Friday night Orioles game thread: vs. Cubs, 7:05

Finally, for the first time since Sunday afternoon, there is Orioles baseball again. Let’s hope they don’t have us regretting that fact within an hour of the first pitch of Friday’s second half opener against the Cubs.

The Orioles have not won a game on a Friday night since June 2. That probably doesn’t tell us a whole lot, other than that they’ve played a lot of bad baseball in general since June 2. Indeed, after their last Friday win, the Orioles had a 29-24 record. Since then, they have gone 13-22. Yuck.

Chris Davis makes his return as the second half begins. Is that good news? His brief minor league rehab appearances didn’t give any particular reason to believe that may be the case, but he’s back all the same, pushing Trey Mancini into left field. He’s getting thrown into the lineup against a lefty starting pitcher, so probably don’t expect much from him this series.

There are 74 games left to play in this baseball season. The Orioles probably need to win at least 45 of them if they want to get back into the postseason. It would be nice if they could get the first of those 45 behind a good game from Kevin Gausman tonight, wouldn’t it?