After winning two of three in each stop of their road trip (Kansas City and Anaheim, Calif.), the Orioles host Oakland tonight to begin a seven-game homestand.

When Oakland beat the Yankees yesterday 3-1 to split that four-game series, the Orioles and Yankees moved into a tie for first in the American League East with the O’s technically leading the division by percentage points, .667 to .654.

The Orioles, who have won four of five, eight of 10 and 11 of their past 15 games, have the second-best record in the AL behind Cleveland (18-7, .720).

The Orioles’ plus-29 run differential ranks third in the AL behind Cleveland (plus 49) and Kansas City (plus 39).

The Orioles are 8-4 at home and have won three straight series.

With their 11-3 win over the Minnesota Twins last night coupled with Toronto’s 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees, the Orioles (11-6) moved to within ½ game of first place in the American League East.

After winning their first game of the year on March 28, the Orioles were tied for first place. They have not been in the AL East top spot since, but would be later today with a win and a New York loss at Toronto in a game beginning at 3:07 p.m.

The Orioles have one series sweep this year, when they won three in a row at Boston, and could match that today against the Twins. This would be Baltimore's first sweep of Minnesota since a three-game set at Target Field from July 7-9, 2023. The Orioles haven't swept the Twins at Oriole Park since a three-game set from April 4-7, 2016.

The Orioles had a season-high 15 hits last night and have had 11 hits or more in four consecutive games. In those games the team batting average is .342 with an OPS of 1.003 and Baltimore has scored 29 runs.

In the last eight games, the Orioles have scored 53 runs on 87 hits. The Orioles have hit 11 doubles, a triple and 18 homers in that span with a team batting average of .297 and .880 OPS. The O’s, who are 6-2 in this stretch, are scoring 6.6 runs per game during the run.

BOWIE, Md. – It’s a significant step tonight for Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish, who finished fourth last year for the American League Cy Young Award. He is making his first start in a game in 2024 on a minor league rehab assignment outing for the Double-A Bowie Baysox against Altoona, a Pittsburgh affiliate.

And in this outing, he looked like the 2023 Kyle Bradish, the pitcher we last saw in a game in the American League Division Series in October. He pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, a single, with four strikeouts and no walks and touched 95 and 96 mph on the stadium radar gun.

Maybe even the Orioles could have not have expected much more or for Bradish to look this good, this fast. But he did.

His last start in a game was when he gave up two runs over 4 2/3 innings last Oct. 7 in Baltimore in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers.

Diagnosed in January with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Bradish had a platelet-rich plasma injection to try to get himself back into the O’s rotation.

After a 7-4 win over the Minnesota Twins Monday at Oriole Park, in a game in which the Orioles never trailed, they host Minnesota again tonight with a chance to win this series. 

The Orioles (10-6) are on a pace to win 101 games, matching their 2023 total, at this early stage of this season. The O’s begin play today 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the American League East lead. They are 6-4 at home and 5-1 in series-opening games.

The Orioles hit three homers last night. They have hit nine in their past three games, 14 in the last five games and 24 on the season. That is a total that leads the AL and is one behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the major league lead. The Birds average 1.5 homers per game, second in the majors to Milwaukee's 1.6

The Orioles hit two or more homers eight times this season and they are 7-1 in those games.

The Baltimore offense is starting to pick up. In winning five of their past seven games, the Orioles have scored 42 runs while hitting 15 homers. In those games the team batting average is .283 with a .343 OBP, a .504 slugging and .847 OPS.

He had to wait until his third at-bat today and the 14^th of his major league career, but Jackson Holliday’s first hit came in the last of the seventh today. And it helped fuel a game-winning, two-run rally for the Orioles.

With the O's trailing 4-3 after Milwaukee's Blake Perkins homered off Yennier Cano in the top of the seventh, Jordan Westburg led off the home seventh and punched a single into left.

Then Holliday had his big moment.

Off reliever Abner Uribe, he hit a 1-0 two-seamer at 99.3 mph into right field for a groundball single at 101.4 mph off the bat. Westburg scampered to third and a rally was brewing in Birdland. That hit made Holliday now 1-for-14.

Gunnar Henderson followed with a line single to right to score a run and tie it 4-4, and Holliday made a dash for third and beat the throw. That was important as the next batter, Adley Rutschman, grounded into a 6-3 double play. But because he was on third, Holliday scored the go-ahead run for the 5-4 lead.  

Orioles pitchers have been roughed up by Milwaukee batters in the first two games of this weekend series as the Brewers have beaten the Orioles by 11-1 and 11-5 scores.

The Orioles (8-6) entered this series with a team ERA of 2.86. In the last two days it has increased to 3.87.

O’s starters Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer have allowed 16 hits and 12 runs in eight innings in the series. O’s pitchers have allowed five homers against Milwaukee.

As they try to avoid being swept today, the Orioles send their ace and former Brewer right-hander Corbin Burnes (2-0, 1.93 ERA) to the mound. The Orioles are 3-0 in his starts this season and 5-6 in all other games.

Through his first three games, Burnes has thrown 18 2/3 innings, allowing 12 hits and four runs with just two walks to 20 strikeouts. His WHIP is 0.750 and he has given up a batting average against of .176 and OPS of .494 to opponent batters.

After his latest bullpen session – which came Saturday at Camden Yards – Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish is ready to begin what is essentially his spring training.

He'll pitch his first minor league rehab game this week, perhaps just an inning or two as he continues his comeback and rehab from a UCL sprain which required a plasma-rich platelet injection in January.

“Yeah I’m excited. It will be nice to face some other jerseys,” Bradish said this morning in the Baltimore clubhouse.

With lefty John Means three outings into his rehab assignment and now Bradish ready to start his, the O’s have some real quality pitching reinforcements on the way.  

“It will be nice. Kind of treating this as my spring training," Bradish said. "Just working out some different mechanical things, but it will be nice to get in a game setting." 

After playing in 10 games this season for Triple-A Norfolk and in his first three games after his call-up Wednesday in Boston, Jackson Holliday got a day off Saturday. But he returns to the lineup today, batting ninth versus Milwaukee in the series finale.

Holliday is 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts, two runs scored and an RBI thus far. He went 0-for-8 in two games at Boston and was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts on Friday night.

Holliday played in 15 games at spring training for the Orioles, batting .311/.354/.600/.954 with three doubles, two triples, two homers and six RBIs.

The Orioles have lost by scores of 11-1 and 11-5 in this series. Before this series began their first four losses of the season had come by eight total runs.

The Orioles lost 1 1/2 games in the standings to the first-place New York Yankees yesterday as New York swept a doubleheader at Cleveland.

Well, the Milwaukee Brewers are really swinging it right now. They were playing well before they got to Baltimore and have put up 22 runs over the first two games of this series.

Milwaukee has not lost a series this year and can sweep this one today after wins by 11-1 and 11-5 at Oriole Park.

The Brewers are now 10-3 after going 92-70 last year. They have been in the playoffs five times in the last six seasons, winning division championships in 2018, 2021 and 2023.

They have now scored seven runs or more in six consecutive games, tying a club mark first set in 1982 and matched in 1989. They have scored 58 runs in those six games and are now 7-1 on the road.

Heading into this series, O's pitchers had allowed as many as five runs in one game just twice this year. In this series their team ERA increased from 2.86 to 3.87.

After taking the first two games at Fenway Park by scores of 7-1 and a comeback win by 7-5 last night, the Orioles can sweep this series with a win tonight over the Boston Red Sox.

It's a matchup of the second- and third-place teams in the American League East. The Orioles (7-4) are in second, two games behind the New York Yankees (10-3), while Boston (7-5) is in third place, 2 1/2 games behind the division leaders.

The Orioles are the first team this year to take a series from Boston, which went 2-0-1 in three series on the West Coast to start the year. The Red Sox were 6-1 their previous seven games heading into this series.

The Orioles have not lost a series against an AL East opponent since losing two of three to the Yankees April 7-9, 2023. Baltimore has not dropped a series in the division in 15 straight sets, improving to 11-0-4 during that time. That is the longest such run in team history, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

Five of the Orioles' seven wins this season have been in comeback fashion. Last night they trailed 5-0 after five innings. Baltimore's 53 comeback wins since the start of last season are the most in the major leagues. Their 89 come-from-behind victories since the start of 2022 are second-most, behind the Dodgers (90).

The Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates play the second game of their three-game series this afternoon after the Orioles won 5-2 on Friday to begin the weekend.

The Orioles (5-2) won their first road game of the year and now are 3-0 in series-opening games.

As of this morning, they are in third place in the American League East, 1/2-game behind both New York and Boston at 6-2.

If the Orioles win one of the next two games, they will have three series wins to start the season. The last two O’s teams to do that were in 2009 and 2016.

Orioles pitchers are doing a solid job thus far. Their team ERA of 3.14 ranks seventh-best in the AL and eighth overall in the majors. Baltimore’s bullpen ERA is 2.38, which ranks sixth-best in the AL and seventh overall in the big leagues. Over the last five games, the O’s bullpen has allowed two earned runs over 16 2/3 innings.

BOWIE, Md. – After missing almost three of his first four seasons in pro baseball, Double-A Bowie pitcher Kyle Brnovich hopes for health this year just so he can be back on the mound consistently.

After the Los Angeles Angels drafted Brnovich out of Elon University in round eight of the 2019 draft, the organization shut him down. The following year, the pandemic hit baseball and the world, and there was no minor league season. So two seasons into his pro career, Brnovich had zero innings.

After that first year, he was one of four pitchers the O’s acquired for right-hander Dylan Bundy along with Zach Peek, Isaac Mattson and Kyle Bradish.

So yeah, this trade has worked out for Baltimore, and Peek and Brnovich begin this season with Bowie hoping to make that deal look even better.

Both pitchers are coming back from Tommy John surgery. Brnovich had his procedure on May 12, 2022 and returned June 26, 2023 to pitch in a Florida Complex League game. Peek had surgery in August 2022 and was back last August.

If they can get this game in through the raindrops today in Baltimore, the Orioles and Royals are set to play the third and deciding game of this three-game series. It also ends the O's first homestand of the 2024 season.

The Orioles produced a walk-off win on Monday night, 6-4, on Jordan Westburg's two-run homer in the ninth. They were held to three hits last night in a 3-1 loss. The O's went 12-8 in rubber match games in 2023.

The Orioles have scored 11, 13 and six runs in their three wins on 33 hits with eight doubles, a triple and six homers, and have gone 11-for-27 with runners in scoring position. In the two losses they scored one and one run, going 6-for-60 as a team and 2-for-9 with RISP. 

Right-hander Corbin Burnes makes his second start for the club. On Opening Day he gave up a two-out, solo homer to the Angels' Mike Trout and then retired the last 16 batters he faced. The Angels went just 1-for-19 against him with 11 strikeouts and no walks. 

His 11 strikeouts tied Mike Mussina from 1998 for the second-most by an O's pitcher on Opening Day. Lefty Dave McNally set that mark with 13 strikeouts at Cleveland on April 7, 1970.

The Orioles and Kansas City Royals may be forced to dodge some raindrops the next few days, but they are scheduled to begin a three-game series tonight at Camden Yards.

The Orioles (2-1) are a game and a half back of the 4-0 New York Yankees for the American League East lead. They opened the season with wins by 11-3 and 13-4 scores over the Los Angeles Angels before they were held to three hits in Sunday's 4-1 loss.

Kansas City scored big in its third game after losing the first two to Minnesota by 4-1 and 5-1 scores before Sunday's 11-0 win.

The Orioles rank fourth in the AL in team batting average (.267) and OBP (.347). They are third in slugging (.475) and third in OPS (.823) behind only Texas (.891) and Cleveland (.832).

The O's will travel to Kansas City for three games from April 19-21. The Birds went 5-1 against the Royals last year; they took two out of three at Kauffman Stadium from May 2-4 before completing a three-game sweep in Baltimore from June 9-11.

Gunnar Henderson hit .197 last April. That is not happening this year.

He is 4-for-10 to start the new year, with a triple, homer and four RBIs. His three-game OPS is 1.438.

And here is the part that should worry opposing pitchers: He is getting more and more comfortable batting leadoff, as he has done the first three games and will do again tonight versus Kansas City.

“It’s growing on me. I don’t mind it now,” Henderson said before tonight’s game. “I was always hitting in the two or three hole minor leagues, and then when I got up here started hitting leadoff, and it has been growing on me.

“Just think I’m getting more comfortable with it. Just having to be ready, get out there a little earlier on the road. Just be aware of the time before the game. On the road you have to hit first and get out there earlier and be ready.”

Like the Orioles, the club's Triple-A Norfolk affiliate is off to a 2-1 start, but unlike the O's the Tides are off today. Norfolk has scored 29 runs to rank second in the 20-team International League and leads the league with a .964 team OPS.

The Orioles' other three full-season affiliates - at Double-A Bowie, High-A Aberdeen and Single-A Delmarva - open their seasons on Friday. Today we have the break-camp rosters for each club.

Bowie, managed by Roberto Mercado, has eight of the O’s top-30-ranked players as determined by MLBPipeline.com, and three in the top 10, with No. 2 Samuel Basallo at catcher, No. 7 outfielder Dylan Beavers and No. 10 pitcher Seth Johnson.

Aberdeen, managed by Felipe Rojas Alou Jr., features six top-30 prospects while Delmarva, managed by Collin Woody, has four top-30 prospects on its roster. The highest-rated prospect on the IronBirds is outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., ranked No. 5 by MLBPipeline. For the Shorebirds, its outfielder Braylin Tavera, at No. 13.

Rosters can be changed or tweaked between now and Opening Night, when Bowie will host Reading, Aberdeen is at Jersey Shore and Delmarva is at Fredericksburg.

The Orioles' 2024 season, their 71^st season in Baltimore, begins this afternoon at Oriole Park. They start a three-game series hosting the Los Angeles Angels.

The Orioles, who are 45-25 all-time in season-opening games, have won 10 of their last 13. They won at Boston on Opening Day last year. The O's are 46-24 in home openers. 

The Orioles open a season at home for the first time since March 29, 2018 versus Minnesota (2,191 days). The O's won that game, 3-2, on an 11th-inning walk-off home run by Adam Jones. The Orioles were originally scheduled to open the 2020 and 2022 seasons at home.

The Orioles are 2-3 in the last five Opening Day games. They won eight in a row from 2011-2018.

The Orioles went 101-61 last season to win the American League East for the first time since 2014 and advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The Angels went 73-89 each of the last two years. They finished fourth in the AL West in 2023 and have had eight straight losing seasons since winning 85 games in 2015.

There is always excitement for Opening Day and that is being felt today in Baltimore. But it’s more than one-day excitement here and players say they feel it from the local fans.

Birdland as a whole and fans in Baltimore and beyond are fired up for the 2024 season, eager to see if the Orioles can repeat as American League East champs.

“Positivity is really high right now,” outfielder Austin Hays said this morning in the clubhouse. “There is a different buzz in the city. Social media, just anywhere you go. You go to the grocery store right now and there a lot of people excited for the season to start. It is really great to feel that positivity from the city behind us.”

As the Orioles begin their 71^st season today, Hays said the organization is very healthy and talented, from the majors to the farm.

“I think the most impressive thing about our spring training is when you didn’t have our starters, you had a lot of guys not on the road and young guys that hadn’t seen a whole lot. But there just wasn’t a huge gap between your starters and maybe your B squad or whatever people like to call it.

After a 2023 season when they won a franchise-record 90 games, in addition to the International League championship and the Triple-A championship game, the O’s Norfolk Tides affiliate will begin defense of those titles Friday night at home versus the Durham Bulls.

Norfolk’s break-camp roster – which is subject to change before first pitch Friday – was released this afternoon and features three top-100 prospects and eight players currently ranked among the O’s top 22 prospects via the Baseball America top 30.

The Tides will begin this season playing for a few games without manager Buck Britton, who will be out on paternity leave to begin the year. O’s Florida Complex League manager Christian Frias will serve as acting manager in Britton’s absence. Britton is expected back at some point next week.

Jackson Holliday heads the 2024 Tides roster. Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com both rank Holliday - who played 22 games to end last year with the Tides, counting the playoffs - as the No. 1 prospect. Joining him on the Tides is Coby Mayo (No. 25, according to Baseball America, and No. 30 by MLBPipeline.com's reckoning) and Heston Kjerstad (No. 41 per Baseball America and No. 32 according to MLBPipeline.com).

Among Orioles prospects, Baseball America puts Mayo at No. 3 and Kjerstad at No. 5. The Tides' break-camp roster also includes from the Baseball America top 30 this group: Connor Norby (No. 6), Chayce McDermott (No. 8), Cade Povich (No. 9), Kyle Stowers (No. 16) and Justin Armbruester (No. 22).

He can easily fly under the radar despite a 6-foot-8 frame. As a reliever it is harder to get noticed. But fully healthy during the 2023 season, right-hander Keagan Gillies did get noticed with some impressive stats and a big strikeout percentage.

Now 26, the Orioles’ 15^th-round draft pick out of Tulane in 2021 is rated as the club’s No. 30 prospect by Baseball America.

This after a season when he went a combined 5-1 with a 2.43 ERA for High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie. Over 40 2/3 innings, he allowed just 19 hits with 14 walks and 61 strikeouts.

He posted an 0.81 WHIP, allowing a .137 batting average against, and fanned 13.5 batters per nine innings with a 39.8 K percentage.

That can get your attention.