A roller up the third base line griped the chalk for a single. The wind carried a fly ball off the out-of-town scoreboard in right field for a triple. Ryan Mountcastle leaped for a high chopper that nicked the top of his mitt for a single.

Steven Kwan’s fly ball down the right field line in the fifth inning sneaked inside the foul pole for a two-run homer, another break for the Guardians and another swig of frustration for an Orioles team that’s guzzling it lately.

Charlie Morton couldn’t maintain early momentum and left-hander Logan Allen held the Orioles to two hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings in Cleveland’s 6-3 victory before an announced crowd of 14,293 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles (6-10) are four games below .500 for the first time since July 7, 2022. They didn’t have a hit until Cedric Mullins led off the fifth with a single. They didn’t have a run until Mullins homered off reliever Joey Cantillo in the seventh.

Gunnar Henderson and Mountcastle doubled off Cade Smith with two outs in the eighth, the latter at 109.4 mph, and Gary Sánchez singled to reduce the lead to 6-3. The Orioles were 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position Sunday and 0-for-5 tonight before a rally that came too late.

PITTSBURGH – Jake Irvin had done everything in his power to win this game for the Nationals and put an end to their three-game losing streak, precisely the kind of performance the situation called for.

Irvin authored seven scoreless innings on a frigid Tuesday night, and doing it on an economical 87 pitches. And now all he could do was watch from the visitors’ dugout at PNC Park like everyone else and hope his teammates could finish off the Pirates.

That’s been anything but a given for the Nats bullpen through the first 16 games of the season. But on this night, the two reliable back-end relievers did their job without breaking a sweat, Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan teaming up to complete a 3-0 shutout and ensure Irvin's efforts were properly rewarded.

"We needed that today," manager Davey Martinez said. "He stepped up big-time."

Irvin was more than worthy of his first win of the year. Ferrer was more than worthy of his fourth hold of the year, throwing 14 of his 15 pitches for strikes. And Finnegan was more than worthy of his sixth save in as many attempts, finishing things off with a scoreless ninth to complete a 2-hour, 16-minute ballgame.

Questions about contract extensions for young players are posed to Elias each time that he speaks to the media. And he’s always provided the stock answer about how it isn’t beneficial for either side to share details and possibly damage the agents’ trust.

The Orioles are the only team in the majors since 2019 that hasn’t signed a player to an extension of four-plus guaranteed years. They aren’t short on candidates with high draft picks Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser on the roster. And they’re under new ownership since billionaire David Rubenstein purchased the team.

“I’m aware of what’s going on and I’m aware of the conversation around us. I guess I’ll be a little more revelatory than I have been,” Elias said.

It wouldn’t be a typical scrum today.

“This is something we’re working on,” Elias said. “There’s guys on this team that we would like to have on this team longer than they’re currently slated for. It’s not a point-and-shoot thing. It’s case by case. There’s different players, different skill levels, different representatives, different philosophies around how to handle players at different age levels. We’ve got some really good ones, and on top of that, we’ve had a very recent ownership change after a kind of protracted thing during a rebuild.

PITTSBURGH – One day after lamenting a lack of “intensity” from his beleaguered relief corps, Nationals manager Davey Martinez summoned the entire group to his office for a pump-you-up meeting prior to tonight’s game against the Pirates.

The message of that session?

“I just wanted to let them know it’s early,” Martinez said. “We’ve only played 10 percent of our games. We’ve still got 90 percent of our games left. … I just want them to stay positive, keep their heads up. We’ve got a lot of baseball left.”

Nationals relievers entered the day with a 6.91 ERA and 1.921 WHIP, both worst in the majors by a healthy amount. Each of the last two days, they’ve turned winnable games into blowouts, surrendering a combined seven runs over 5 2/3 innings.

After Monday’s 10-3 loss, Martinez noted there needs to be more intensity shown from some relievers when entering a close game, even if the team is trailing by a couple of runs. Today, he decided to bring the entire group together, offering his own thoughts but also opening the floor for the pitchers themselves to speak up.

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias sat on the dugout bench this afternoon, media crowded around him, and held a piece of paper that he referred to as his “crib notes.”

To memorize the injuries and updates would require a special skill that’s rare in baseball circles, though the Orioles keep testing their front office and manager.

Elias covered 11 players, including a pair of minor leaguers. The injured list has no limits. The same must apply to the Orioles’ collective patience.

Zach Eflin
“He continues to feel really good after coming out and hitting the IL with what we hope is a very mild lat strain. He’s going to start playing catch in a few days. We’ll have to see how that goes and kind of take it from there. But so far encouraging with the way he’s felt since being injured and I’m hopeful at this point that his stay on the IL will be measured more in weeks than in months. But again, kind of see how he responds. He’s starting to play catch.”

Grayson Rodriguez
“Recuperating from the sore tricep/elbow injury that he had in spring training. He’s thrown two bullpens now. His most recent one had off-speed pitches, spins as we say, and he’s got another bullpen day after tomorrow. So far he is tolerating everything well physically, so that’s good news, but we still have a lot ahead of us in terms of bullpens, buildup, live BP, ultimately rehab assignment, and I’m not ready to assign a timetable to his recovery yet. I know that he’s doing everything he can to strengthen up and get back to help the team as soon as possible, but we’re not at the point yet of kind of ballparking when that’s going to be. But he continues to feel pretty good.”

PITTSBURGH – The temperature has dropped about 30 degrees since Monday, with a strong wind now blowing in from the west, making the conditions at PNC Park far different than they were for the series opener. Maybe that can be a good thing for the Nationals, because they sure didn’t play well under Monday’s conditions en route to their third straight loss.

They’ll try to get back on track tonight behind Jake Irvin, who makes his fourth start of the season. The right-hander doesn’t have a decision yet, but the Nats have lost all three of his previous outings. He can do his part to put his guys in a better position to win by limiting the damage and going more than five innings this time around. That might also take some pressure off the much beleaguered bullpen, perhaps allowing Davey Martinez to use only his top three guys (Jorge López, Jose A. Ferrer, Kyle Finnegan) at the end.

At the plate, the Nationals will happily face anybody other than Paul Skenes. Not that Mitch Keller is a slouch. The 29-year-old right-hander has been a reliable starter for the Pirates for more than four years now, and he was outstanding last time out against the Cardinals, tossing 7 1/3 scoreless innings on only 96 pitches.

Today, of course, is Jackie Robinson Day across the major leagues. Everybody will be wearing nameless No. 42 jerseys in honor of the 78th anniversary of his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, always a special occasion for all involved.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of showers, 46 degrees, wind 17 mph out to left field

Jordan Westburg is leading off tonight and playing third base as the Orioles begin their series against the Guardians.

The lineup is heavy in right-handed bats against Guardians left-hander Logan Allen.

Gary Sánchez is catching, with Adley Rutschman serving as designated hitter. Ramón Laureano is in left field and Jorge Mateo is playing second base.

Gunnar Henderson slides down to the cleanup spot. Cedric Mullins is in center field and batting seventh as the other left-handed bat.

Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad and Ryan O’Hearn go to the bench. Ramón Urías also is out of the lineup.

The Orioles optioned reliever Colin Selby to Triple-A Norfolk today and activated pitcher Scott Blewett, who was claimed on waivers yesterday from the Twins.

Selby allowed two runs and three hits in his only inning in Arizona after the Orioles recalled him Wednesday as the roster replacement for Zach Eflin, who’s on the injured list with a right lat strain.

Blewett, who turned 29 five days ago, was designated for assignment again on Saturday after the Twins selected his contract earlier in the week and he allowed one run with five strikeouts and no walks in 4 2/3 innings. He’s made 19 relief appearances in the majors and posted a 2.18 ERA in 33 innings.

Blewett is wearing No. 67.

The Orioles signed catcher Chadwick Tromp to a minor league deal on Sunday. They faced him a few times in spring training with the Braves.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Activated RHP Scott Blewett. He will wear No. 67.
• Optioned RHP Colin Selby to Triple-A Norfolk.

Takes of all temperatures are flown about a variety of Orioles spaces. 

But one take should be freezing cold: this team sure knows how to draft. 

The minor league season is underway, and there are plenty of outstanding performances to highlight. The Orioles are in the midst of a long homestand, so let’s take some time to take a look down on the farm. 

The 2024 Draft Class 

The Orioles held the 22nd overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, their lowest first-round draft pick since 2016. With that choice, they selected Vance Honeycutt, an outfielder out of North Carolina. After a rocky start to his pro career, Honeycutt has started the 2025 season firing on all cylinders down in Aberdeen, to the tune of a .310/.487/.517/1.004 slash line. He does have 13 strikeouts through nine games, but he also leads the team in walks with nine. 

PITTSBURGH – There have been times in club history when the Nationals bullpen garnered too much attention for the wrong reasons.

Think of the first half of the 2017 season, when Dusty Baker went through three different closers before Mike Rizzo finally acquired Sean Doolittle at the trade deadline.

Think of the first half of the 2019 season, when Davey Martinez had no choice but to overwork Doolittle because there were no other reliable arms in the pen, at least until Rizzo acquired Daniel Hudson at the trade deadline.

And think of the disastrous 2021 season, in which a veteran-laden roster still believing it could contend was done in by a variety of calamities, including some July meltdowns by a bullpen anchored by the highly combustible Brad Hand.

It’s easy to look at the current team’s bullpen dilemma and compare it to those previous scenarios. But there’s a distinct difference this time around: The problem isn’t the closer, it’s all the guys pitching in front of him.

The Orioles are in the midst of their longest homestand of the season with the Guardians, the second of three opponents, visiting Camden Yards tonight for a three-game series. Cleveland is 8-7 but only 3-6 on the road.

The latest off-day arrived with the Orioles still in search of their first series and back-to-back wins. They’re batting .235/.302/.383 for a .685 OPS that ranked 18^th in the majors yesterday, 66 runs scored that ranked 13^th and 116 hits that were 16th. The offense can be described as “mid.”

Perhaps a better word is “inconsistent,” with enough ups and downs to cause nausea.

The bats really can’t be blamed for Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays except for the inability to bring home the automatic runner in the 10^th inning. The sport is set up now for one run to score in extras, with the burden placed on teams to do more. The Orioles got Jordan Westburg to third base on a ground ball and struck out twice.

The first eight losses this season occurred with the offense producing two, one, zero, four, two, one, three and zero runs. Six should be sufficient, but the bullpen allowed three in the eighth with the Orioles ahead 6-3.

PITTSBURGH – They weren’t going to come right out and say it, but the Nationals understood the monumental task staring them in the face this evening.

His name is Paul Skenes, and he’s the most intimidating pitcher on the planet right now. The Nats had managed to avoid the hulking Pirates right-hander during his ballyhooed rookie season. They finally ran into the buzzsaw tonight at PNC Park and learned firsthand what everyone else around baseball already knew.

The Nationals did manage to push across a couple of late runs against Skenes, but that wasn’t nearly enough on a night in which they once again saw their bullpen turn a potentially winnable game into a lopsided defeat, this time by a count of 10-3.

"There's got to be a little more intensity from this bullpen when they come into games to keep it close," a clearly agitated manager Davey Martinez said. "Right now, there's two guys back there, we can't even get to them: (setup man Jose A.) Ferrer and (closer Kyle) Finnegan."

You can't use your setup man and your closer if you're trailing by multiple runs, and that's exactly what has happened during three straight losses for a team that felt great about itself when it opened this 10-game road trip with its fourth straight win.

PITTSBURGH – Nasim Nuñez spent the entire 2024 season in the big leagues. Walking into the Nationals clubhouse this weekend shouldn’t have been a big deal for the 24-year-old infielder.

It is different this time around, though. Nuñez may have been a big leaguer all last season, but he was the 26th player on a 26-man roster, a Rule 5 Draft pick tasked with learning everything he could from the bench, rarely getting a chance to play.

This time, Nuñez could be here to play, summoned from Triple-A Rochester after starting shortstop CJ Abrams landed on the 10-day injured list.

“I told my dad I feel like I never left,” Nuñez said. “I’m very excited, but at the same time I’m very calm. I think the calmness came from last year. And the excitedness is coming from actually coming up here and living out my dream.”

Davey Martinez didn’t play Nuñez over the weekend in Miami, wanting to give him some time to adapt and get comfortable again. But he’s got him in the lineup tonight for the Nats’ series opener against the Pirates, including a matchup with ace Paul Skenes.

PITTSBURGH – A road trip that looked much more manageable on paper than the recently completed homestand did has not proven to be all that manageable so far. The Nationals lost two of three in Miami over the weekend, and now they open a four-game series in Pittsburgh with a matchup against the best young pitcher in the sport.

Yes, Paul Skenes is on the mound tonight for the Pirates, the first time the phenom right-hander has faced the Nats in his career. Only two members of the Nationals’ current roster have any experience against Skenes, and even that’s minimal: two at-bats by Amed Rosario, one by Josh Bell. Suffice it to say, this is going to be a challenge tonight for the visiting lineup, which includes Nasim Nuñez at shortstop and Dylan Crews (Skenes’ old LSU teammate) in center field.

On the flip side of the equation, nobody with the Pirates has any experience against Brad Lord, because he’s making only his second career start tonight. Lord was solid in his previous outing, tossing three scoreless innings against the mighty Dodgers on 55 pitches. He should be good to build up to maybe 70 or so pitches tonight, and the Nationals would love for that to stretch out over five innings if possible. If not, it turns into another bullpen game, with Jackson Rutledge probably tasked with throwing multiple innings at some point along the way.

Also complicating matters: There’s a chance of storms here right around or shortly after first pitch. You wouldn’t think either team wants to risk burning up its starter, so they might just have to err on the side of caution and delay the start of the game. Stay tuned for updates.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 72 degrees, wind 11 mph right field to left field

The Orioles apparently are making an adjustment to their pitching staff.

Scott Blewett was claimed on waivers today from the Twins and is expected to report to the club this week, perhaps by Tuesday night’s series opener against the Guardians at Camden Yards.

Left-hander Luis González, a surprise addition to the 40-man roster in November, was designated for assignment to clear room for Blewett.

Blewett has made 19 relief appearances in the majors from 2020-25, with no appearances in 2022-23, and posted a 2.18 ERA in 33 innings. He debuted with the Royals and signed twice with Minnesota as a free agent last year after they outrighted him off the 40-man roster. He’s out of minor league options, so today’s move would impact the Orioles’ roster unless they attempt to sneak him through waivers.

A corresponding move otherwise is pending.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Claimed RHP Scott Blewett off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. He has not yet reported.
• Designated LHP Luis González for assignment.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.

MIAMI – It’s become a tradition unlike any other when the Nationals visit Miami. It’s for an unfortunate reason, but it’s still a welcomed sight nonetheless.

For the third year in a row, while recovering from his March 2023 Tommy John surgery, Cade Cavalli made the trek down from West Palm Beach to meet the Nats at loanDepot park.

In the past, Cavalli has met the Nats there to be around the team fresh off his surgery or to throw in front of the major league coaches during his rehab. But this time, instead of showing Davey Martinez and Co. how he has progressed in his recovery, Cavalli was showing them how he’s ramping up for the season.

Cavalli threw a two-inning sim game in West Palm Beach on Tuesday, totaling 35 pitches with his fastball sitting between 94-97 mph. He then threw an “in-between-starts” bullpen session Friday to get ready for his next “outing,” which should be at some point today back at the team’s spring training facility.

“It was great,” Cavalli said of his sim game inside the Nats clubhouse Friday afternoon. “It's always good being able to be back on the mound and pitch. We threw on Wednesday two innings, and then we have another one coming up on Monday. I threw a bullpen today. Arm's responding well, stuff feels good. So very excited.”

An immediate take from yesterday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss to the Blue Jays is how reliever Jeff Hoffman should remember that the Orioles make another trip to Toronto and his team makes another trip to Baltimore. Be careful with that pucker or risk getting punched in the mouth. But there’s more.

Manager Brandon Hyde downplayed the latest short outing from a starter, pointing out how he handled them differently the past few games after an off-day and rainout, and with another break in the schedule today. But the bullpen is passing the baton too much, finally losing its grip yesterday in Toronto’s three-run eighth. The rotation needs to consume more innings, plain and simple.

Zach Eflin is on the injured list after going six innings in each of his three starts and posting a 3.00 ERA. He’s a huge loss for however long that it lasts.

Charlie Morton starts Tuesday night’s series opener against the Guardians at Camden Yards. He’s due like one of those bills from the record company that used to promise free albums if you returned their card by the deadline. Anyone with me here?

Morton has allowed four runs in 3 1/3 innings, five runs in five innings and four runs in five innings for a total of only 13 1/3.

Bench coach Robinson Chirinos made his managerial debut this afternoon after Brandon Hyde was ejected. Ryan Mountcastle lined a ball over the left field wall that used to torment him. Tyler O’Neill almost nailed Mr. Splash with his home run into the Bird Bath section. Gunnar Henderson showed signs of busting out of his slump with three hits in the first four innings. The bullpen couldn’t hold a three-run lead in the eighth, and the Orioles stranded the winning run at second base in the ninth.

Peel back the many layers and the Orioles still don't have a series win.

The Orioles couldn't score in the bottom of the 10th inning, leaving Jordan Westburg at third base, and the Blue Jays prevailed 7-6 before an announced crowd of 27,193 at Kids Opening Day at Camden Yards.

Myles Straw's infield hit off Matt Bowman scored automatic runner Andrés Giménez. Bowman left two on base, but Ramón Laureano took a called third strike from Jeff Hoffman for the final out of the day. Hoffman blew a kiss toward the Orioles' dugout, his response to the contract offer reportedly rescinded after his physical due to concerns about his shoulder. The Braves did the same and he signed with the Blue Jays for $33 million over three years.

"When I'm thinking about the games before the games are being played and stuff, yeah, obviously that's definitely in my head. But once I'm in the game, in the moment, I'm focused on making pitches," Hoffman told reporters outside the visiting clubhouse.