The Orioles are going with a bullpen game this afternoon to close out their series against the Yankees at Camden Yards. Adam Plutko is getting the start after making 15 relief appearances and compiling a 1.27 ERA and 1.031 WHIP in 21 1/3 innings. He's surrendered only one home run. Purchased from the Indians on March 27, Plutko hasn't started since Aug. 21, 2020. His longest outing with the Orioles was three scoreless innings on April 6 versus the Yankees in the Bronx. The 39 pitches also...

Any discussion of Juan Soto being in a slump has to include the qualifier that a Soto slump isn't like any other hitter's slump. Other hitters go 1-for-30 with 17 strikeouts, and that's clearly a slump. Soto goes 6-for-30 with six strikeouts and we start worrying about him. Soto has set the bar for himself extraordinarily high. But having said that, it's not inappropriate to point out he's not hitting like himself right now. And hasn't been for a while. In his first 10 games since coming...

As it turned out, right-hander Jórge Lopez might have broken through that fifth-inning barrier and had a strong outing in his previous game versus the Boston Red Sox, but he could not build on that last night. López got an early exit, the Orioles fell into an early deficit and they added another loss against the New York Yankees. The Yankees led 5-0 after two innings and beat the Orioles 8-2 at Camden Yards as López had a rough night, one where he gave up six hits and five runs (four...

Davey Martinez knew what Joe Ross had been getting away with in recent starts before tonight's game in Arizona, and so the Nationals manager knew exactly what his right-hander needed to do to be successful in this outing. "The pitches are up," Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "When he's down, he's really effective." As such, it wasn't hard to figure out why Ross wasn't effective tonight during an 11-4 trouncing at the hands of the Diamondbacks. Plain and...

I just made another check of a few Orioles prospect lists and can't find any mention of Patrick Dorrian. Not a trace. The casual fan might ask, "Who's Patrick Dorrian?" He's the Double-A Bowie infielder who was the player to be named later in the May 2019 Yefry Ramirez trade with the Pirates. The former Braves 12th round pick in 2014 out of Kingston High School who was released two months later and signed by the Pirates four years later. Dorrian changed his mind about professional...

Getting ahead in the count didn't work for Jorge López. Falling behind didn't work, either. The first inning had been the kindest for López among his seven starts, with no runs allowed and only five baserunners. But he was 0-2 tonight on DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit, and issued a walk and surrendered a hit. He walked Aaron Judge with the count 3-1 to load the bases with no outs. The Yankees siphoned 39 pitches out of López and scored three runs, Judge hit his prerequisite homer in the...

Yan Gomes had come up to bat with a chance to hit for the cycle before. Four times, in fact, as a big leaguer. But never like this. On those four previous occasions (once with the Nationals, three times with the Indians), Gomes needed a triple to complete the cycle. And in each case, he had only one at-bat at the end of the game to try to do it. So imagine how surreal it felt for the 33-year-old catcher when he stepped up to bat in the top of the sixth Friday night in Arizona, having already...

After Friday's 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees, the same two teams meet tonight at Oriole Park with the Orioles hosting the second game of a three-game series and six-game homestand. The O's scored three in the last of the fifth to lead 4-2 last night. That was before Gio Urshela's pinch-hit three-run homer in the seventh put New York ahead. The Yankees went on to win by that 5-4 margin. The Orioles have lost three one-run games in the last week to fall to 4-6 in one-run games. The O's...

The Orioles are waiting to announce Sunday afternoon's starter, whether it's a reliever coming out of their bullpen or perhaps a pitcher down at Triple-A Norfolk. They'll offer confirmation after tonight's game. Manager Brandon Hyde said there probably will be a roster move later tonight. They could recall, for example, left-hander Bruce Zimmermann and return him to the rotation. Zimmermann hasn't pitched since working three innings for the Tides on May 8 and allowing a two-run homer to...

The Nationals lineup had its best night of the season Friday in Arizona. Why not stick with it again tonight, right? That's Davey Martinez's thinking, and it's hard to fault the manager for that philosophy, especially after he spent the better part of the last month tinkering every single day with a new-look batting order. So tonight the Nats will again go with Trea Turner and Josh Harrison at the top, Josh Bell in the No. 6 spot and Victor Robles at the bottom, behind the pitcher. It's a...