Sunday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles set another dubious record

Happy Sunday, Camden Chatters. I hope everyone is having a pleasant Easter and Passover weekend. The Orioles themselves aren’t having a great time this weekend as they lost two games yesterday and blew the record for home runs allowed by May 1st to smithereens.

Before yesterday, the most home runs allowed by May 1st was 50, a record that belonged to the 1996 Detroit Tigers. The Tigers went 53-109 that year and over the entire season gave up 241 homers. Thanks to yesterday’s dinger parade, to date the Orioles have given up 57 home runs already. And they still have nine more games to play this month!

If you missed it, the Orioles gave up 11 home runs over their two games, including two each from former Orioles Nelson Cruz and Jonathan Schoop. Schoop’s second home run was hit off of relief pitcher Chris Davis. That’s right, he pitched again! The circumstances were less fun, but it was still one of the better parts of the game.

Schoop’s dinger off of Davis had them both smiling. And since it was the 16 Twins’ run of the game, it’s not like it mattered.

If you want to catch up on the full details from yesterday’s doubleheader sweep, you can read Tyler Young’s recap of the 6-5 loss here, and Harrson Jozwiak’s recap of the 16-7 loss here.

Links

Branden Kline completes ‘journey’ with call-up to Orioles for doubleheader vs. Twins - Baltimore Sun
It was a long road to get Branden Kline to the majors, with too many injuries to list. But he made his debut yesterday, flashing a 98 mph fastball. He’s now back in the minors but maybe we’ll see him again this season.

John Means' Changeup Has Been A Weapon - Eutaw Street Report
John Means has been one of the better stories to come out of 2019 so far.

Perez 'happy' to allow homer to Orioles third baseman Alberto - StarTribune.com
Martin Perez and Hanser Alberto are good friends and Perez threw the pitch the resulted in Alberto's first ML home run. It's easy to be happy about that when your team is winning 13-2.

Yes, that was Chris Davis on the mound for the Orioles | NBC Sports Washington
It's been seven years since we've seen Chris Davis on the mound. I think I’ll remember that day more than his second pitching appearance.

Lucas optioned to Norfolk - School of Roch
Josh Lucas was optioned to triple-A Norfolk to make room for Alex Cobb. Lucas had appeared in three games for the Orioles, two scoreless two-inning appearances sandwiched around a disastrous two runs in 1/3 of an inning game.

Jonathan Schoop on his return to Camden Yards, former team and more - Steve Melewski
I missed Schoop quotes. He'll always be one of my favorites.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies. Longtime Oriole Al Bumbry turns 72 years old today! 13 of Bumbry’s 14 big league seasons were with the Orioles and he won the Rookie of the year with them in 1973. He appeared in 124 games for the 1983 World Series winning team.

It’s also the birthday of the ageless wonder Jesse Orosco. Orosco played for nine teams in his remarkable 24 year career as a relief pitcher. His 1252 games is an all-time record for a pitcher. Orosco appeared in 336 games for the Orioles from 1995-1999. In his final year with the Orioles he was 42 years old and he played in four more seasons after that! Today is Orosco’s 62nd birthday.

Ronny Paulino and Ryan Adams, both of whom played in fewer than 30 games each in a single season for the Orioles, also have birthdays today. Paulino is celebrating his 38th birthday and Adams his 32nd.