineup as the Orioles suddenly had to prepare for Shohei Ohtani. He was scheduled for Monday at home against the Rockies after working a season-high five innings on Aug. 27.
“He’s one of a kind,” Mansolino said. “We haven’t seen anybody like him. I guess Babe Ruth, going back, the pitching/hitting thing. But at some point Babe stopped pitching, it sounds like. That’s kind of the same profile.
“Who else has done that? That’s been it. So it’s a one-of-a-kind, it’s a guy who’s a borderline ace when he’s healthy and right on the mound. And one of probably the top three offensive players in the game. He might be one-of-one.”
The Orioles are trusting the group that handles their advance work to prep for Ohtani.
“They are probably in there right now trying to figure out what to do, because we weren’t expecting Ohtani,” Mansolino said. “We were probably thinking he was going to pitch Monday most likely. And we were thinking Sunday might be (Clayton) Kershaw. I guess we’ll wait and see until we get that. But we’ve got a whole team of people. Our hitters are agile, they’ll figure it out and come up with a good approach, and we’ll do the best that we can.”
Catcher Gary Sánchez worked out on the field earlier today and is nearing an injury rehab assignment. He hasn’t played since July 5 because of a right knee sprain.
“He’ll be here for five days and he’ll go out on rehab games,” Mansolino said.
Outfielder Tyler O’Neill (right wrist inflammation) will begin another assignment next week. Infielder Jordan Westburg (right ankle sprain) is day-to-day.
“The inside thing is kind of holding him up,” Mansolino said. “If it was an outside thing, he’d probably be cooking by now. But the inside part of the ankle is just really different. … He’s hitting, he’s doing a lot of good stuff, but just that kind of lateral movement is holding him back right now.”
Catcher Adley Rutschman (right oblique strain) started to hit off a tee today.
The Diamondbacks claimed reliever Elvin Rodríguez on waivers from the Orioles.
Cal Ripken Jr. sat in the dugout earlier today, in front of the plaque honoring his father, and talked about the 30-year anniversary of breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record. The Orioles will hold a special ceremony on Saturday that hopefully won't be impacted by rain.
Ripken won’t duplicate his jog around the warning track during an ovation that lasted 22 minutes and 15 seconds.
“I hope not,” he said. “We don’t have time for that.”
The Orioles will drive him in a convertible. Some moments can’t be replicated.
The memories from Sept. 6, 1995 are flooding back to Ripken, including the moment when Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Palmeiro gave him a shove that began his trek around the track.
“I really didn’t want to do that, but they kept saying, ‘We won’t get this game started,’ and I was super sensitive to that,” Ripken said. “You don’t want to have Mike Mussina sit. It was like a long rain delay and then you’d lose your place. And I thought the game was important and we should finish the game and then celebrate it afterwards. But then once they gave me that final shove about 100 feet down the line, I couldn’t care less about the game again. It was that good of an experience.”
Does it feel like this much time has passed?
“In most ways, no, but when I get up in the morning from bed, it feels like it’s been 30 years,” he said.
“The memories that happened that night are crystal clear. A lot of the things that you do on the baseball field, it’s amazing how that comes back to you. But in some ways, too, you’ve got a different phase of your life and you’re moving into a different phase of your life and you start to think, ‘OK, I was a baseball player a long time ago.’ But I still have those memories, and I think the memories become more important as you get older.
“You look back, and for me personally, it’s not the memories of getting the hit or something like that, it’s the memory of being with your team or it’s the people that you get it with that really you remember.”
Playing in his 2,131st consecutive game was a record that Ripken never intended to hold.
“When it got close and I can’t tell you exactly when, I never, ever thought that there was an end game, that there was a goal or that I was going to break the record,” he said. “I thought, ‘Whatever happens, happens. Just keep playing. Approach the game the same way you always have.’ And those games started to add up.
“When everyone started planning for the celebration, then it put a finish line on it, and I kept thinking, ‘God, I don’t like that. What if I don’t make it?’ Then I started thinking all these things, which I had to put out of my mind and just play. I think the streak happened because I could physically do it. Mentally, I was able to overcome things and push forward. But when you put a finish line on it, there seemed to be expectations from everyone that there was pressure.
“I felt like I wasn’t sleeping as much towards the end. … I was a little burnt out. I was under the weather. But when 2,130 happened and it was over and (broadcaster) Jon Miller sat out there at the pitcher’s mound and we had a little conversation, when I went home that night, I knew 2,131 was going to happen. So then I knew that everything was going to be OK, I wouldn’t have to worry about that. So there was a sense of relief that I got to the finish line.”
The club announced a list of confirmed attendees Saturday that includes Hall of Famers Mussina, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray and Harold Baines, Orioles Hall of Famers Brady Anderson, Al Bumbry and B.J. Surhoff, and former teammates Palmeiro, Ben McDonald and Larry Sheets.
Also appearing will be former Orioles broadcaster Jon Miller and commissioner Rob Manfred.
“You try to prepare yourself because sometimes you get caught off guard with the emotion,” Ripken said. “I remember the first time around thinking about my mom, who was helpful. That kind of works you up a little bit. And 30 years later you’d think that you’d get used to it, but it kind of brings up those memories, freshens them up a little bit. I’ve been thinking about dad and mom a lot lately. We lost dad and mom. And I think they’re still a part of my life, they’re still advising me even though they’re not here. So I think it’ll be cool.
“I hear it’s close to a sellout or full house, playing the Dodgers, which will be really exciting in a baseball sense. It should produce a really nice atmosphere and environment. I’m looking forward to it.”
Ripken is much more visible these days as part of the ownership group, attending many more games and watching from his front-row seat next to the dugout.
“It feels really good,” he said. “This young team is a developing team. Gunnar Henderson, for example, it’s been wonderful watching him develop, learn the position at shortstop, make all these plays. I didn’t check the last couple days, does he still got his errorless streak going? Still 70 games, 70-plus games? Just watching him develop as a player and give him a tip or two about footwork or how you can make this play in the hole or this play up the middle, that’s been very gratifying. And getting to know the guys.
“It’s a bunch of really talented, young guys, and they seem like they’re little sponges that you could say things and they want to absorb it and they want to try it. So it makes me feel good.”