Heading into the All-Star break, right-hander Tyler Wells was an O’s pitcher on a roll. His ERA for the year was 3.18 and it was 2.83 in his most recent eight starts. He had pitched 18 times for the Orioles, going five innings or more every time and going six or more 10 times.

But he has been a different pitcher coming out of the break with three outings now and none over 4 1/3 innings.

He had another poor one tonight as the New York Yankees took an early lead and later added on to beat the Orioles 8-3. The crowd was 42,829 and the second sellout of the year in addition to the April 7 home opener.

The best news of the night for the Birds was Tampa Bay's 17-4 loss at Houston. That means the O's AL East lead remains 1.5 games. 

The second batter of the game against Wells tonight, Aaron Judge bashed a fly ball deep to center field. He hit that ball 108.2 mph and it went 367 feet but it stayed in the park. But three pitches later Giancarlo Stanton lined one to left that didn’t stay in the yard and it didn’t get much better after that for the right-hander.

After recording their fifth walk-off win of the year last night and their second 1-0 victory of the 2023 season, the Orioles (63-40) host the New York Yankees (54-49) again tonight at Oriole Park. One more win in this series will give the O’s their 20^th series win of the season.

Anthony Santander’s solo homer in the last of the ninth with one out ended the game early this morning. A game that started two hours and 32 minutes late due to rain. It was Santander’s third career walk-off plate appearance and second homer to end and win a game. He hit his first also versus the Yankees, a three-run shot on May 19, 2022.

Last night he blasted a Tommy Kahnle 2-0 changeup for the game winner. He hit the ball 108 mph off the bat and it went 425 feet to break the scoreless tie.

The Orioles went 3-1 in one-run games on their recent road trip and are now 20-10 on the year in those games.

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez pitched a career high 6 1/3 innings allowing three hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He threw 97 pitches and gave the Orioles their 41^st quality start. They are 31-10 in those games.

He is in the top five of the American League in walks and ranks top 10 in on-base percentage. And those are two big reasons O’s catcher Adley Rutschman will bat leadoff for the first time in his career tonight.

In 98 games this season he is batting .268/.368/.426/.794 and he ranks tied for third in the AL with 60 walks and is tied for eighth in OBP.

“Something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while,” manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon. “It’s just because he is such a high on-base guy and just have him hit in front of Gunnar (Henderson) and (Anthony) Santander and (Ryan) O’Hearn. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and playing with it a little bit. Just give it a try.”

Could it become more permanent?

“Maybe. Not really sure. Against righties right now, but I could switch it in a couple of days too. We’ll see when Ced (Cedric Mullins) gets back also, what I’m going to do there. But we’re just giving it a try right now. Feel like with Adley’s on base numbers, he’s on base all the time. I like the idea of him hitting in front of Gunnar,” said Hyde.

The Orioles remain 1 ½ games ahead of second-place Tampa Bay as their series continues tonight against the Yankees at Camden Yards.

Anthony Santander hit a walk-off home run last night in a 1-0 win, improving the Orioles’ record to 20-10 in one-run games. Santander stays in right field tonight.

Manager Brandon Hyde is putting another unique spin on his lineup, batting Adley Rutschman first for the first time in the catcher’s major league career.

Rutschman extended his on-base streak to 13 games last night, tying his career high. He leads the club and American League catchers with a .368 OBP.

Gunnar Henderson moves down to second. He’s starting at shortstop, with Ramón Urías at third base.

It was a matchup of two right-handers who can bring 100 mph heat. One with a big career resume and one with big hopes for a brilliant MLB career.

On this night, the Orioles’ Grayson Rodriguez, once ranked the top pitching prospect in baseball, was matching Gerrit Cole, a six-time All-Star and six-time top 10 finisher in the Cy Young vote.

This classic old school pitchers' duel was turned over late to the bullpens and both kept the zeroes going well into the night and early Saturday morning. 

Then suddenly with one swing of Anthony Santander's bat, it was over.

He drilled a Tommy Kahnle 2-0 changeup over the right field wall with one out in the ninth for a 1-0 walk-off win over New York. It was Santander's second career walk-off homer and the 425-foot blast was his 18th on the year.

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is confident that his club can play deep into October in its present state. However, the front office has targeted areas of improvement.The sellers from the rebuild years are now buyers in first place.

“I think if we are going to make additional acquisition trades, I would bet heavily that they’re going to be on the pitching side of things,” Elias said this afternoon. “I think it’s no secret that that would be the areas of the team that, A, we could use more depth, or B, look for upgrades, so we’re working on that right now.

“This stuff, I don’t have total control over it. It’s a two-party transaction and there’s a big market out there happening right now, and we’re participating in that market. We’ll see what comes to it, but those are obviously the conversations that are first and foremost.”

They may be exclusive, with Elias downplaying the need for a left-handed hitting center fielder following injuries to Cedric Mullins and Aaron Hicks.

The club can’t set firm dates for their returns until they reach some milestones in their recoveries.

It is only 11 at-bats, but in that small sample, the Orioles’ Ramón Urías is batting .455 with a slugging percentage of .909 against Yankees’ right-hander Gerrit Cole.

Cole (9-2, 2.78 ERA) will face the Orioles tonight for the second time this year and for the 12^th time in his career. On May 23 of this season he had one of his worst starts of the year against the Orioles, allowing five runs and six hits over five innings. Cedric Mullins and Gunnar Henderson hit solo homers that night.

But over 11 career games, Cole is 5-3 with a 2.80 ERA, a .600 OPS and a WHIP of 0.991 against the Orioles.

Urías is 5-for-11 against the six-time All-Star, who has twice finished second for the Cy Young Award. He has two doubles and a homer against Cole.

“I think for me it is about looking for something up in the zone,” he said this afternoon. “I know he is good at throwing his slider down in the zone and he can get chases with that. For me, looking up in the zone is important and look for mistakes. Every time I see the ball down, you try to lay off. And that is how I have had some success against him.”

During an interview session with media this afternoon that lasted almost 27 minutes, Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias confirmed that pitching is the top priority at the trade deadline.

Elias said that if a deal is made, bet heavily on it being on “the pitching side.” Whether it’s depth or an upgrade.

Middle relief is viewed as an area that still needs to be addressed.

Injuries to outfielders Cedric Mullins and Aaron Hicks are viewed as “temporary” and won’t prompt the club to expand their trade targets.

Elias also said the club won’t make a terrible trade and force it just to “say we did something.” He believes that the current roster is capable of making a deep playoff run, but the Orioles are trying to add to it in a seller’s market.

The Orioles are back home and in the division, beginning a three-game series tonight against the Yankees.

This is the first time in Orioles’ history that they’ve been in first place in July or later while facing a last-place Yankees team.

Gunnar Henderson has returned to the lineup tonight, leading off and playing shortstop. He missed Wednesday’s game with lower-back discomfort.

Colton Cowser is in center field. Ryan Mountcastle is the designated hitter. Ryan O’Hearn stays in the cleanup spot.

The Orioles’ last eight games have been decided by three runs or fewer, their longest streak of the season. It’s also the longest active streak in the majors, per STATS. The Brewers, Mariners and Phillies are next with six.

With the trade deadline set for next Tuesday, the Orioles are no doubt checking in on the pitching market. For what it is worth, the pitching staff may be in better shape than some think and yet as they say, you can never have enough pitching.

But for a team that plays .750 ball this year when it gets a quality start, it has been happening with much greater frequency since early June for the Orioles.

In the team’s first 62 games this year, the Orioles got a quality start just 29.0 percent of the time, going 18-for-62 with a rotation ERA of 4.86 in the 62 games.

In the last 40 games, even after Kyle Bradish allowed five runs Wednesday, the Orioles have gotten a QS 55.0 percent, going 22-for-40 with a rotation ERA of 4.02.

It is a nice trend up and again the Orioles are 30-10 this year in their 40 quality starts. Where once the O’s were in the bottom third of the AL in quality starts, now just five teams have more.

During a road trip where six of the seven games were decided by one or two runs, the Orioles went 4-2 in those six games, which is quite respectable. But they lost the last two, which stings a bit. 

They come home with a series loss at Philadelphia (went 1-2) after their big series win (went 3-1) against Tampa Bay. 

But we should also keep in mind they were tied for first with Tampa Bay when that series began and now, they lead the AL East by 1.5 games. They are 5.5 games ahead of Toronto which currently holds the third AL wild card spot.

But the Orioles have had some problems this year against National League teams. While they have played .644 ball (47-26) against American League teams they have played just .517 ball (15-14) versus the NL.

They have gone 1-2 in series against Atlanta. the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philaelphia.

PHILADELPHIA – Easy isn’t a road traveled by the Orioles. Whether at home or in a visiting ballpark. Their GPS won’t pick it up.

Kyle Bradish cruised through the first two innings tonight on six and eight pitches, and Adley Rutschman hit a three-run homer in the top of the third. A crooked number.

There’s rarely a straight line to the finish. The Orioles just bank of the right outcome, which didn’t happen tonight.

The lead was gone by the fourth, on J.T. Realmuto’s two-run double. Edmundo Sosa homered with two outs in the seventh after Austin Hays had tied the game in the top half of the inning.

A team addicted to comebacks ran out of them.

The Orioles have a winning road trip secured as they take the field in Philadelphia tonight, but they need a victory in the game to pick up another series victory. They’d love to win to erase the memory of their sixth walk-off loss of the year last night. The Phillies scored twice in the ninth to pull it out.

The Orioles (62-39) had a three-game win streak snapped and lost for just the second time in seven games and fourth time in the last 17. They had won nine of their previous 10 road games until this loss.

Tonight, they can extend their AL East lead back to 2.5 games after Miami beat Tampa Bay 7-1 this afternoon.

The road trip started with the Orioles going 3-1 at Tampa Bay and now are 1-1 this series for a 4-2 trip so far with one game left. The Orioles are 8-5 in rubber match games on the season, having not played one since they lost 11-7 in 10 innings to Cincinnati on June 28.

The Orioles are 19-10-3 in series play and are 10-4-2 in road series and 32-19 in road games.

PHILADELPHIA – Gunnar Henderson is eyeing Friday night as his return to the lineup after leaving last night’s game in the eighth inning with discomfort in his lower back.

Henderson is on the bench tonight and likely unavailable.

“Feeling a lot better,” Henderson said today. “I think it’s kind of the same deal that happened a little bit earlier in the year. Just tightened up on me out there, so they just felt like it was good to not try to force it anymore.”

The back discomfort kept Henderson out of two games last month – one in San Francisco and one in Milwaukee, with an off-day in between. The Orioles are off Thursday after concluding their series tonight in Philadelphia.

Asked about Friday being a realistic goal, Henderson said, “I would think so, yeah.”

PHILADELPHIA – Gunnar Henderson isn’t on the injured list, and he isn’t in tonight’s lineup.

Henderson maintains his day-to-day status after leaving last night’s game in the eighth inning with discomfort in his lower back, the same issue he had on June 3 in San Francisco that kept him on the bench for a couple of games.

Jorge Mateo is playing shortstop and batting eighth. Ramón Urías is the third baseman.

Ryan McKenna is the center fielder, Jordan Westburg is at second base, and Adley Rutschman is serving as the designated hitter.

Ryan Mountcastle has registered a .455 average and 1.045 slugging percentage against fastballs from left-handers, compared to a .153 average and .222 slugging percentage from right-handers, per STATS. He’s the first baseman tonight.

The Orioles had played four games on this road trip decided by two runs or less and won them all. Three outs from doing it again, the game got away from them. They lost 4-3 in the last of the ninth at Philadelphia last night.

It was a rare one-run loss, rare road loss lately for this team and a rare disappointing night in Birdland.

Now at 62-39, the Orioles lost Game No. 101 and now their first place lead over Tampa Bay is 1.5 games.

They had been 54-2 this year when leading after eight innings. But this time the club chose not to use busy reliever Félix Bautista and Yennier Cano could not hold the one-run edge. Jorge Mateo doubled clutched on a two-out grounder to short that turned into an infield hit. If he makes that play, the game rolls to the tenth inning.

But during a game they lost, the Orioles may have gained a late-game relief weapon. Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami was excellent getting six outs over the seventh and eighth innings with three strikeouts on just 21 pitches. The fastball was humming and the split was moving. It was something to watch. I would have been tempted to send him out for the ninth.

PHILADELPHIA – Christmas carols played between innings tonight at Citizens Bank Park. A man dressed as Santa Claus danced on the field. The dining room served traditional holiday favorites like carved turkey and ham, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

The Orioles weren’t in a giving mood until they got to the ninth inning.

Bryson Stott doubled off Yennier Cano with two outs to score Bryce Harper and tie the game, J.T. Realmuto reached on an infield hit, with Jorge Mateo slow to get the ball out of his glove, and Alec Bohm singled into left field in the Phillies' 4-3 walk-off win over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 37,200.

Ryan O’Hearn homered off Phillies left-hander Matt Strahm leading off the eighth inning, his third tie-breaking hit in the last four games, but the Orioles fell to 62-39 overall and 4-2 on the trip. The Phillies won for only the second time in seven games.

The Orioles are 19-10 in one-run games. They had won six straight.

For the Orioles, this has been a road trip marked by close wins. They are 4-1 on the trip, winning the four games by a combined five runs after Monday’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Orioles (62-38) are playing .620 ball at the 100-game mark they reached last night. They now lead the American League East by 2 1/2 games over Tampa Bay, 6 1/2 over Toronto and 9.0 over Boston and New York.

The Orioles have won three in a row, five of six and 13 of 16 games. They have outscored their opponents 93-57 over the 16 games. They are 8-3 in the second half and have now gone 72 consecutive series without being swept.

In Orioles club history, the six teams that played in the World Series all won 59 or more of their first 100 games. The 1969 team posted the best 100-game mark at 69-31, followed by the 1979 team (67-33) and the 1966 World Series champions (66-34). The teams in 1970, 1971, 1997 and 2023 all went 62-38. The 1983 World Series winners won 59 games. Every O’s team that won 62 or more advanced to the postseason.

Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle hit solo homers last night, and Colton Cowser notched his first career extra-base hit with an RBI double in the ninth that broke the 2-2 tie. Westburg hit his first career homer and Mountcastle hit No. 12 this year. He blasted a slider with a 112.3 mph exit velocity, and hit the ball 451 feet out over the center field fence. It is the fourth-longest homer by an Oriole this year.

PHILADELPHIA – Orioles outfielder Aaron Hicks is hopeful that he can return to the active roster after 10 days.

Hicks went on the injured list this afternoon with a strained left hamstring. He exited last night’s game in the third inning after diving for Johan Rojas’ shallow fly ball.

He lost control of it but was credited with the catch. The Phillies didn’t request the challenge within the allotted 15 seconds.

It proved to be costly to Hicks.

“I feel like by the end of the 10 days I should be good,” he said. “Obviously last night I thought it was just a cramp, and then woke up this morning not really feeling that great. I had to go get an MRI today and obviously that landed me on the IL, but I only think it’s going to take about the 10 days.”

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled OF Ryan McKenna from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Placed OF Aaron Hicks on the 10-day Injured List with a left hamstring strain.