Sunday Bird Droppings: Still looking for the first Orioles win

Hello, friends.

Two games into the Orioles 2022 season, they remain winless, putting them in a tie for last place with the Boston Red Sox. The Rays, Yankees, and Blue Jays have all started off 2-0. They dropped yesterday’s game to the Rays, 5-3, after “innings eater” Jordan Lyles gave up five runs in five innings. Check out Tyler Young’s recap of the not-so-lovely totals.

The O’s will look to avoid being swept by the Rays in the series finale starting at 1:10 this afternoon. This will hopefully be an interesting to watch with former Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells getting his first crack at a big league start after a successful spring audition. There’s no expectation of Wells going deep into the game even if he pitches well due to the shortened spring giving less time for him to ramp up his innings. If this experiment starts off positively, that’s going to be a nice early good thing for this team.

Two games in, the main thing there is to say about the team as a whole is they have struck out a lot while not scoring many runs. They hit double digit strikeouts in each of the first two games, and have scored a total of four runs. Two games is not a huge sample size, so it’s early to make any pronunciations of doom. It would be nice to see some signs of life from either Austin Hays or Cedric Mullins so two bad early games does not turn into “slumping in April” and then who knows where from there.

The Orioles have not had an 0-3 start to the season since 2007. The losing pitchers in those three games were Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera, and Jaret Wright. Please do not break this streak today, Orioles. Thank you.

Around the blogO’sphere

Hyde on Lyles, Harvey, and Rodriguez (School of Roch)
As you may have heard, Matt Harvey is back on a minor league deal. Manager Brandon Hyde was a fan of how Harvey conducted himself last year, and noted of Harvey’s performance, “We didn’t really allow him (to eat innings) because of the defense we played behind him in a lot of his starts.”

Thrust into new role, Jorge López embracing reliever mentality (The Baltimore Sun)
Perhaps over time he can embrace not walking multiple batters per outing.

Offseason in review: Baltimore Orioles (MLBTR)
I hope that this opening sentence “The Orioles rebuild continues to slouch forward” is not something that can still be said about the team by the end of the season.

Keegan Akin dazzles out of Orioles bullpen (Orioles.com)
“Dazzles” might be the MLB-owned outlet putting things a little more strongly than is necessary, but the fact is that Akin relieved Lyles yesterday and threw three scoreless innings with three strikeouts and only one baserunner allowed, which is not too shabby.

An O’s prospect’s unique approach to help improve his offense (Steve Melewski)
There are a number of Orioles prospects where it almost seems like they can never give a bad quote. Gunnar Henderson is one of them.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The most recent Orioles victory on April 10 was six years ago. The 2016 squad knocked off the Rays, 5-3, to win their fifth straight game starting the season. Manny Machado had a four-hit day and drove in two runs in the victory.

There are a number of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2013 outfielder Chris Dickerson, 1999-2000 reliever Alberto Reyes, 1989-94/96 outfielder Mike Devereaux, 1985-87 outfielder Lee Lacy, and 1959-64 pitcher Wes Stock. Today is Stock’s 88th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: American naval figure Matthew C. Perry (1794), journalist and prize namesake Joseph Pulitzer (1847), UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta (1930), actor Omar Sharif (1932), football coaching/broadcasting legend John Madden (1936), singer-songwriter/actress Mandy Moore (1984), and actress Daisy Ridley (1992).

On this day in history...

In 837, the comet we know today as Halley’s Comet made its closest known passage to the Earth, coming within about 3.2 million miles of the planet. Its most recent arrival in 1986 was about 54 million miles away from Earth at its perihelion.

In 1809, Austrian forces invaded French-controlled Bavaria, sparking what became the War of the Fifth Coalition. Like the previous four coalitions, this one ended with Napoleon victorious; the sixth coalition did eventually get him.

In 1912, RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on its maiden voyage.

In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first published. Although it proved to be a disappointment with only 20,000 copies sold within about six months, it has gone on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on April 10. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!