BALTIMORE—After their three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays last weekend, the Orioles were 5-3 and appeared to have an advantage over their next opponent, the remade Miami Marlins. Three games into a four games series, the Orioles have just 10 hits and one run—scored in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s second...
BALTIMORE—The most jarring sound in the first game of the Orioles’ first seven-inning doubleheader came in the middle of the fifth when John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” came wafting through the ballpark’s sound system. For decades, the Orioles have played Country Boy during the seventh-inning stretch, but in this...
BALTIMORE—After a spate of Covid-19 forced the Miami Marlins to wait eight days to play a game, the Orioles might have thought the patchwork team that was hastily assembled wouldn’t present much of a challenge. However, pitching can be the great equalizer, and the Marlins’ pitchers were sharp and dominant in a...
BALTIMORE—After some uncertainty, the Orioles’ Tuesday night game against the Miami Marlins will be played, although the starting time was pushed back to 8:15 after the Marlins were cleared to play. Miami hasn’t played since July 26th after at least 18 players tested positive for Covid-19. Tuesday afternoon, Major League Baseball issued...
BALTIMORE—The Orioles’ bullpen had no place to go but up. Through eight games in 2020, it’s an area of strength. In 2019, Oriole relievers had baseball’s worst ERA at a 5.79. It’s at 4.58 so far and, if you remove Cody Carroll’s 162.00 ERA, it drops all the way to 3.16. In...
BALTIMORE—Pat Valaika had just won Saturday night’s game with a base hit, and there was no wild celebration on the field. Instead, Oriole players were high-fiving the air, trying to maintain social distancing rather than engulfing Valaika. But this is 2020, and the Orioles did their celebrating alone; there were no fans...
BALTIMORE—It’s been nearly two years since the Orioles recorded a sweep. On Sunday, manager Brandon Hyde, who went through the 2019 season without even a two-game sweep, got to enjoy a three-game one. The Orioles’ 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays moved their record to 5-3 ahead of a day off...
BALTIMORE—The Orioles got their first experience in extra-inning baseball in 2020, and they liked what they saw. Pat Valaika’s single to right scored Bryan Holaday from third base to lift the Orioles to a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in 11 innings Saturday night at Camden Yards. The Orioles turned...
BALTIMORE—The trade of relief pitcher Richard Bleier wouldn’t have been surprising had it occurred a month later, on August 31, at this year’s trade deadline. But the Orioles moved quickly to move the 33-year-old left-hander to the Miami Marlins after Friday’s game for a player to be named later. The player that...
BALTIMORE—Richard Bleier was sitting in the Orioles’ bullpen, hoping to get in a game that required five relievers to work five innings. He didn’t, and after the Orioles’ 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night, found out that he was traded to the Miami Marlins for a player to...