The Orioles can use today’s off day to regroup a bit after two straight walk-off losses at Pittsburgh. They lose their first series of the year but were so close to a sweep and a 7-2 record. 

As they wake up today, they are 5-4 and looking up in the standings at the New York Yankees (8-2) and Boston Red Sox (7-3).

That makes the series that starts Tuesday at Fenway Park even more important. The O’s want to show they can get past the disappointment in Pittsburgh and that they are still Boston’s superior.

They went 7-6 versus the Red Sox in winning the AL East in 2023 and went 3-3 at Fenway Park. They were 23 games better in the final standings.

Right now, this club is also looking for consistent offense. The Orioles scored 24 runs on 24 hits their first two games, reminding some in Birdland of last year’s club that scored 807 runs. But now they have scored 23 runs in the last seven games.

PITTSBURGH – To awaken the Orioles' offense this afternoon, Ryan Mountcastle took the logical route and made loud noises.

It worked for a brief spell, but he couldn’t prevent another slumber. And it killed the series for the Orioles.

Yennier Cano handled closing duties with Craig Kimbrel unavailable and didn't protect a one-run lead. Ke'Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski singled, Connor Joe walked to load the bases. Rowdy Tellez grounded to Mountcastle, who got the out at the plate, and Edward Olivares sent a bouncer up the middle that Gunnar Henderson smothered with a diving stop.

With the hint of a game-ending double play in the air, Henderson tapped the bag with his hand and fired the ball past Mountcastle, letting two runs score and giving the Pirates a 3-2 win and back-to-back walk-offs at PNC Park. Henderson was trying to rise from his prone position and execute the latest gem today in the field.

"I usually make that play 99 times out of a hundred, and it just so happens that the throw got away from me right there," Henderson said. "That was pretty unfortunate."

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For the second straight series, the Orioles will play an opponent in a rubber match game after splitting the first two games of a series. They play in Pittsburgh to decide this series after winning 5-2 Friday and losing 5-4 yesterday in 11 innings.

The Orioles, 5-3 overall, are 1-1 on the road and 1-0 in rubber match games. They split two games with the Royals before Wednesday's 4-3 walk-off win gave them a series win.

A win today would make the Orioles 3-0 in series this season.

Pittsburgh is now 7-2 after a 5-0 start. They began the year 4-0 at Miami and went 2-1 at Washington. So whichever clubs win today will have three series wins to start its year.

With that 7-2 mark (.778), Pittsburgh is tied with the New York Yankees and Cleveland for the best record in baseball.

PITTSBURGH – Corbin Burnes moves up a day in the rotation and starts Tuesday afternoon’s series opener against the Red Sox in Boston.

The Orioles are flip-flopping Burnes and Cole Irvin, who’s bumped back to Wednesday night. Grayson Rodriguez starts Thursday night before the club returns home.

Burnes would have worked on six days’ rest if he remained on his normal turn.

Today’s lineup in Pittsburgh is a duplicate from yesterday, with the same names and order. James McCann is catching. Jordan Westburg is playing third base. Jorge Mateo is at second.

Manager Brandon Hyde hadn't written out the exact same lineups - names and positions - in consecutive games since Aug. 5-6, 2022 against the Pirates.

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If the Orioles want to win their third straight series to begin the new season, they'll have to win this afternoon in Pittsburgh after a very tough loss there on Saturday.

The clubs have split the first two games and the Orioles lost 5-4 in 11 innings on Saturday. The Orioles were not doing much with Pirates' lefty Bailey Falter, who threw six scoreless on one hit but was pulled after throwing 78 pitches. The O's immediately got it going against the Pirates bullpen and when Jordan Westburg hustled home safely on a grounder to first base, the O's had tied it 3-3 in the ninth.

They went ahead 4-3 in the tenth on Adley Rutschman's sac fly. But Mike Baumann struggled to throw strikes as Pittsburgh tied it and the game went to the 11th. Oneil Cruz singled in the winning run to even up the series for the Bucs.

A tough, tough loss for the Orioles who got five innings with no earned runs allowed from their bullpen. 

But while the bullpen faltered late, the Baltimore offense produced just four hits in 37 at-bats and the hitters went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Gunnar Henderson is leading off and playing shortstop tonight, as the Orioles are matched up again with the Pirates.

Adley Rutschman is catching Julio Teheran, who tossed a scoreless and hitless relief inning in his Orioles debut.

Ryan O’Hearn gets another start in the outfield, playing left with Austin Hays in center. Cedric Mullins remains out of the lineup with right hamstring soreness.

Jorge Mateo is playing second base. Kolten Wong is the designated hitter.

For the Orioles

SARASOTA, Fla. – Jackson Holliday is playing second base again and leading off this afternoon against the Pirates’ Paul Skenes, pitting the 2022 first-overall draft pick against the 2023 first-overall selection.

The hype keeps building.

Adley Rutschman, the first-overall selection in 2019, is catching and batting directly behind Holliday. Heston Kjerstad, the second-overall pick in 2020, is the right fielder and cleanup hitter.

Coby Mayo gets another start at third base, Kyle Stowers is in left field and Ryan McKenna is playing center.

Corbin Burnes is making his second start after tossing a scoreless inning in Saturday’s opener against the Red Sox. Burnes struck out the first two batters and threw 22 pitches before leaving the game.

Former Orioles starter Scott Erickson stood at his locker after a poor outing and offered a simple explanation to reporters for what happened to him, why the opposition kept getting on base. One sentence that said plenty about his pitching and his dour personality.

“I can make them hit it on the ground,” he said flatly, “but I can’t direct where it goes.”

Next question.

Kyle Gibson has a much better rapport with the media, but his luck this afternoon mirrored what Erickson experienced that day.

The seven Pirates hits were singles, with none of the launch angles registering above 14 degrees via Statcast data. A strikeout/wild pitch fueled a rally in the third that included ground balls from Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ji Hwan Bae that found holes on the right side of the infield and accounted for three runs.

After 6-3 and 2-0 wins this weekend, the Orioles (26-13) can complete their third series sweep of the year this afternoon at Oriole Park when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates (21-19).

Tyler Wells went seven innings Saturday night, allowing just one hit as Baltimore recorded its fourth straight win and fourth 2023 shutout. The Orioles begin today three games back of Tampa Bay for first in the American League East, and have won 17 of their past 23, 20 of 27 and 22 of 30.

Baltimore pitching has been on an eight-game roll:

* The team ERA is 2.21 over those eight games with 21 runs allowed.

* The rotation ERA is 1.74 in that span, allowing two earned runs or less seven times.

The Orioles trailed by a run twice last night – in the third and seventh innings against Pittsburgh – but as they have done many times this year, they found ways to win a game late. They did it this time by scoring two runs in the seventh, and three on a huge swing in the eighth.

The 6-3 win over Pittsburgh moved the Orioles to 12 games over .500 at 25-13 and to within four games of first-place Tampa Bay, which lost to the Yankees. The Orioles improved to 12-1 in series-opening games and to 5-1 when the opener was a home game.

But center fielder Cedric Mullins entertained us and grabbed the headlines with his three-run homer in the eighth. It came at such a big time and turned a 3-2 lead into a 6-2 edge. And it meant that Mullins had hit for the cycle. He flied out in the first inning, but then singled in the third, tripled in the fifth, doubled in the seventh and homered in the eighth.

Mullins is now batting .268/.365/.478/.843 with eight doubles, three triples, five homers and 31 RBIs. He has scored 19 runs and is 12-for-12 on stolen bases. He is on a pace to finish with 21 homers, 51 steals and 132 RBIs.

The cycle produced a special kind of curtain call for Mullins last night. Not one where he comes to the top step of the dugout and tips his cap, but a moment when he is the only one running out of the dugout. The Orioles stayed back, and Mullins ran by himself to center field to start the top of the ninth, soaking in every cheer from a crowd providing a standing ovation.

The Orioles begin another series tonight against another team that’s above .500. And this is where the similarities slam into a closure.

The Pirates arrive having lost nine of their last 10 games, but they remain atop the National League Central.

Try doing that in the American League East. Go ahead.

Letdown games and series aren’t permissible, and the rebuilt Orioles are in no way inclined to feel the urge.

True that they just got done with the Braves and Rays, going 3-3 against teams with the two best records in baseball and suffering a pair of late one-run losses at Truist Park, but they aren’t judging the Pirates based on a recent streak of ugliness.

BRADENTON, Fla. – The Orioles have taken the short ride north for their latest road game, taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Orioles (7-9-2) split two games on Monday, beating Detroit 11-7 at home and losing to Atlanta 6-5 in North Port in a game that was shortened to seven innings by rain.

The Orioles hit eight homers yesterday, six in Sarasota and two in North Port. They have scored 67 runs the past 10 games. 

Orioles closer Félix Bautista will make his long-awaiting spring debut today and is scheduled to pitch the first inning after being held out of games to this point. He has thrown several bullpen sessions and checked all the boxes he needed to get to this point. Now the Orioles hope the final two weeks plus will be enough time for him to be ready for Opening Day and they are confident he will be. It’s a nice step for him today here in Bradenton.

Right-hander Tyler Wells (0-1, 7.71 ERA) is expected to follow Bautista to the mound this afternoon at LECOM Park. Wells has allowed four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He last pitched last Thursday in Clearwater against the Phillies allowing one run over 2 2/3 innings. Bruce Zimmermann is also scheduled to pitch for the Orioles.

Terrin Vavra, who is batting .474 (9-for-19) is leading off today and playing second base. Adley Rutschman hits second and will catch. Heston Kjerstad, who hit his third homer Monday against Atlanta, will bat eighth and play in right field and Colton Cowser hits ninth and plays in center.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde provided some significant health and workout updates this morning, rattling off the morning advancements from a sheet of paper.

Got to keep it straight, and there were quite a few.

Left-hander DL Hall, who’s recovered from the discomfort in his lower back, completed a bullpen session today. Hyde said it “went well,” and Hall will throw live batting practice in a few days.

Closer Félix Bautista, who’s been restricted to bullpens while receiving treatments on his left knee and working to strengthen his right shoulder, also will threw live BP in the next few days.

Left-hander Nick Vespi, who underwent hernia surgery in January, will pitch in a simulated game later this week. Vespi remains confident that he’ll be ready for Opening Day if the Orioles want to bring him north.

After recording their fourth 1-0 win of the year Friday night against Pittsburgh, the Orioles host the Pirates again today and a win in either of the next two games will give them their 16^th series win of the year. They are 15-14-4 in series play thus far through the Texas series.

The 1-0 win came via a six-hitter which was a combined effort of right-handers Dean Kremer and Félix Bautista and lefty Cionel Pérez. Kremer allowed four hits over 6 1/3 innings and his ERA had been 6.94 his previous five starts. Pérez got five big outs and lowered his ERA to 1.15. Bautista got the final three outs, the last two on strikeouts with two men in the ninth. It was his fourth save, but first save chance since the trade of former closer Jorge López to Minnesota.

The O’s have won four in a row and their pitchers have allowed just seven earned runs in those four wins. Last night was Baltimore’s 10^th shutout of the year and second in the last eight games. The team ERA is 2.57 in those eight games.

Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Kremer is the first Baltimore pitcher since Jim Palmer in 1978 to start three games in a season that ended in 1-0 O's wins. The Orioles won their fourth 1-0 game, the most by an MLB team since the San Francisco Giants won five in 2019. The last year in which the Birds won four games by a 1-0 score was 1983, and before 2022, the O's did not have a 1-0 win since July 4, 2018 versus Texas.

In the last turn through the pitching rotation, Austin Voth, Spenser Watkins, Jordan Lyles, Kyle Bradish and Kremer have allowed three earned runs over 28 2/3 innings for an ERA of 1.14. With the win last night, Kremer improved to 4-3 with a 3.43 ERA.

Austin Hays is out of the lineup again tonight with tightness and soreness in his left oblique, as he described it earlier today at his locker.

Hays also didn’t play Wednesday afternoon in Texas.

“I’m feeling better today,” he said. “We’re just trying to be careful with it. I don’t want to go out there and blow it out when I’m feeling some type of way, because those are very tricky injuries to try to come back from. So, it’s nothing super concerning right now. We’re just trying to make sure it’s 100 percent when I go out there.”

Manager Brandon Hyde said Hays is day-to-day. In the meantime, Brett Phillips gets his first start with the Orioles as the left fielder.

“The good news is it’s improving daily,” Hyde said. “A lot better on the day off, better even more today. Hopefully, it continues to trend that way. It sounds like it is.

Austin Hays remains out of the Orioles’ lineup tonight with soreness in his left side.

Brett Phillips makes his first Orioles start, playing left field for the series opener against the Pirates.

Terrin Vavra is the designated hitter tonight.

Ryan Mountcastle is looking for his first home run since July 3. He’s 5-for-46 in his last 12 games.

Dean Kremer has allowed 13 runs and 23 hits in his last three starts over 13 2/3 innings.