Wednesday Bird Droppings: The Orioles have flipped the script this week

Good morning Birdland,

Leave it to the Orioles to be a complete disaster for over two months only to pull it all together in time to take a road series from the best team in the American League. That’s what they have done this week, and it has been great! Paul recapped the 13-3 beatdown the O’s gave the ‘Stros on Tuesday as they clinched the series and now have a shot at a sweep tonight.

What Cedric Mullins is doing continues to be just astounding. He had four more hits last night, including a home run to begin the game. Anthony Santander, Ramon Urías, and Austin Wynns also left the park with bombs of their own, a refreshing power surge for a team that has not been as homer happy in recent years.

The way that Urías is able to replace Freddy Galvis will be something worth monitoring. Urías has a track record of being a pretty good hitter during his climb to the bigs, and things have seemed to go quite well for him at the plate since joining the Orioles organization. There is less certainty about the glove, and it remains to be seen if he can handle a full-time role as a big league shortstop, even in a stopgap capacity.

But that’s all for the future versions of ourselves to analyze. For now, it was just a lot of fun to watch the Orioles flip the script on another team, especially one as good as this Astros bunch. Although it would be cool if we could speed these games up a little bit. Nearly another four-hour game last night. That’s not ideal for my sleep schedule.

Links & Notes

Orioles’ Trey Mancini plans to use Home Run Derby to ‘show people that there’s life after a cancer diagnosis’ | The Baltimore Sun
It might actually be impossible to be more likable than Trey Mancini manages to be. It’s cool that he is a talented baseball player. It is eminently more cool that he is aiming to be an advocate for those that don’t have the type of platform that he has earned.

Explainer on what Orioles reliever had rubbed on him before pitching against Astros | Houston Chronicle
In case you missed this (hopefully you did), some internet sleuths thought they had caught Hunter Harvey being loaded up with some sort of mystery concoction in the armpit area of his throwing arm prior to his appearance in Monday night’s game in Houston. Turns out it was Icy Hot (or something similar), which is legal to have, and no punishment will be forthcoming. It was a pretty laughable accusation in the first place given the placement of the Icy Hot and the brazenness with which it was applied, but nice to see that talk get shut down.

Mullins builds case for ASG with 4-hit night | Orioles.com
Oh hey, did you hear that Cedric Mullins has a chance to start the All-Star Game for the American League in a couple of weeks? You haven’t? Well, it’s true, and he really deserves it. Voting ends at 1:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 1. So, you should go over and vote for him!

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday! It looks like there are no current or former Oriole players that share this day with you, according to Baseball Reference.

Some non-O’s that were born on this day include longtime Angels outfielder Garret Anderson (b. 1972), the first South Korea-born player in MLB history Chan Ho Park (b. 1973), ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte (b. 1985), and current Nationals speedster Trea Turner (b. 1993).

Orioles history

1997 - Orioles hurler Mike Mussina wins his 100th career decision as the O’s top the Phillies 8-1.

2009 - The Orioles come back beat to the Red Sox 11-10 after trailing 10-1 in the seventh inning. This marks the biggest comeback in franchise history.

2012 - Slugger Jim Thome is traded from the Phillies to the Orioles in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers, Kyle Simon and Gabriel Lino.