Wednesday Bird Droppings: Things are not going well for the Orioles

Good morning Birdland,

It has now been over a week since the Orioles last won a baseball game. June started so well. They were 5-1 at one point. Now they are 5-7 on the month, and last night’s loss to Cleveland they have now dropped 17 straight games on the road. Almost an unimaginably bad run.

This series in Cleveland has been particularly bad. The team’s defensive showing on Monday was poor, but Tuesday night may have been even worse. A pair of errors from Stevie Wilkerson, and then one each for Maikel Franco and Cedric Mullins. On top of that, Matt Harvey was bad again, although the poor glove-work makes a subpar start somewhat understandable.

Unfortunately, there are still two games to go in this set. It’s enough time to turn things around, or possibly make them even worse. Keegan Akin will hope for the former as he looks to solidify his spot in the rotation tonight.

Links & Notes

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues | Baseball Reference
Baseball Reference is one of the most important resources to the work we do here at Camden Chat, and we aren’t alone in that regard among the baseball blogging world. They made a huge announcement this week that they have expanded their coverage of the Negro Leagues, and those leagues will now we treated the same as the National and American Leagues. This is a fantastic development, and we look forward to learning more about those players and those leagues, which were always major league quality.

A Love Story, by Adam Jones | Baseball Reference
Related to the link above, former Oriole great Adam Jones penned an essay about his love of baseball and how he learned about the Negro Leagues. It’s great stuff.

Rodriguez faces Akron in third Double-A start (updated) | Steve Melewski
Sounds like it was a fun night in Bowie, gas cans and all. Grayson Rodriguez put up some big velocities on the scoreboard and struck out six Akron hitters over 4.2 innings.

Orioles’ Brandon Hyde calls MLB’s suspensions for foreign substance violations a major deterrent: ‘It’s a stiff penalty’ | The Baltimore Sun
MLB’s decisions to penalize all substances across the board is already getting panned by big leaguers online. In general it seems the combination of rosin and sunscreen is OK’ed by hitters while the more extreme concoctions are not. MLB won’t be differentiating. Rosin by itself is fine. Anything additional will lead to a suspension.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Joe Saunders turns 40 today. The left-handed pitcher had two quick stints with the Orioles: seven games in 2012 and six appearances in 2014. He will be remembered most fondly in Birdland for his performance in the wild card game against the Rangers in 2012, where he out-pitched Yu Darvish in the first Orioles playoff game since 1997.
• Chris Gomez is 50 years old. The utility man spent 16 seasons in the big leagues, including a three-year stretch with the O’s from 2005 through 2007. He had a .742 OPS over 217 games in Baltimore.
• The late Ernie Johnson (b. 1924, d. 2011) was also born on this day. The right-handed pitcher made his way into 31 games with the 1959 Orioles to close out his nine-season career.

Orioles history

1887 - A massive brawl commences after Browns outfielder Curt Welch runs over Orioles second baseman Bill Greenwood in the 9th inning of an 8-8 game. The Baltimore crowd pours onto the field, many demanding Welch be arrested. The mob prevents Welch from leaving town, and he is forced to attend a court hearing the next day, where Greenwood pleads in his favor. No criminal charges are filed.

1986 - The Orioles trade 32-year-old pitcher Dennis Martinez to the Montreal Expos for two players to be named later. Martinez would spend the next 7.5 seasons in Montreal, going to three All-Star Games, leading the league in ERA in 1991, and even garnering some Cy Young and MVP buzz.

2015 - The O’s set a team record by hitting eight home runs in a 19-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Manny Machado and Chris Parmelee both go deep twice. Ryan Flaherty, Jimmy Paredes, David Lough, and Chris Davis hit the other long balls.