Friday Bird Droppings

The Orioles are in such a golden state right now that even when they do nothing, they achieve. After embarrassing losses by both the Red Sox and the Yankees last night, the Orioles are a game out of first place in the AL East coming into a series at Rogers Centre where they will face the vaunted Dickey-Johnson-Wang triad. With Jose Reyes on the comeback path, the surging Jays would like nothing more than to begin their climb back into relevance with a series win over their avian rivals. This must not happen. FYI, both tomorrow and Sunday's games are 1:07 PM starts.

School of Roch: Update on Chen's simulated game Our Chen-less days and nights appear to be thankfully reaching an end.

Nearly every sign a positive one for Orioles | Comcast SportsNet Baltimore I mean...I like where things are going, but isn't this akin to taunting the beast? The older cop talking up his impending retirement in an action flick? I've been hurt before.

Orioles and Blue Jays soar into top 10 as showdown looms - MLB - Joe Lemire - SI.com Orioles. Number three. Nutty.

Matt Moore and 10 key guys in the AL East - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN Let me tell you a little secret: Chris Davis.

Chris Davis keeps up Miguel Cabrera impersonation with monster day | The Strike Zone - SI.com These Orioles...uhhh, they're not so bad.

Interview: Roland Hemond on 63 years of baseball - Baseball Nation Do you recall the days of Birdland past when Hemond ruled the roost? He doesn't really go into that here, but this is still an interesting read.

Kudos to Baseball Reference for finding two opportunities to work Van Mungo into its Today in Baseball History.

It's the birthday of Rick "The O.G. Mentor" Sutcliffe and Sendy "This Is Not A Typo" Rleal.