PITTSBURGH – Austin Hays said his health has improved after he fought through another illness that isn’t the same as his spring training stomach virus.

“It’s something a little different,” he said this afternoon. “Just wasn’t feeling great yesterday. We tried to get a little extra rest and some meds in me. I was feeling better as the day progressed. Felt like I was capable of coming into the game. That’s why I didn’t start, but I ended up coming in later.”

Nothing can speed up a recovery like playing baseball in snow, sleet and hail.

“Yeah, it’s the first game I’ve ever played while it was snowing,” he said, “so it’s kind of funny how that works out.”

Hays played in his 500^th career game last night. He went 0-for-2 and is 2-for-20.

PITTSBURGH – Austin Hays is in today’s Orioles lineup at PNC Park, playing left field and batting sixth.

Hays began yesterday’s game on the bench because of an illness but batted twice, striking out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and grounding out in the eighth. He’s 2-for-20.

James McCann is catching and Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter. Jordan Westburg is playing third base, moving Ramón Urías to the bench.

Tyler Wells allowed three earned runs and four total in six innings against the Angels in his first start. He walked none and struck out seven.

Wells faced the Pirates on May 13, 2023 in Baltimore and tossed seven scoreless innings with one hit allowed and eight strikeouts.

PITTSBURGH – Baseball in Baltimore can bring five-hour rain delays. In Pittsburgh, they bundle up and tailgate in parking lots while it snows and hails, looking like they’re waiting for the opening kickoff.

Being the Pirates’ home Opening Day was a minor detail. Fans weren’t punting the celebration.

The weather gods added rain and sunshine to the spastic mix. Grayson Rodriguez brought his own repertoire and laser focus.

A heavy jacket and hood also were recommended.

Rodriguez held the Pirates to two runs over 6 1/3 innings, Ryan O’Hearn, Gunnar Henderson and Cedric Mullins hit solo homers, and the Orioles won 5-2 before an announced sellout crowd of 38,400 at PNC Park.

PITTSBURGH – Austin Hays wasn’t in the visiting clubhouse today during media access, and Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said the outfielder is “a little under the weather."

“Maybe the weather will warm him up,” Hyde joked, as snow flurries swirled around PNC Park.

“He’s just getting a little extra rest right now but he’ll be here at game time.”

Hays was 4-for-29 (.138) in spring training, when he came down with a stomach virus, and had two hits in 18 at-bats on the homestand. He’s struck out six times.

“He’s pressing a little bit,” Hyde said. “Had that one big hit (Saturday). When Haysie swings at strikes, good things happen. Right now it’s more approach-driven than anything else.”

PITTSBURGH – Colton Cowser is in left field for today’s series opener against the Pirates at PNC Park.

Austin Hays is on the bench.

Ryan O’Hearn is the designated hitter. Jordan Westburg is playing second base, and Ramón Urías is the third baseman and looking for his first hit.

Grayson Rodriguez held the Angels to one run in six innings and struck out nine batters in his first start.

The Orioles have allowed four runs or fewer in their first six games, tied for their second-longest streak to begin a season. They did it in seven in 2002.

With the Pirates starting left-handers in the last two games of their weekend series, this afternoon provides Orioles manager Brandon Hyde with a chance to get Colton Cowser in the lineup for the second time in the young season. Or Cowser could sit on the bench, and his .500 average in eight at-bats, and wait for his next chance to play.

It happened every day or night on the homestand, including Wednesday, when Cowser pinch-hit for Jorge Mateo in the eighth inning, delivered a leadoff single and scored on Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly.

Hyde put Cowser in center field as Mateo’s replacement, a difficult assignment in wet and windy conditions but nothing he can’t handle. He’s already acting like he’s mastered left, and that’s the stiffest test in Camden Yards.

Cowser ran down balls Tuesday night near the line, the wall and the 90-degree angle at the bullpen. Footing was tricky again. The temperature at first pitch was 52 degrees, without the wind chill reading.

Hyde praised Cowser’s improved defense in spring training and again after Opening Day. How much more confident he seemed, his value in being able to back up at all three spots.

The Orioles are leaving the cold and rain of Baltimore and flying into the cold of Pittsburgh. But no rain.

Daytime highs for the three games are 43, 48 and a balmy 56 degrees. But a new concession item at PNC Park is “The Renegade,” a foot-long hot dog draped in potato pierogis, pot roast, pickles and onions.

Let me start by saying cheddar potato pierogis are the best. I’d eat a box of 12 for dinner back in the day – boiled and slathered in melted butter. Better than pan-fried crispy. I want to pasta texture.

I’ll also say that the pickles are unnecessary and unwanted on this item. Save ‘em for a burger or barbeque sandwich.

And finally, this is a long-winded way of setting up the mailbag.

A game that starts five hours late because of rain, with Major League Baseball determined to squeeze it into a window that could slam shut again, is bound to contain some abnormalities. It was born that way.

Corbin Burnes allows one hit over six innings on Opening Day and surrenders three tonight in the top of the first. An out is recorded at the plate in a 1-2-5-1-2-3 rundown, giving Burnes a chance to touch the ball twice and Royals manager Matt Quatrano to pop out of the dugout and argue.

Jorge Mateo can’t make a diving catch on Bobby Witt Jr.’s liner into right-center that goes down as a one-out double, Burnes snares Vinnie Pasquantino’s 98.5 mph comebacker to start the bizarre putout, Pasquantino keeps running until he reaches third base and Burnes gives up a run-scoring single to Salvador Pérez on a 63.1 mph blooper to left.

Weird already had taken the controls before MJ Melendez doubled, with Mateo needing a second try at a clean pickup, and Hunter Renfroe froze on a cutter for the final out. Burnes threw 27 pitches, with several hundred fans watching from the lower bowl.

A young boy in front of the press box wore a Mateo jersey and kept yelling for Witt to look at him, hollering, “I know you can hear me!” Everyone could be heard.

The rotation has taken one full turn. The first homestand reaches its conclusion this afternoon, leading to an off-day and the first road trip to Pittsburgh and Boston. Can't outrun the cold.

We remain in the extremely early stages of the 2024 season, which won’t allow hot takes on social media to begin cooling. The steam is swirling.

Let’s address a few while I keep checking the weather apps and wondering how long the Royals will wait before screaming for their bus to take them to the airport. It’s a travel day. They host the White Sox on Thursday.

They don’t come back to Baltimore unless today’s game is postponed and the teams find a mutual off-day. Never a fun endeavor.

Colton Cowser is getting the Kyle Stowers treatment.

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias informed the media on the first day of spring training that John Means probably would begin the season on the injured list because the left-hander was a month behind the other starters. The Orioles delayed the start of his throwing program after elbow soreness denied him a roster spot in the Division Series. There weren’t enough days and innings in camp to get him ready and no reason to be reckless and rush him.

The circumstances made it a little awkward when lumping Means in articles with Kyle Bradish, who was diagnosed in January with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Bradish was injured. Means was behind. But they were going on the IL.

The Orioles set their Opening Day roster on Thursday and listed Means as having a left forearm strain. They had to put down something, of course, because it would have seemed strange for the IL list in the game notes to read:

Félix Bautista (right UCL injury)
Kyle Bradish (right UCL sprain)
John Means (behind other starters)

I wondered about the forearm, whether that was the cause of the elbow discomfort in October. Or was it forearm discomfort and we kept reporting it incorrectly.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde posted his fourth lineup this afternoon and it’s still missing Colton Cowser.

The young outfielder has appeared in three games and received two at-bats. He replaced Anthony Santander in right field on Opening Day and didn’t get to the plate, did it again Saturday and stroked a double to right field in the eighth inning, and pinch-hit for Jordan Westburg yesterday in the eighth and grounded out on the first pitch to strand a runner.

Santander, Austin Hays and Cedric Mullins have started in the outfield in every game. Westburg, Ryan O’Hearn and Adley Rutschman have been used at designated hitter, with O’Hearn getting the assignment again tonight against right-hander Michael Wacha.

The Orioles saw two left-handed starters in the Angels series and get southpaw Cole Ragans Wednesday in the series finale against the Royals.

“It’s easier as the season gets going and you get a chance to give guys days off and rotate a little bit,” Hyde said. “I think you’re going to see him in there the next couple days, possibly a start tomorrow.”

Mike Baumann’s world of baseball firsts spun again Saturday evening. It dumped him on the mound when he assumed that he’d watch the last three outs from the bullpen.

The phone wasn’t supposed to ring. He wasn’t supposed to pitch.

Cionel Pérez faced two batters, gave up a triple and single, and exited with soreness in his right oblique. The Orioles led 13-2. The only drama should have been whether the time of game would stay under three hours.

Baumann was allowed to take as long as necessary to warm up. He motioned that he was ready, threw a wild pitch and surrendered hits to three of the next four batters.

A scoring change removed an error on Baumann for a missed catch and attached it to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle on Nolan Schanuel’s infield single.

The Orioles won’t go 162-0. Seemed like a long shot anyway.

Tyler Wells was charged with three earned runs and four total today in the first two innings before plowing through the Angels order, and a red-hot offense cooled in a 4-1 loss to the Angels before an announced crowd of 20,576 at Camden Yards.

A season-opening sweep was denied.

Wells got into a groove and retired the last 14 batters he faced after Zach Neto’s run-scoring single in the second. He struck out the side in the sixth, giving him seven on the day, with five hits and no walks.

A pitch count of 82 over six innings included 60 strikes. His strikeouts in the sixth came on his changeup, cutter and fastball.

Two games into the 2024 season won’t allow for an Orioles lineup pattern to develop. Much too soon for that.

What we did learn yesterday is that Jordan Westburg is projected to play a lot more barring a horrendous slump that would send him to the bench or the minors.

Westburg went from designated hitter on Opening Day against left-hander Patrick Sandoval to second baseman yesterday against right-hander Griffin Canning. The infield is deep and versatile, but Westburg will find his at-bats.

An 11-3 win in the opener included Westburg’s run-scoring single in the first inning that broke a 1-1 tie. He had a two-run single yesterday in the sixth, grounding a 95.7 mph fastball up the middle after seeing three sliders, a splitter and another slider.

“We’re going to give him a lot of starts here and I want to see him play,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

Corbin Burnes raised the bar to ridiculous heights on Opening Day by retiring 18 of 19 batters and striking out 11, a club record for an Orioles debut.

Grayson Rodriguez could have wilted from the challenge this afternoon, questioning his ability to live up to the standard set by Burnes. Instead, he grabbed it with both hands and did chin-ups.

Intimidation is a one-way street with the Orioles.

Rodriguez held the Angels to one run in six innings and tied his career high with nine strikeouts in the Orioles’ 13-4 victory before an announced crowd of 28,420 at Camden Yards, the latest thrashing after a 11-3 win on Thursday.

One team is really good. The other appears to be really bad, unless it’s because the Orioles are really good.

Kyle Bradish and Félix Bautista slipped on backpacks this morning and left the ballpark for their flights to Sarasota, where they can keep rehabbing at the complex.

Bradish threw a 35-pitch bullpen session yesterday at Camden Yards. He used all of his pitches after being limited early to his fastball following his diagnosis in January of a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

“Feels really good,” he said.

The progress is encouraging since his platelet-rich plasma injection, but there’s no timeline for his return to the active roster and rotation.

“Still day-by-day, see how everything feels, see how I’m recovering,” he said.

Reliever Jacob Webb was reinstated from the paternity list this morning after the birth of daughter Hudson, and the Orioles optioned left-hander Nick Vespi to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles play their second game of the season this afternoon with Gunnar Henderson leading off again.

Ryan O’Hearn is the designated hitter and Jordan Westburg is playing second base.

Ramón Urías stays at third base.

Grayson Rodriguez broke camp as the No. 2 starter. He allowed five runs and 16 hits with eight walks and 10 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings.

Five Orioles made their first Opening Day roster Thursday. Four of them were easy calls, anticipated over the winter or definitely late in camp.

Grayson Rodriguez was in the rotation after last spring’s surprise demotion, with the only question whether he’d be the No. 2 or 3 starter. He gets the ball this afternoon.

Yennier Cano made his 2023 debut on April 14 in Chicago, with the Orioles desperate for bullpen help, and became an All-Star setup man and backup closer. He was a lock this spring to repeat those responsibilities after the Craig Kimbrel signing.

Infielder Jordan Westburg made his major league debut on June 26 and was set for 2024, with most of his work done at second and third base but also with a chance to play a little shortstop. Outfielder Colton Cowser really had to win a job after reaching the majors on July 5 at Yankee Stadium and going 7-for-61, and he responded by batting .304 with six home runs and a 1.135 OPS in 18 exhibition games.

Cowser broke the news to the beat crew on the final day that he made the club.

The Orioles are 1-0, the record that really matters.

Only 161 more to go, and then more. It’s almost inconceivable that this team isn’t playing deeper into October than 2023 at the least.

I’m not using yesterday’s Opening Day trouncing of the Angels as my sole reason. They don’t appear to be very good - on paper for sure and on the field in their first regular season game. What are the odds of that happening without Shohei Ohtani?

There was a lot to unwrap from a day that began with Nick Vespi’s unexpected inclusion on the roster. I heard earlier in the day that he was summoned to Baltimore but didn’t know why until the Orioles announced that Jacob Webb went on the paternity list. So, Vespi makes his first Opening Day roster and Webb is denied his first.

Gotta admit that a baby is one heck of a consolation prize.

The last game played at Camden Yards pushed the Orioles to the brink of playoff elimination. Today really was the next chapter.

Opening Day healed the wounds. Corbin Burnes was a starter who tried to provide closure.

The ballpark was packed and a chant of “Let’s Go O’s” began immediately after the anthem. Fans already erupted during player introductions, with Burnes maybe edging out Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Félix Bautista. The silence during the pregame “in memoriam” was broken by the image of Brooks Robinson on the video board.

This place couldn’t stay quiet for long.

Burnes’ first pitch was a 95 mph cutter for a strike to Anthony Rendon. The sixth, with the count full, struck him out.