DETROIT – Charlie Morton is having trouble with the curve.

Game 2 of today’s split doubleheader against the Tigers presents Morton with another opportunity to spin his season in the right direction. He’s gone 0-5 with a 10.89 ERA and 2.226 WHIP in 20 2/3 innings, and the Orioles can’t promise an extended run of starts.

The opponent could provide the cure. Morton hasn’t allowed an earned run to the Tigers in his last 23 2/3 innings, one of the longest streaks against them since 1995, according to STATS. It began in May 2017 and has continued through June 2023. Derek Lowe owns the longest stretch in the Wild Card era at 33 1/3, followed by Mariano Rivera (27 2/3), Jamie Moyer (27), Jon Garland (26) and Sean Lowe (24).

Morton will grasp onto any possible advantage. He’s the third pitcher to go 0-5 with a 10.00 ERA in his first five appearances with a team, per STATS. Jeff Weaver lost his first five starts and posted a 15.35 ERA with the Mariners in 2007 and Jason Marquis was 0-5 with a 14.33 ERA with the Nationals in 2010.

In five starts since signing for $15 million, Morton has allowed 31 hits and 25 runs with 15 walks in 20 2/3 innings. He hadn’t allowed four-plus earned runs in his first five starts in his previous 17 major league seasons, and his 10.89 ERA is the highest over any five-game span in a minimum 20 innings. It’s also the second-highest in a pitcher’s first five starts with the Orioles after Ty Blach’s 11.32 ERA in 2019.

DETROIT - The Orioles won’t begin their three-game series against the Tigers tonight, with the opener postponed due to inclement weather in the forecast.

The teams will play a day-night doubleheader on Saturday. The first game will start at 1:10 p.m., and the second game is scheduled for 6:10 p.m.

So much for a free night.

Neither team posted its lineup today, perhaps in anticipation of the postponement. The tarp is on the field and popup storms are anticipated.

This is the second postponement for the Orioles in 2025. Their April 11 game against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards became part of a split-doubleheader on July 29.

The Orioles have moved on to Detroit, relieved to snap a three-game losing streak and to avoid being swept by the Nationals.

They lost two of three games to the Tigers at Comerica Park last season and two of three at Camden Yards. Their last three-game sweep in Detroit happened in 2004.

They’d settle for a series win, their second in 2025.

The season is 24 games old for the Orioles and they are counting on track records and improved health until perhaps able to make some moves closer to the deadline.

This also would help:

WASHINGTON – Left-hander MacKenzie Gore presented a huge challenge for an Orioles lineup that has struggled to hit lefties all season.

How could the Orioles lineup hope to find its rhythm against a lefty that led Major League Baseball in strikeouts per nine innings entering the night? That's all anyone was talking about entering tonight’s game.

As it turns out, Gore wasn’t the story. Cade Povich was. And on the back of their young left-hander, the Orioles avoided a sweep and left D.C. with a 2-1 win, their first victory scoring fewer than five runs this season.

Tomoyuki Sugano had been the only O’s starter to put up consistent numbers in recent weeks. The veteran right-hander, in his first major league season, did so again last night, tossing an admirable seven innings.

Povich was even better.

WASHINGTON – Roughly 10 percent of the population is left-handed, according to Norgen Biotek. Lefties, though, make up a much larger percentage of pitchers in Major League Baseball. And in 2025, the Orioles have faced a left-handed starter in over 30 percent of their first 23 games.

Tonight, the Birds face another, as the Nationals roll out one of the best young lefties in the game, MacKenzie Gore.

In the seven games that the O’s have faced a lefty starter to begin 2025, Baltimore is just 1-6.

Gore, the former elite prospect, ranks in the 70th percentile or better in expected ERA, expected batting average, fastball velocity, whiff percentage, strikeout percentage and walk percentage this season.

In fact, he is in the 93rd percentile in whiff rate and leads Major League Baseball with 14 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Orioles are in D.C. again tonight, trying to avoid being swept by the Nationals before flying to Detroit.

The losing streak has reached three games and the record has fallen to 9-14. The Orioles haven’t been six games below .500 since July 5, 2022.

Left-hander Cade Povich is making his fifth start. He’s posted a 6.38 ERA and 2.073 WHIP in 18 1/3 innings.

The last outing was his worst, with the Reds totaling seven runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked five batters and surrendered three home runs.

Povich hasn’t faced the Nationals. Nathaniel Lowe has two at-bats against him and is 1-for-2 with a double.

The news was good in the way that Orioles manager Brandon Hyde presented it yesterday.

How high you choose to raise your hopes is up to you.

Grayson Rodriguez sought additional opinions after undergoing imaging on his sore right shoulder, which always leads to the worst assumptions. I said it, too. Athletes don’t normally contact other physicians or surgeons if the first appointment brought positive results.

Hyde told the assembled media yesterday in D.C. that Rodriguez has a “mild lat strain,” and that he improved “quite a bit this last week.” He also described Rodriguez as “symptom-free.” Sadly, I’ve become optimism-free based on the number of times that mild has led to months-long absences from the active roster.

Rodriguez won’t begin throwing again for a couple of weeks, so the Orioles aren’t getting him back anytime soon. He’s starting over again with flat ground tossing, bullpen sessions, live batting practice and a rehab assignment in the minors. Meanwhile, the rotation must hold up with Zach Eflin also sidelined by a lat strain.

WASHINGTON – The Orioles' offense had plenty of opportunities to cash in for a breakout inning in tonight’s 4-3 loss to the Nationals. Instead, they made smaller deposits. 

For the most part, pitching held up its end of the bargain. Sometimes, you can still win baseball games like that, even when you go 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. In this case, the offense came up just short. 

“I’m really happy with how we played,” said Brandon Hyde after the game. “We play baseball like that, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

The Orioles' offense started the contest with three straight batted balls hit over 100 mph off the bats of Cedric Mullins, Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. Only one, a single from Rutschman, resulted in a hit. Despite the loud contact, Baltimore left the top of the first without a run. That would be a theme. 

“We hit a lot of balls hard that we weren’t rewarded for,” Hyde noted. “I thought we took really good at-bats for the most part.”

WASHINGTON – Expected stats don’t show up in the box score. That makes them easy to dismiss. 

They’re not interchangeable with counting numbers, nor should they be used as a crutch for a struggling offense. 

But, in this case, it could help explain why a lineup with so much talent has struggled to score runs. It’s one thing to say, “This team is talented and they should be hitting better than they are.”

Expected numbers support that claim. 

Entering tonight’s game against the Nationals, the Orioles have the 19th-best team OPS and have scored the 18th-most runs in the game. On paper, with stars like Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg, they are far better than a fringe top-20 unit. 

Left-hander Trevor Rogers made his first injury rehab start today at Double-A Chesapeake and gave up a two-run homer to Altoona’s Kervin Pichardo two batters into the game. Rogers worked three innings and allowed two runs and four hits with one walk and three strikeouts. He threw 44 pitches, 29 for strikes.

Rogers is on the injured list after dislocating his right knee in January.

Braxton Bragg made his Double-A debut and tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and eight strikeouts.

Silas Ardoin hit his second home run.

Heston Kjerstad stays in left field tonight for the Orioles, who continue their series against the Nationals in D.C., and Jackson Holliday remains at second base.

The Orioles are four games below .500 again and the rotation issues won’t go away. They were one-hit, so it isn't just the pitching. The anger generated from Sunday's 24-2 loss was supposed to shatter slumps and funks.

What can you trust? Well, there’s mailbag leftovers.

You asked, I answered, and some stuff had to be held. Let’s get to it before the Orioles send Tomoyuki Sugano to the mound tonight and hope that he can be their stopper.

How far away is Chayce McDermott’s rehab start?
Manager Brandon Hyde told the media in D.C. that McDermott was “a little bit behind Trevor Rogers,” who starts this afternoon at Double-A Chesapeake. “I don’t think that date has been set in stone, but in the next week or so,” Hyde said. The Orioles want Rogers to get three or four starts before he’s reinstated. Not that you asked.

What’s happening with Zach Fruit? He really impressed me in spring training.
The Baysox put Fruit on the seven-day injured list yesterday. No explanation accompanied the news. Fruit allowed nine runs and 10 hits and walked six batters in eight innings over three starts. Patrick Reilly also went on the IL yesterday after exiting his last start with right elbow discomfort. Not that you asked.

WASHINGTON – The pain points in the Orioles' 2025 season aren’t difficult to locate.

They were apparent in Sunday’s lopsided game and they showed themselves again tonight in a 7-0 loss to the Nationals.

“We did not play well,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “It is disappointing. Coming off a game we definitely wanted to throw away a couple of days ago, an off-day, to come out and not take great at-bats and not play very good baseball tonight, that was disappointing.”

Entering tonight’s contest against the Nationals, Orioles starting pitchers had the highest ERA in the majors by a significant margin. Dean Kremer’s outing didn’t help that figure.

“When he was in the middle part of the plate, they hit him hard,” said Hyde. “Some of the other balls that went for RBIs were just in the middle part of the plate. Just had a tough night.”

WASHINGTON – Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t.

An adage applicable to your driver on the golf course, your falsetto at karaoke and a starting pitcher’s feel for off-speed and breaking pitches.

Dean Kremer doesn’t have an overwhelming fastball. It averages about 93.6 mph, according to FanGraphs, and opponents are hitting .304 against the offering this season. Last year, according to Statcast’s run value, it was the worst of his five consistent offerings.

When Kremer has found success, he’s mixed the four-seamer with well-placed cutters and sinkers, plus a curveball to change speeds. But last season, the right-hander found a new, effective off-speed offering: the splitter.

In 2024, he had it. But in 2025, he hasn’t.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers is ready for the next important step of his throwing progression and possible return to the majors.

Rogers is starting for the Double-A Chesapeake Baysox Wednesday morning at 11:05 a.m. at Prince George’s Stadium. He’s on the injured list after suffering a right knee subluxation during the offseason.

The Orioles acquired Rogers from the Marlins at last year’s trade deadline for outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Connor Norby. He was optioned after four starts and with his ERA at 7.11 in 19 innings.

The injury occurred in January while Rogers was throwing on a turf field.

“Landed wrong and unfortunately it dislocated, but thankfully it wasn’t a complete dislocation, just dislocated for a brief second and went back into place, so it could have been a lot worse,” he said on Feb. 13.

Brandon Young is back in the majors.

The Orioles recalled Young today from Triple-A Norfolk, a move that required a corresponding injury in order to dodge the 15-day minimum rule. Reliever Cody Poteet was placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation.

Young made his major league debut Saturday afternoon against the Reds and allowed three runs and seven hits over four innings. The Orioles optioned him the following day and recalled Poteet as a fresh bullpen arm.

Today’s move leaves the Orioles with five starters, which could present another chance for Young this weekend in Detroit. Kyle Gibson made his third start with an affiliate Sunday, joining High-A Aberdeen and throwing 78 pitches in five innings.

Young and Gibson would be available for Friday’s series opener at Comerica Park.

The Orioles are down the road for the next three nights playing the Nationals in a series that no longer is hyped as an uncivil war.

These teams don’t hate each other and it isn’t a rivalry. It’s two organizations in relatively close proximity trying to get on a roll at the expense of the other. That’s fine. You can’t fabricate hard feelings.

The Nats are 9-13 and in fourth place in the National League East. The Orioles are 9-12 and in fourth place in the American League East, a half-game ahead of the Rays. They woke up yesterday two behind the Red Sox and 4 ½ out of first place. Far from insurmountable, but it’s time to get hot.

The adage that it starts with starting pitching is glaringly accurate in Baltimore. The rotation has a 6.11 ERA that’s the worst in baseball, with the Yankees next among American League teams yesterday at 4.50. The Orioles’ overall ERA of 5.43 also sat on the bottom yesterday, just behind the Nats’ 5.12. However, Jorge Mateo and Gary Sánchez combined to allow nine runs Sunday over the last two innings, so the numbers should come with an asterisk.

Stay with me here … they aren’t pitchers.

The Orioles have another off-day following their longest homestand of the season. They’ll hit the road for a three-game series in D.C. and Detroit.

Contrary to some of the stuff I’ve read, the season isn’t over. The Orioles have played 21 games and the season isn’t truncated to 22. Lucky for them, right? But yeah, yesterday was ugly – it only counts as one loss - and a rotation with the highest ERA in baseball is cause for concern. Injuries are a big part of the problem, but it goes beyond health.

The offense also can drive a fan batty. The Reds went with a bullpen game yesterday, but the Orioles managed only one run off Brent Suter in three innings and two on the day, and they lost by three touchdowns. Key guys are slumping. Cedric Mullins can’t carry this much of the load.

I don’t want to carry a heavy mailbag, so it’s time to do some dumping. You asked and I did my best to answer. The editing was restricted to my cut-and-paste technique of moving questions from blog comments to my Word document. It’s a skill like anything else.

Also, my mailbag received a visit from the Easter Bunny and your mailbag was visited by a rabid raccoon.

A change to the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is happening today that will make it more accessible to the public.

The network announced that it’s offering a direct-to-consumer streaming option called MASN+. Fans can subscribe for $19.99 per month or $89.99 for the remainder of the 2025 regular season to receive MASN and MASN2 content.

Every available Orioles and Nationals game, “Classics” episodes, "O’s Xtra" and "Nats Xtra," and other programming will be available.

MASN+ enables in-market fans to watch games with no blackouts and no cable or satellite subscription or contract required. Anyone wanting to subscribe can go to MASNsports.com here or use the MASN app available on iOS and Android mobile devices, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku.

A press release issued today also stated that MASN and MASN2 will continue to be available via cable and satellite providers.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde sent out the verbal equivalent of a bat signal, except it wasn’t for the offense.

Hyde expressed his concerns Saturday about his bullpen’s heavy workload and how the short starts take their toll. And that’s when he called for his 41-year-old pitcher to help.

“Come on, Charlie Morton,” Hyde said. “Need you.”

Morton didn’t make it through the third inning today, leaving after 2 1/3 and charged with seven runs in a 24-2 loss to the Reds before an announced crowd of 19,053 that booed the performance but enjoyed an infielder and catcher making their pitching debuts.

Their excitement began with Jorge Mateo taking the mound in the eighth, chanting his name as the Reds batted around. He loaded the bases while throwing sliders, changeups and curveballs according to the tracker, hit Blake Dunn with two outs and served up a grand slam to Noelvi Marte. Former Orioles catcher Austin Wynns singled for his fifth hit.

The Orioles thought they knew what was coming today from Reds starter Hunter Greene - the 99-100 mph fastball, the plus-sliders, the scoreless streak, the stacked odds. Brandon Young was the riddle, an undrafted rookie making his major league debut.

Young’s hair is long, but the Orioles hoped that his outing would provide some length.

You can’t count on much these days, and that includes Greene’s dominance. He lasted only three innings and surrendered three homers among his five runs. Greene went four-plus and left with a lead. And Ramón Laureano provided an unexpected twist by homering twice off the bench.

Jordan Westburg snapped an 0-for-30 stretch with a homer, and seven relievers combined for two-run ball over five innings in the Orioles’ wild 9-5 victory over the Reds before an announced orange-clad crowd of 28,534 at Camden Yards.

Félix Bautista warmed and sat down after the Orioles (9-11) scored twice in the eighth. He got up again after Austin Hays led off the ninth by clearing the left field wall against Matt Bowman and Gavin Lux doubled. A walk brought Bautista into the game with two on and no outs, they were stranded to give him the save, and the Orioles will try to claim another series Sunday.