Sunday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles somehow have a chance for a series win

Hello, friends.

It’s always more fun to start a day when the Orioles won the previous night, isn’t it? Saturday’s Orioles-Red Sox game was, in a lot of ways, stupid, frustrating, and miserable to watch, but the O’s somehow stitched together enough decent pitching and the one clutch hit they needed to pull off an extra innings win. Check out Stacey’s recap of the game for the lovely totals, and don’t forget to vote in the MBP poll.

The Orioles are now 7-14 on the season. They have hit this “win one, lose two” marker four different times, also settling earlier on records of 3-6, 4-8, and 6-12. It’s tough to fully absorb this, as I’ve written before and will probably write again, because in some ways it feels like the pitching has been unsustainably good and is due for a collapse. I am less confident that the offense has been unsustainably bad and is due for a rebound. Maybe they are just bad and are due to get even worse than this 54-108 pace!

One thing that Orioles fans can tell ourselves is that at least this is not the best version of a major league roster that the 2022 Orioles will assemble. Adley Rutschman is coming, even if we don’t know exactly how long his minor league tour will go on. Rutschman went 4-5 with a pair of doubles for High-A Aberdeen last night. I think he will be found in Bowie on Tuesday.

Who else will be here, and when? That’s more of an unknown. I am sure I am not the only one itching for a change to the infield. The signing of Rougned Odor was a head-scratcher when it happened and nothing has been done over the first three or so weeks of the season to make me feel any better about it. He is not hitting, and is repeatedly batting in clutch situations since he’s slotting in at #5. The one area where he is delivering exactly what was expected is his butcher-level defense.

Better pitchers are coming too! Or so we can hope. For today, you will have to be in Gwinnett County, Georgia if you want to watch Grayson Rodriguez pitch, where he will be appearing for the Triple-A Norfolk Tides. Some time this summer, knock on wood, he will be in Baltimore. That will be a fun day, and hopefully so will every fifth game thereafter.

For now, we’re stuck with the Orioles we’ve got, and sometimes they manage to win even when the offense is laughably pathetic and the pitchers pull together what feels like a miracle that can never be duplicated. They will try to pick up a series win against the Red Sox in today’s 1:05 finale. Jordan Lyles and Nick Pivetta are the scheduled starting pitchers. Pivetta has an 8.27 ERA so far this season. I will nonetheless not get my hopes up for the hitters. They are who we thought they were.

Around the blogO’sphere

Orioles set for the second-largest draft bonus pool ever (MLB.com)
The only team that’s ever had a higher bonus pool was the 2015 Astros. I think we’re a little familiar with a guy who was part of the Astros front office at that time.

Kyle Bradish’s debut was solid, but it could mean much more for the Orioles (The Athletic)
Dan Connolly is willing to proclaim the Kyle Bradish debut means the O’s are moving into the next chapter of the rebuild. I hope he’s right.

Spenser Watkins on adding slider to repertoire in 2022 (Press Box)
Last night’s Orioles starter recently talked about his brand new pitch. He’s been using it a lot.

The future finally seems brighter for the Orioles (FiveThirtyEight)
They’re starting to notice us! What I’m really looking forward to is when it’s the present that’s brighter.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2012, Buck Showalter picked up the 1,000th win of his managerial career as the O’s took down the Athletics, 7-1. Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy each homered for the Orioles, and Brian Matusz pitched well for the first time in nearly a year, picking up his first win after going 0-12 with a 10.47 ERA in his previous 14 starts.

There is one current Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 28th to Dillon Tate! In addition, one former Oriole was born today: 1983 pitcher Allan Ramirez, who had a 3.47 ERA in 57 innings for the World Series-winning O’s, but never pitched in MLB again after that.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Waterloo winner Arthur Wellesley (1769), sharpshooter Calamity Jane (1852), novelist Joseph Heller (1923), director John Woo (1946), and musician Tim McGraw (1967).

On this day in history...

In 1707, England and Scotland officially joined together as the Kingdom of Great Britain, pursuant to the Treaty of Union.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, navies of the two nations fought the Battle of Manila Bay. In a seven-hour battle, the seven Spanish ships were all sunk; the Americans lost no ships.

In 1956, Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was made available to the public for the first time.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on May 1. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!