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Orioles manager Brandon Hyde made out tonight’s lineup assuming that right-hander Yonny Chirinos will get the bulk of the innings after left-hander Jalen Beeks, who’s serving as the opener.
Beeks has appeared in 13 games, 11 in relief, and totaled 16 innings.
Ryan O’Hearn is in the lineup as the left-handed designated hitter.
“With Beeks, not sure how long he’s going to go,” Hyde said, “but I expect him to go an inning or two, maybe three.”
Beeks hasn’t gone more than 1 1/3 innings in his last eight appearances.
The Orioles are trying tonight for their eighth series win in the last nine.
Ryan O’Hearn is batting ninth tonight as the designated hitter against the Rays. Adam Frazier is batting fifth again. Gunnar Henderson is the third baseman.
Dean Kremer held the Braves to one run in six innings in his last start to lower his ERA from 6.67 to 5.80. He’s 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA in four career starts against the Rays.
Randy Arozarena is 3-for-7 with two home runs against Kremer.
Ryan Mountcastle posted his 10th multi-hit game of the season last night to tie him with Austin Hays and Anthony Santander for the team lead.
Shortstop Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 overall pick by the Orioles in the 2022 MLB Draft, is not even a year removed from draft day yet and his goal for the 2023 season is looking very reachable.
And that is to end the year playing for Double-A Bowie.
The 19-year-old lefty swinger, who moved up to No. 7 in a new Baseball America top 100 list this week, continues to be a star on the rise – both for the Orioles and among national prospects analysts who love his skills, talent and maturity.
It was on display in major league spring training when the kid fit in so well with much older players and then took the field and went 6-for-14 hitting .429 in spring games. He handled himself like a 10-year vet.
Then he began this season with Low Single-A Delmarva, batting .392 with an OPS of 1.190 in 13 games. That led to a quick promotion to High-A Aberdeen where he played his 11th game for the IronBirds last night, but his first game at home.
Grayson Rodriguez retired the leadoff batter of a game tonight for the first time in his seven major league starts. He needed nine pitches and a 99.1 mph fastball to get a called third strike on Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz. But he did it.
Wander Franco was next, and he launched another fastball to center field for his seventh home run of the season.
Rodriguez keeps experiencing the ups and downs that can nauseate a rookie pitcher. Nothing to do except ride it out.
For longer tonight than any other time with the Orioles.
The defense turned a couple of double plays behind Rodriguez, the offense sprung back to life and the Orioles held on to defeat the Rays 4-2 before an announced crowd of 10,017 at Camden Yards.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
- Recalled LHP Drew Rom from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 67 and his first appearance will be his Major League debut.
- Recalled INF/OF Ryan O’Hearn from Triple-A Norfolk.
- Recalled INF Terrin Vavra from Triple-A Norfolk.
- Placed INF Ramón Urías on the 10-day Injured List with a left hamstring strain.
- Optioned LHP Keegan Akin to Triple-A Norfolk after yesterday’s game.
- Designated C Luis Torrens for assignment.
The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 39 players.
As the Orioles continue a stretch of games against some of MLB’s best teams tonight, hosting Tampa Bay in game two of a three-game series, they look for continued strong starting pitching.
O’s starting pitchers have an ERA of 5.31 for the year, ranking 11th in the American League. And their eight quality starts also ranks 11th in the AL, well behind the league leaders Toronto (18) and Seattle (17).
But since facing Atlanta in a series that began on Friday night, O’s starters have pitched to an ERA of 2.86 over the last four games, allowing two earned runs or less in three of four games and throwing two of their eight quality starts. And most of that was against Atlanta, which has a team OPS of .804 – second in the majors only to Tampa Bay at .865.
But the O’s starters have stepped up in this stretch, even as the Baltimore offense has scored just six runs in the last three games while going 2-for-29 with runners in scoring position. The O’s have been outscored 11-6 during the three-game losing streak.
Now 22-13 on the year, the Orioles remain in second place in the AL East, but are 6.5 games back of Tampa Bay, which sits at 29-7. Toronto is in third place, 7.5 out, with Boston 8.0 back and New York 10.0 games out. The Rays have been so good that the other four AL East teams are all closer to the cellar than to first place at this point.
Left-hander Drew Rom was sitting on the balcony of his hotel room last night in Jacksonville at around 10:45 p.m., gazing at the river and relaxing, when Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton called with news that he’d need to pack his bags and board a flight to Baltimore in the morning.
The Orioles decided to option Keegan Akin and recall Rom, whose first appearance out of the bullpen will be his major league debut.
“For me, it’s just been a whirlwind of a day and a half, I guess, but I’m trying to take it all in stride at this point and try to keep doing what I’ve been doing down in Norfolk and just try to bring it up here,” Rom said this afternoon at his locker inside the clubhouse at Camden Yards.
“It’s kind of surreal. My favorite movie was ‘The Rookie’ growing up, with Dennis Quaid, so that’s kind of what I felt like coming in, honestly, was taking everything in. A little bit of shell shock. Everything today’s just been eyes wide-open, trying to bask in everything and just take everything one step at a time, one minute at a time.”
Rom posted a 2.87 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in six games. He was supposed to start tonight for the Tides.
Manager Brandon Hyde said Gunnar Henderson will see a lot of time at third base after Ramón Urías went on the injured list today with a strained left hamstring. Henderson is at third tonight and batting seventh as the Orioles try to even their series with Tampa Bay.
Urías sustained the injury last night in the ninth inning while running to first base on a single.
“Do not have a firm grasp of the expected length of his IL stay,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “We hope it’s not going to be an overly significant amount of time, but when you talk about a hamstring, it’s definitely something that we went ahead and put him on the IL and expect him to miss a good bit of time.”
Adley Rutschman is catching and trying to snap an 0-for-18 streak. Adam Frazier is batting fifth and playing second base. Kyle Stowers is batting ninth and starting in right field.
For the Orioles
Cedric Mullins CF
Adley Rutschman C
Anthony Santander DH
Ryan Mountcastle 1B
Adam Frazier 2B
Austin Hays LF
Gunnar Henderson 3B
Jorge Mateo SS
Kyle Stowers RF
The Orioles shook up their roster this afternoon, and the moves weren’t tied only to Ramón Urías’ left hamstring strain.
Urías was placed on the 10-day injured list as expected, but the club also optioned reliever Keegan Akin and designated catcher Luis Torrens for assignment before he could appear in a game.
Left-hander Drew Rom, infielder/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and infielder Terrin Vavra were recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.
Rom, 23, would be making his major league debut after going 4-1 with a 2.87 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in six games with Norfolk. He’s surrendered only two home runs in 31 1/3 innings and is averaging 2.9 walks and 9.2 strikeouts. He’s wearing No. 67.
The Orioles selected Rom in the fourth round of the 2018 draft out of Highlands High School in Kentucky. He could switch to a relief role as Akin’s replacement, keeping a third left-hander in the bullpen and providing length.
We are going to need to see much more over the next few weeks of this grueling stretch for the Orioles in their May schedule. Much more to know how they truly stack up against good teams.
We do know that since scoring nine runs on Friday night – and seven came in one inning – they have scored just six runs in the last three games and the Orioles have their first three-game losing streak of 2023.
For the first time they lost a series opener, and they are now 11-1 in those games.
But they have played the two best teams via win-loss record currently in MLB to get the three losses. Keep in mind they have seen four pretty good starters here. The worst ERA from a starter they have seen since Friday is the 2.57 from Spencer Strider of Atlanta on Saturday night. That was the worst from four pitchers that entered their game against the Orioles with a combined record of 15-0.
Shane McClanahan finished sixth in the AL Cy Young vote last year, seventh for the 2021 ROY and looked like it last night. The Rays are now 8-0 in his starts this year. And, after allowing four hits in six scoreless last night, he is now 7-0 with a 1.76 ERA.
The Orioles got length tonight from starter Kyle Gibson. They got a quality start, only the eighth in 35 games, and with the veteran right-hander responsible for half.
But would they get the win?
Gibson deserved it, and not just for again knocking down the five-inning wall. He held the Rays to one run through the sixth and came out after Luke Raley’s soft leadoff single.
The Rays loaded the bases with no outs against Bryan Baker, and Raley scored on Wander Franco’s fly ball to leave Gibson with two runs on his line. The Orioles couldn’t yank the loss from him, falling 3-0 before an announced crowd of 12,669 at Camden Yards.
Raley homered off Keegan Akin in the ninth, and the Orioles (22-13) have their first three-game losing streak and second shutout. Tampa Bay improved its record to 29-7, the best in baseball.
The Orioles have made the following roster move:
- RHP Joey Krehbiel has cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.
After a 10-game road trip to Detroit, Kansas City and Atlanta where the Orioles went 6-4, the club returns home tonight to take on American League East leading Tampa Bay. The Rays (28-7) have the best record in the majors, playing .800 ball and lead the Orioles by 5.5 games atop the division.
The Orioles (22-12), after losing two of three in Atlanta, have a .647 win percentage that would have them in first place in four of the other five divisions in MLB. Tonight they open a 10-game homestand with three against Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh followed by a four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels.
The Orioles have played 62 percent of their games so far on the road, going 9-4 at home and 13-8 away from Oriole Park. The Orioles are 3-1 in home series, losing one to the Yankees and winning the others versus Oakland, Detroit and Boston. The Orioles are 6-1 in their last seven games at Camden Yards.
The best overall records in MLB right now:
.800 – Tampa Bay (28-7)
Orioles reliever Mychal Givens was back in the Camden Yards home clubhouse this afternoon, taking a brief break from his injury rehab assignment.
Givens said his left knee feels much better, but he doesn’t know when the Orioles will activate him. He hasn’t allowed a run or hit in three innings with Double-A Bowie and has struck out five batters.
The Orioles are keeping Givens with the Baysox. He pitches again Wednesday night in Harrisburg.
“The last three outings have been good, so we’re still taking it day by day,” he said. “We’ll continue to evaluate how I’ve been feeling, but right now it’s been going well, in the right direction.
“The knee’s not having the problems it had earlier in spring and earlier in the month.”
The Orioles are back home, finally, after a three-city road trip and back-to-back, one-run losses in Atlanta.
Now they get red-hot Tampa Bay, which has the best record in baseball at 28-7 and a plus-115 run differential.
The Rays’ record is tied for the second-best through 35 games since 1903. The 1984 Tigers were 30-5 and won the World Series.
Per STATS, this is only the fifth time in 134 series that the Orioles and Rays have been first and second in the standings. Most recently was in April 2019, but the second-place Orioles were 7-10.
The teams have never finished one-two in the division.
For the Orioles, I guess we could say they didn’t gain as many wins as they hoped, but they did gain respect. Respect in that they may in fact be a contending team that is ready to play with the big boys in big league baseball.
We can’t say that with certainty after just those three games in Atlanta but in five series this year versus clubs with current winning records they are 2-3 and a dropped fly ball from being 3-2. They are 7-8 in those games against Boston, New York, Texas and Atlanta.
But maybe the hard-fought series between the teams over the weekend at Truist Park does kind of validate the Orioles' 15-4 mark this year against their other opponents in Oakland, Chicago, Washington, Detroit and Kansas City. They took care of business big time against the second division clubs, perhaps hammering home the point that they are no longer one of them.
The Orioles lost two of three games in Atlanta, but it was probably as positive a weekend as it could be for a club going 1-2. The last two days they went 2-for-23 with runners in scoring position, which led to the 5-4 and 3-2 losses. They didn’t need an avalanche of clutch hits to pull out one or more of those games – just a couple would do – but they didn’t come.
In the last week such hits were the difference for the Orioles in scoring big or not. In producing games with 11 and 13 runs in Kansas City and nine in Atlanta on Friday, they were a combined 18-for-45 (.400) with RISP. But in scoring zero, four and two runs the other three games in those series they were a combined 2-for-25 (.080) with RISP.
ATLANTA – Brandon Hyde didn’t have much to offer the local beat crew before today’s game. Nothing had changed in 12 hours besides his lineup. Morning baseball doesn’t usually bring much news or anything of interest unless the roster is impacted. It just happens, taxing bodies and minds after a late night.
The Orioles’ manager held a cup of coffee, not his first of the day, and joked about his breakfast. Eggs over medium. Nothing is easy around here. Hyde got in a quick workout. And he tried to guide his club to an eighth series win in a row.
Of course, the game would go to extra innings. Baseball has a sense of humor.
It also has walk-off wins for the home team.
Michael Harris II doubled off Cionel Pérez in the 12th to score automatic runner Ozzie Albies with one out and give the Braves a 3-2 victory over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 40,800 at Truist Park.
What has been a winning road trip will come to an end this afternoon when the Orioles (22-11) play at Atlanta (23-11) to wrap up this three-game series.
The Orioles won 9-4 Friday night but lost 5-4 last night at Truist Park to fall to 7-3 in one-run games, 13-7 in road games and 3-1 in games versus National League teams.
The Orioles started the road trip going 3-1 at Detroit and then went 2-1 at Kansas City and are now 1-1 this weekend for a 6-3 mark on the 10-game trip.
Even with Saturday's loss, the Orioles have been winners in 14 of their last 18 games, 16 of their last 21, and 18 of their last 24. That .783 winning percentage (18-5) since April 10 heading into last night was the best in the big leagues over that stretch.
The Orioles have not lost successive games since April 8-9 at home against the New York Yankees, which was the last time they lost a series.
ATLANTA – The Orioles still have a chance to win their eighth series in a row to draw within one of the club record.
The Braves rallied last night for a 5-4 win on Kevin Pillar’s two-run homer off Danny Coulombe in the eighth inning.
Austin Hays returns to the lineup, batting fifth and playing left field. James McCann is catching a morning game after a night game, and Adley Rutschman is on the bench.
Anthony Santander is the designated hitter and batting second. Gunnar Henderson is the shortstop and cleanup hitter, with Jorge Mateo on the bench.
Manager Brandon Hyde spoke to Mateo at the infielder’s locker after last night’s game, likely to tell him about the day off.
The Orioles offense, while the team has gone 1-1 this weekend in Atlanta, has proven to be a real challenge for one of the best starting rotations in baseball.
Lefty Max Fried took the mound Friday night with a 2-0 record and 0.45 ERA, allowing one run in 20 innings for the season. Right-hander Spencer Strider faced the Orioles last night, entering at 4-0 with a 2.57 ERA.
The Orioles pinned a loss on Fried Friday night but could not quite do it with Strider in last night’s 5-4 loss, a game that turned in Atlanta’s favor on Kevin Pillar’s two-run, pinch-hit homer off Danny Coulombe in the last of the eighth. Pillar, who has a career .704 OPS, is a career .321 hitter with an OPS of .867 against the Orioles. His homer in Saturday's game was his 15th in 92 games against the club.
But earlier, even while they fanned 10 times against Strider, one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game, the Orioles battled him pretty hard. He was at 95 pitches and out of the game after five innings.
In two games this weekend, Fried and Strider have a combined 5.73 ERA versus the Orioles.
