Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles are New York-bound

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

Don’t look now, but it’s September and the Orioles are only a game and a half out of a postseason spot. We’re right in the thick of it, people! Get excited!

OK, I’ll grant you, it’s hard to get too excited about anything in this bizarre blink of a baseball season, especially when the world around us is still in such chaos. But winning three games in a row while led by promising, productive rookies has O’s fans intrigued about where the team could go from here.

Where they’re literally going from here is New York, their only visit to the Big Apple this year. Tonight the Birds begin a two-game stop at Citi Field against the Mets followed by four at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks are currently in the midst of an embarrassing collapse, losing their fourth game in a row last night by coughing up 10 runs in the sixth inning to the Blue Jays. Once the best team in the AL, the Yankees are now clinging desperately to the eighth and final playoff spot, with the O’s, Tigers, and Mariners all within two games of them. The Orioles are the only one of those three that will get to play any head-to-head games against the Yanks, so they have the chance to control their own destiny.

If the Orioles can make some noise against the Yankees on this trip, then who knows? The Birds could be in wild card position when they return home Monday for their final homestand of the year.

No matter how the Orioles’ season turns out, kudos to them for providing us with some much-needed entertainment during turbulent times — and for being a much more watchable product than many had anticipated.

Links

Connolly: Who’d want to — or be allowed to — break Cal Ripken’s streak anyway? – The Athletic
The answers: nobody and nobody. But if you have any doubt, Dan Connolly takes a deeper dive into these questions to prove just how unreachable Cal’s streak is.

Alberto brings uplifting vibe on and off field - Orioles.com
It’s hard to believe that a year and a half ago Hanser Alberto was just some random utility infielder who'd been waived four times in one offseason. Now he’s an essential cog, on and off the field, for the spunky Orioles.

When the call came, O’s prospects were ready - Steve Melewski
The three big-name rookies who have debuted for the Orioles so far this year have been crushing it. Whatever’s in the water at the Bowie alternate site, it’s working.

Answers to your Orioles questions - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Rich Dubroff answers questions from readers, most of which are focused on the up-and-coming prospects in the Birds’ system. I told you O’s fans are excited about the future.

Because You Asked - Risk Addiction - School of Roch
Roch Kubatko also answers some questions, albeit ones he made up. FYI, his favorite of the new 2020 MLB rules is the seven-inning doubleheaders. I agree with him on that one, although I don’t think it has much chance of sticking around past this season.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have five O’s birthday buddies, three of whom are still with us: 2014 catcher Nick Hundley (37) and a couple of mid-1980s Orioles, catcher Al Pardo (58) and reliever Don Aase (66). Also born on this day were late left-hander Lou Sleater (b. 1926, d. 2013), a Towson University and College Park alum who pitched six games for the 1958 Orioles; and late righty George Werley (b. 1938, d. 2013), who made just one major league appearance, on Sept. 29, 1956 at age 18.

On this date in 2012, in a 5-4 O’s win over the Yankees, CC Sabathia broke Nick Markakis’ thumb with a pitch, ending Markakis’ season and denying him the chance to play in the postseason for the first time. Many in Birdland still haven’t forgiven the now-retired Sabathia for the transgression. The game ended on a blatantly blown call by the umpire that allowed the O’s to escape a bases-loaded jam, as the baseball gods gave the Yankees their deserved comeuppance for the night.

And on this day in 2015, the Orioles notched another win over the Yankees when Chris Davis hit a tiebreaking home run in the top of the ninth, his 41st of the year, and his seventh go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later since the start of 2014. Clutch homers like that helped raise the groundswell among Orioles fans to re-sign Davis as a free agent after the season. Oh, how young and naive we were.