A 2-4 road trip through Minneapolis and Anaheim isn’t cause for celebration. Lockers weren’t covered in plastic yesterday. And to be clear, last-place teams don’t have soft spots in their schedules, especially one with a worse record than the opponent.
However, Zach Eflin’s return to the rotation, Cedric Mullins’ emergence from a slump and Gunnar Henderson wearing a pirate hat while drinking from the homer hose created a more festive mood for the Orioles heading into the off-day and return home.
Being swept at Target Field felt like a death blow, though it’s only May, but the Orioles claimed two of three against the Angels and won their first Sunday game. They improved to 3-9 against left-handed starters.
“Gotta start somewhere,” manager Brandon Hyde said in his media scrum.
“Today was a good day."
Now comes the hard part – stringing together a lot more of them.
The Twins have won eight in a row. The Orioles just happened to catch them at the wrong time, and will again with the upcoming three-game series at Camden Yards. Baseball’s cruel little joke.
Eflin surrendered two runs in the first inning to fall behind 2-1 and followed with four consecutive scoreless innings. He probably would have kept going at 83 pitches except that he just came off the injured list.
The day began with Eflin and San Diego’s Michael King tied for the second-longest active streak with three runs or fewer surrendered in 13 consecutive starts. Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta is first with 16.
Pairing Eflin with Tomoyuki Sugano is going to make the rotation a heck of a lot better, and it rises another notch if Dean Kremer stays on his roll, with two runs in 14 innings this month.
Mullins was 0-for-20 and 1-for-35 before his left-on-left double yesterday in the fifth inning – 107 mph off the bat. Mullins scored the tying run on Maverick Handley’s sacrifice fly, the catcher’s first of two major league RBIs.
Mullins also singled and he scored twice after Hyde lowered him to eighth against Tyler Anderson. He was carrying the offense, batting .278/.412/.516 with five doubles, six home runs, 20 RBIs and 20 walks in March/April, but he was 1-for-30 this month before yesterday.
Any momentum can stall by Tuesday, depending on Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson and the bullpen. He faced the Orioles Wednesday and allowed two runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. Mullins led off that night and went 0-for-4.
Henderson homered, singled and has reached base in 17 consecutive games. He has 13 hits this month in 37 at-bats. It seems like a good idea to put him back in the leadoff spot, where he was slotted yesterday.
He’ll miss the Angels. He’s a career .359 hitter in 16 games against them, with four doubles, four triples and six home runs.
Adley Rutschman had a gift triple on a ball lost in the sun, with a 99 percent catch probability, but he also singled and didn’t need to apologize for his good fortune. He was 3-for-29 this month.
There’s also Ryan Mountcastle, who was batting .177 with a .443 OPS against lefties heading into yesterday. Anderson walked Tyler O’Neill intentionally to pitch to Mountcastle with two outs in the fifth inning, a runner on third base and the score tied. Avoid one right-handed hitter to face another right-handed hitter. Mountcastle responded by lining a single into right field and grinning as he talked to first base coach Anthony Sanders.
“Yeah, that was a first,” he told the media afterward.
It led to the third series win of the season.
* Reliever Andrew Kittredge tossed another scoreless inning yesterday with Triple-A Norfolk on his rehab assignment. He allowed two hits, struck out a batter and threw all nine pitches for strikes.
Kittredge has made three appearances, the first at High-A Aberdeen, where he gave up a run and two hits and struck out two batters in an inning. He allowed two hits and walked a batter in a scoreless inning in his first game with Norfolk.
The Orioles will reinstate Kittredge later this month. They haven’t specified how many innings or outings are required.
* The Tides have made 100 transactions this season and are on pace for 392, which would shatter the franchise record of 314 set in 2022.
Kyle Brnovich was transferred from Aberdeen to Norfolk yesterday, started against Nashville and allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings to leave his ERA at 4.66.
Nathan Webb, with a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings, was transferred from Norfolk to Double-A Chesapeake. So were left-hander Walter Pennington, outrighted to Norfolk after clearing waivers, and pitcher Dylan Heid.
Trevor Rogers ended his rehab assignment and was optioned to the Tides.
* On this date in Orioles history:
Mullins became the seventh Orioles player to hit for the cycle in a 6-3 win over the Pirates in 2023 at Camden Yards.
Reggie Jackson hit his first home run with the team in 1976, a grand slam off Jerry Augustine in Milwaukee in an 8-6 win. Jackson had three slams in his lone season with the Orioles, all against left-handers, after hitting only one in eight seasons with Oakland.
Jim Palmer made the 558th and last appearance of his career in relief against the Athletics in 1984 at Memorial Stadium. Palmer worked the final two innings and allowed four runs in a 12-2 loss.