On Tuesday night during the All-Star game in Texas, no doubt at some point the national television audience will hear one of the broadcasters point out the two O’s starters in the game – Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson – were the first two draft picks by Mike Elias after joining the Orioles.

Rutschman was the No. 1 pick in that 2019 draft but the Orioles got Henderson at No. 42 overall. Baseball America had him at No. 30 in their pre-draft projections.

The first two picks of the new regime are now All-Stars.

“It is definitely a testament to Elias,” Henderson said in the clubhouse pregame yesterday. “I know Rutch was obviously the consensus 1/1 pick. But to take a chance on me, I can’t thank him enough for that. Just glad to be able to go out there and help the O’s win some games.”

So why was Gunnar still there at pick No. 42?

They did it the hard way. It began last Friday where the Orioles were headed into a six-game stretch versus Philadelphia and the New York Yankees, the teams with the two best records in their respective leagues.

Where some fans might have been happy with a 3-3 split, the Orioles won both series and go 4-2 in this stretch. And yes, they did do it the hard way, losing the series-opening game each time and then winning two in a row.

They did it by bashing two of baseball’s best pitchers in 2024 in Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler and Yankees right-hander Luis Gil.

Wheeler entered his start against the Orioles Sunday – in the game that was to decide that series – at 8-3 with a 2.16 ERA. His ERA was 1.57 in his previous five starts. Then the Orioles got nine hits and eight runs off him by hitting four homers against him in 4 1/3 innings. Wheeler entered that start with a 0.62 HR rate on the year among the best in baseball. But against the Orioles he allowed a career-high in homers and tied his career high for earned runs.

Then in the game to decide the series in the Bronx, they faced Gil. He entered his start at 9-1 with a 2.03 ERA and was 8-0 with an ERA of 1.14 in his previous nine starts. He had given up 4.4 hits per every nine innings this year.

The Orioles (48-25) and the New York Yankees (51-25) are now separated by just 1.5 games in the standings with New York in first place heading into today's third and deciding game of the current series.

The Yankees won 4-2 on Tuesday night and the Orioles won 7-6 in 10 innings last night. The Orioles are 4-2 versus the Yankees this year and five of those six games were decided by two runs or fewer with Baltimore going 3-2 in those games.

A win today would give the Orioles back-to-back series wins over the Phillies and Yankees after losing the first game of each series.

The Orioles have had just one day off since May 31 but have gone 13-6 in this span against the Rays, Jays, Braves, Phillies and Yankees.

The Orioles are 18-7 (.720) in games this year versus American League East teams while the Yankees are 10-11 (.476).

The Yankees Aaron Judge was not happy. He got plunked by a pitch in the hand on Tuesday night and missed Wednesday's game.

He was quoted by New York media after Tuesday's game.

“Definitely pissed,” Judge said about the pitch that got him. “There was a couple balls up and in. It’s part of it. They like to throw in.”

If they, the Orioles, like to throw in, where do the Yankees like to throw?

As of game time last night, New York pitchers had hit 40 batters this year to lead the American League. With 24, the Orioles staff tied for 12th most. The team with the fewest HPs in the AL had hit 23 batters. Yankees pitchers had hit the Orioles five times this year and O's pitchers had hit the Yankees three times.

NEW YORK – The Orioles are two-thirds into a series hyped by media as a do-or-die matchup. Lose two games or get swept and don’t bothering playing out the rest of the season.

The club tried to downplay it after the last homestand. Manager Brandon Hyde and his players can read the standings. They also can read a calendar.

If you’re still reading this, here are a few thoughts and opinions about what’s transpired at Yankee Stadium.

* The fuss over the hit-by-pitches in the first game was over the top.

Not unexpected, mind you. Just way over the top.

One pitcher tonight will be making his third MLB start while the other has made 300. One will be looking for his first major league win while the other has 145. O's rookie Cade Povich pitched 11 1/3 innings his first two starts while the Yankees' Gerrit Cole has 1,859 innings under his belt.

Povich can't even think about winning Cy Young Awards. He just wants to establish his MLB career. Not only has Cole finished in the top five for the Cy Young Award six times, he's been in the top two three times and was the AL Cy Young Winner just last year when he went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA. Tonight, it's Povich against Cole in Game 2 of this series.

Reverse lock anyone?

The Orioles have gone 21 straight AL East series without losing one. But if they are to keep that streak going, they need to win the next two nights in the Bronx against the defending Cy Young winner in the American League one night and the next beat the pitcher in right-hander Luis Gil, who leads the AL currently in ERA.

Hey, the Orioles won their series at home with Philadelphia after losing the series opener on Friday night.

NEW YORK – If Cade Povich made a previous trip to New York, the memory isn’t sharp enough to cut through the fog.

“Maybe one time for like a night,” he said, “but other than that, no.”

Povich isn’t a tourist this week. His third major league start is coming tonight and he’s facing the team that’s blocking the Orioles from first place.

“It’s definitely going to be cool,” he said, certain that he hadn’t stepped inside Yankee Stadium before yesterday. “Knowing from watching games and growing up around baseball, it’s probably going to be a rowdy atmosphere, but at the same time probably pretty fun.

“We played in Regionals at Arkansas and it was pretty rowdy there, and I had a blast pitching there. Honestly, just real excited for it.”

For the Orioles, Monday had to be a glorious day. After playing 17 games in 17 days – and going 12-5 versus the Rays, Jays, Rays, Braves and Phillies – they got the day off.

A chance, finally to rest and briefly regroup.

But the intensity returns quickly as tonight the Orioles begin a three-game series in the Bronx against the first-place New York Yankees.

The Orioles (47-24) and the Yankees (50-24) are the two top teams currently in the American League. Atop the East, New York holds a lead by 1.5 games.

The clubs have been eyeing each other all year. New York has gone 30-11 since they lost three of four at Camden Yards in a series that ended May 2. The next day they began the 30-11 run but could not shake a Baltimore team that has gone 27-13 in that time.

The Orioles’ bats hadn’t even cooled Sunday afternoon and manager Brandon Hyde already was asked about the upcoming series against the Yankees. Fans hadn’t cleared the parking lots. Players hadn’t finished their showers and meals. Kids still ran the bases with music playing from “Frozen” and “The Little Mermaid.”

(If you have young children or grandkids, you know.)

Under the sea is fun. Being under the Yankees is not. But the gap has closed to 1 ½ games with the Orioles going 4-2 on their homestand.

The Orioles are 22-12 against teams currently above .500. The Yankees hold the best record in baseball at 50-24 despite losing back-to-back games in Boston. The matchup in the Bronx comes on the heels of a series against a Phillies team that has the best record in the National League.

"We get a day off first, which is well deserved and needed for a lot of our guys," said manager Brandon Hyde, his immediate response to a question about going to New York.

The Orioles' six-game stretch against the teams with the best records in the National League and American League continues under sunny skies this afternoon in downtown Baltimore. The Orioles (45-24) host Philadelphia (47-22) in the second of a three-game series at Oriole Park. They face the Yankees next week in the Bronx starting Tuesday night.

Last night's game featured a sellout crowd of 43,987 and a playoff atmosphere. A close game throughout that had a unique ending with a rain delay of one hour and 11 minutes before the 11th inning. When play resumed, Alec Bohm's two-run double off Jacob Webb gave the Phillies a 5-3 lead and win as the Orioles could not answer in the last of the 11th.

Baltimore came back three times to tie this game. Down 1-0 in the last of the third, Adley Rutschman's RBI double made it 1-1. Down 2-1 in the eighth, Anthony Santander's 15th home run tied it. Down 3-2 in the 10th, Cedric Mullins scored on a wild pitch and got his left hand in around the tag on a great slide to even the score 3-3. 

But the Orioles went 1-for-13 in the game with runners in scoring position and are 3-for-30 the last three games with RISP.

After an 8-1 win over Boston Friday night, the Yankees (50-22, .694) lead the Orioles by 3.5 games atop the AL East.

Just as the Orioles drew it up when this series began Monday night at Camden Yards.

OK, probably not. Even though they lost a starter in Grayson Rodriguez to injury during the Yankees series and now we know that Craig Kimbrel didn’t pitch once in the series, they would still shutdown a Yankees team that had scored 15 runs each on Saturday and Sunday at Milwaukee.

Oh, and Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna would hit big homers off lefty Carlos Rodón in the key series finale game. And Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb would record saves.

Yep, just as planned.

Sometimes it takes a village to win a key series or at least it takes an entire clubhouse. And the O’s got big contributions from many this series as they took three of four from the Yankees to gain the AL East lead by one game.

If a team wants to chase a division title and maybe chase 100 wins in the process, it needs to find a lot of different ways to win games through the long season.

While the Orioles have gotten a lot of attention for their power display so far this year, the team is not without speed. And the Orioles run the bases well. They often gain an extra 90 feet on their opponent with a runner going from first to third.

Or a runner stealing second base. They do that well and with a very high percentage success rate.

Through Tuesday’s games, the Orioles ranked sixth in the American League with 24 steals, and they ranked second in the AL and MLB with a 88.9 success rate, stealing 24-of-27. That percentage at one time was up at about 95 percent, but they’ve had a couple of caught stealing's recently.

“It’s more individual. We have guys that can run,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re going to be aggressive when we feel like it’s necessary and we feel like it’s appropriate to run. We ran a little bit on the road trip (to K.C. and Anaheim) just because it was kind of given to us. So, we were able to, you know kind of identify certain guys we were able to run on more than others. The score dictates it, a lot of things dictate that.”

The Orioles have gotten plenty of attention for their homer prowess. They began play last night leading the majors in homers and in homers per game. They had hit at least one homer in 21 of their 28 games and went 15-6 in those.

But in this series with the New York Yankees, the Baltimore pitching has led the way to wins by 2-0 and 4-2.

The O’s staff saw a pair of ninth-inning leads get away over the weekend versus Oakland. But the last two nights, lefty Danny Coulombe picked up his third career save and last night right-hander Jacob Webb fanned three in getting the last four outs to record his fifth career save.

Webb’s five career saves have come for three different clubs, with three for Atlanta and one each for the Angels and Orioles. His last before last night was June 15, 2023 for the Angels at Texas.

Against the Yankees Webb got seven whiffs on nine swings. That was big-time swing and miss stuff in that outing and now, over 13 1/3 innings he has a 2.03 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and .191 batting average against.

Jorge Mateo gets the start at second base tonight for the Orioles and James McCann is behind the plate.

Heston Kjerstad stays on the bench against a left-hander, former Orioles Rule 5 pick Nestor Cortes. He’s been in the lineup once since the Orioles recalled him last Tuesday.

Colton Cowser is in left field and batting ninth. Jordan Westburg is the third baseman.

Dean Kremer is making his sixth start. He’s posted a 4.61 ERA and 1.061 WHIP in 27 1/3 innings.

Kremer struck out 10 batters over 5 1/3 innings in his last start in Anaheim. He has a 5.04 ERA and 1.410 WHIP in nine career starts against the Yankees.

When Gunnar Henderson drove a Clarke Schmidt curveball to the flag court in right – a ball he smoked at 112.3 mph, his hardest-hit homer this year – the Orioles series with the Yankees was off and running.

They got off to a good start and had a strong finish.

No leads got away on this night as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 2-0 to improve to 18-10 and tie for first place. Technically, via a win percentage of .643 to New York’s .633, the O’s have the AL East lead.

It was another O’s win that had Henderson’s fingerprints all over it. Another game where he showed off his massive baseball tools. Another game where his impact was vast and the plays he made big.

He helped beat the Yankees with his bat, his glove and his speed.

The Orioles have played nine series thus far, but just one versus an American League East opponent. They swept Boston at Fenway Park April 9-11 by 7-1, 7-5 and 9-4 scores.

That changes tonight when the top two teams in the AL East meet for four games over four days in a first-place showdown. After scoring a combined 30 runs the last two games at Milwaukee, the New York Yankees are 19-10 and lead the division by one game over the Orioles at 17-10.

Baltimore went 32-20 (.615) against the AL East last year, the second-best winning percentage against the division by the O's since 1981 behind the .618 (47-29) mark in 2014. The Birds won the season series against Toronto (10-3), and Tampa Bay (8-5), and went 7-6 each against Boston and New York. It was the first time since 2014 that the Orioles won the season series against each of their division opponents.

And beginning play tonight, the Orioles have a 15-series unbeaten streak riding against AL East opponents. They have won 11 and tied four series within their division since losing their first two of last season. This is the longest such streak in team history, topping 13 straight in 1969.

How important is a four-game series with the Yankees in April? It will be important for the Orioles to show they can hold their own with a New York team that a lot of outlets favored to win this division. They are the Yankees, and they always get attention, usually way too much. The Orioles won the division last year and they hold the current title of AL East champs.

It does confound some analysts. The Orioles, while ranking 10^th in MLB in run differential, are second in the sport in winning percentage.

Just how are they doing that?

Winning a lot of close games is how.

Ironically, when the Orioles returned to the playoffs in 2012 after a 14-year drought, they won a lot of close games. That team had a plus seven run differential for the year but won 93 games. Yep, 93 while barely outscoring the opponents for the year.

O’s second baseman Adam Frazier isn’t too worried about the run differential totals as much as the win total.

NEW YORK – The crowd at Yankee Stadium had lost its last ounce of patience long before the 12^th batter stepped to the plate in the top of the third inning. Angry at Luis Severino. Outraged by the sloppy play. Reduced to cheering a ground ball, sarcasm the only weapon of retaliation.

The Orioles threw an offensive party tonight in someone else’s house. Gunnar Henderson played host.

Henderson collected four hits in four innings, including a pair of home runs. Ryan O’Hearn had a double and two-run single in the third. Twenty of the first 30 batters reached base.

Manager Brandon Hyde wanted a breather. He got a laugher.

Staggering after two games of the series, the Orioles came out swinging tonight and coasted to a 14-1 victory. They pounded out 20 hits. Kyle Bradish was working on a one-hit shutout through the fifth and no one seemed to notice.

NEW YORK – The latest prospect-packed Orioles lineup tonight includes Colton Cowser in left field again, with Gunnar Henderson leading off and playing shortstop, and Jordan Westburg at second base.

Manager Brandon Hyde put Ramón Urías at third base and Aaron Hicks in center field.

Cedric Mullins is the designated hitter.

Austin Hays stays on the bench.

Kyle Bradish has registered a 3.58 ERA and 1.205 WHIP in 15 starts. He’s held opponents to six runs in his last four starts covering 25 innings.

NEW YORK – Colton Cowser finally got the phone call.

The organization’s No. 2 prospect is joining the Orioles in New York, according to a source. The club is expected to select his contract from Triple-A Norfolk.

Space must be cleared on the 40-man roster, and the Orioles could make other moves prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Yankees.

They’re carrying three catchers, which always is a temporary arrangement. And they might want to bring up a pitcher, with only 12 on the active roster.

What’s certain is that Cowser, ranked No. 14 among baseball’s prospects by MLB Pipeline, is in position to make his major league debut.