Thursday Bird Droppings: The Orioles try to avoid a seventh straight loss

Hello, friends.

What a glum time it is to be an Orioles fan, at least if we are only limited to considering the MLB-level team. The Orioles were losers again on Wednesday night, dropping an extremely stupid game to the Yankees, 3-2, for their sixth straight loss. Check out my recap of the game for the not-so-lovely totals. It was so dumb!

Does it make you feel any better that, as the eagle-eyed Orioles prospect watchers, including The Sun’s Nathan Ruiz, observed last night, all of Adley Rutschman, GUNNAR HENDERSON, and Colton Cowser hit home runs in the minors within the span of about ten minutes last night?

I can’t say that this news doesn’t make me feel better at all, but it still doesn’t make me feel good, either. I want the awesome things to be happening at the big league level for my favorite baseball team, a team that has never won a World Series in my lifetime. Last night’s loss was fueled in part by a bad play made by catcher Anthony Bemboom. What if Rutschman was just up here right now? Would his presence have made the difference? It’s hard to tell myself that it would not. Instead, the team is what it is. It’s no fun.

For now, last night wasn’t Rutschmas and there’s no reason to believe that today is going to be, either. The idea of the Orioles pulling off a surprise, morning-of Rutschman call-up for a 12:35 weekday game is not worth indulging for even a moment.

Perhaps if you still want to get your hopes up for potentially nothing, you can still tell yourself that we might get a post-game announcement, this afternoon, that Rutschman is coming tomorrow. But maybe not even this will occur. Maybe they will do something that seems crazy to me and have Rutschman debut on the road. Maybe they will wait until the next homestand after this, either the first game or the Friday game. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m ready, and I think Rutschman’s ready too.

If the Orioles are going to avoid being beaten for the seventh straight game, they’re probably going to need a good start from Baltimore’s own Bruce Zimmermann in this one, and they’re probably going to need a good effort from their offense against Jordan Montgomery, too. I have higher hopes for one of these things than the other.

Around the blogO’sphere

‘Nobody likes it’: Trey Mancini responds after Aaron Judge, Yankees take aim at Camden Yards left field wall (The Baltimore Sun)
If you missed it following Monday night’s game, Aaron Judge and Yankees manager Aaron Boone whined about the new left field wall. Judge had a home run taken away by the new wall. My opinion is that anyone who plays 81 home games in Yankee Stadium should shut up about other stadiums dimensions.

Means “way ahead of schedule” after elbow surgery (School of Roch)
John Means is back with the Orioles this week doing the early stages of his Tommy John rehab. It’s nice to see him feeling positive at this point, but of course there’s a long way to go no matter what.

Orioles trade Fry to Arizona (Baltimore Baseball)
Paul Fry, who had been designated for assignment by the Orioles, was traded rather than released. The Orioles received 19-year-old pitcher Luis Osorio, who struck out 51 batters in 41.2 innings last year, though nearly every other number on his stat line does not look so good.

Call-ups, send-downs, and Harvey suspension (The Athletic)
Dan Connolly weighed in on some recent small Orioles developments, asking a question that I also wondered when the Orioles signed this player to a minor league deal following the winter’s revelations: Is Matt Harvey worth the trouble? Last year’s performance does not suggest the answer is yes.

Grayson Rodriguez looked MLB ready in Charlotte outing (Steve Melewski)
Articles like this one are fueling some people to believe that the Orioles should (or perhaps even will) call up Rodriguez at the same time they call up Adley Rutschman. I feel it is quite unlikely, but it is a nice thing to dream about.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The most recent Orioles victory on this date came five years ago. The 2017 team beat the Blue Jays, 5-3, on an extra innings walk-off home run by Welington Castillo. Mark Trumbo and Castillo each had three hits for the O’s in the game. The win improved their record to 24-16. It’s hard to believe now that team was ever that good.

There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1998 three-game pitcher Chris Fussell, 1986-88 outfielder Ken Gerhart, 1985 infielder Fritzie Connally, and 1982-85 outfielder Disco Dan Ford.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Baltimore philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795), writer/director Nora Ephron (1941), basketballer Kevin Garnett (1976), and comedian Michael Che (1983).

On this day in history...

In 1536, Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, was executed by beheading after having been found guilty of adultery and treason.

In 1643, the French defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Rocroi during the Thirty Years’ War. The war had another five years still to go, but the French victory ended more than a century of Spanish dominance in land battles in Europe.

In 1848, Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This ended the Mexican-American War with Mexico ceding parts of seven present-day states, including all of California, to the United States of America for a sale price of $15 million.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr.’s now-famous Letter from Birmingham Jail was published by the New York Post Sunday Magazine.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on May 19. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!