Saturday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles are winning road games

Morning, Birdland!

What do you know, the Orioles are capable of winning a game in which Manny Machado does not play especially well. The team’s shortstop went 0-for-4 and left three men on base, but the O’s pulled out a 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays anyway. Harrison Jozwiak is gonna hit you with the lovely recap.

I like David Hess, guys. I like him a lot. I’m not afraid to admit it. He keeps his head when things get tough. It would have been easy to fall apart after that phantom balk call, but he didn’t. Instead, he delivered the finest performance of his young career.

This season may be lost, but I’m already excited about a Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman and Hess front three of the rotation in 2019. If Alex Cobb can pitch like an actual major leaguer and Andrew Cashner remains serviceable, they may not be totally terrible.

But the offense would still need to show up. Ugh.

Links

Epstein: Machado Speculation “In Fantasy Land At This Point” - MLB Trade Rumors
The Cubs head honcho isn’t saying this won’t happen. He’s saying it’s not going to happen right now. MLBTr explains that big trades don’t normally happen until July, no matter how bad the club with the commodity is performing.

Cup of jO’s: Comparing this Year to Seasons Past - Camden Depot
This is just a graph, but it makes it pretty easy to see how poorly this team is doing compared to past bad Orioles teams. They aren’t as awful as ‘88, but they are worse than 2002.

A week of ups and downs in O’s minors - Baltimore Baseball
I know you read ALL of the minor league reports we post here on Camden Chat every day, but Dean Jones has a quick summary of all of the big names how they did down on the farm this week.

Six years after no-regrets early extension with Adam Jones, Orioles have yet to return to that well - Baltimore Sun
This is a drum I am going to keep on pounding. This team needs to identify players earlier in their careers and sign them to extensions prior to hitting free agency.

Despite positive news on knee, Mark Trumbo likely heading to disabled list - Baltimore Sun
This is more than a Mark Trumbo update. The outfielder is going to the DL with a minor knee injury. Zach Britton will throw in a simulated game later today. Gabriel Ynoa is long tossing. Darren O’Day is getting a cortisone shot on Friday. Our pet’s heads are indeed falling off.

Orioles’ Chris Tillman on DL stint: ‘I think it is a blessing in disguise’ - Baltimore Sun
The big revelation here is Chris Tillman’s reason for being on the DL. Apparently, he injured his back dodging a Nick Castellanos foul ball in the dugout. Hoo, boy.

HESS GETS THE PIE!!!

But also:

Orioles birthdays and history

Is it your birthday? Happy Birthday!

O’s pitcher Gabriel Ynoa, who is currently on the 60-day DL with a shin injury, turns 25 today. John O’Donoghue is 49 years old. He appeared in 11 games for the ‘93 Birds and pitched to a 4.58 ERA, 99 ERA+ and 5.68 FIP as both a starter and a reliever. Finally, Stacy Jones is 51. The 6-foot-6 right-hander had a 4.09 ERA and 3.58 FIP in four games during the 1991 season.

On the non-player frontier, Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette turns 60 today! (Shoutout to i2egulus in the comments, who pointed this out to me. This post did not originally include Duquette. Thanks!)

Other notable birthdays: Lenny Kravitz (1964), Lauryn Hill (1975) and Ben Zobrist (1981)

1897 - Bram Stoker’s Dracula is first published.

1959 - Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix throws 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves, but loses 1-0 after the perfect game evaporates in the 13th inning on a fielding error, which came around to score.

1998 - The United States Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island is mostly in New Jersey, not New York.

2004 - Daryle Ward hits for the cycle. His father, Gary, had hit for the cycle back in 1980. They are the first father/son combination to hit for the cycle in MLB.