Friday Bird Droppings: Still bummed about the Grayson Rodriguez injury news

Hello, friends.

It’s a gloomy day in Birdland, and it would be so even if the Orioles hadn’t lost a kind of stupid game in extra innings against the Mariners last night, sealing a kind of stupid series loss at home to a fellow bad team that they should have been able to beat at home. No, the outcome of the game almost doesn’t even matter, because the big bummer is the news you’ve probably already heard: Grayson Rodriguez has a lat strain and is out for an undetermined amount of time.

An injury to Rodriguez is one of the only things that could have really taken the wind out of the sails around here. Hope that things will get better soon is all that we’ve got. Adding a dominant starting pitcher is an easy way to believe there will be signs of improvement. Now, at least with Rodriguez, that’s on hold. He had left his Wednesday outing in the sixth inning with an apparent injury and the injury has turned out to be the lat strain.

This sucks! Abruptly there is not as much to look forward to with the next month-plus of 2022 Orioles baseball. Maybe the Orioles were never going to have Rodriguez debut so soon anyway, but it sure seemed like he had been pitching so well in Triple-A that he was going to force their hand.

Now what? D.L. Hall is getting built up slowly and isn’t dominating yet. The only other guy making some waves at Norfolk now is Kyle Stowers, and he’s an outfielder, where it seems like the Orioles are currently OK, barring injury or trade. Perhaps Rodriguez’s strain won’t turn out to be too severe, and we can still hope to see him by August. But until we get some more information it’s going to be hard for me to not feel like it could end up worse than that.

In any case, Rodriguez was never going to be around for this weekend’s coming series against the Cleveland Guardians. The rechristened franchise is rocking a 22-24 record heading into their first series against the Orioles. The O’s need to take care of business at home against these guys. We’ll start to see if they’re up to the task in the 7:05 series opener tonight. Baltimore’s own Bruce Zimmermann is set to pitch for the O’s, as the Guardians send out their second-best starting pitcher, Shane Bieber (3.19 ERA). That’s a tough matchup for poorly-designed Adley Rutschman t-shirt giveaway/Friday Fireworks night.

Around the blogO’sphere

‘Get back to what got you here’: How a new mindset helped Orioles prospect GUNNAR HENDERSON break out at the plate (The Baltimore Sun)
GUNNAR added another two hits, including his eighth home run of the season, as Bowie overcame a 9-2 deficit last night. His OPS is 1.037. What a dude. (Bowie still lost the game even after GUNNAR’s homer gave them an 11-9 lead in the 8th inning.)

Iconic sign at Camden Yards is on its way out, according to sources (The Athletic)
Dan Connolly reports that THE SUN light display on the scoreboard, with the lights that flash ‘H’ for a hit and ‘E’ for an error, is going to be replaced in the not too distant future.

A trek to Baltimore, a dream deferred, and the hidden costs of ALS (Orioles.com)
The Orioles, along with the rest of the league, held Lou Gehrig Day yesterday to raise awareness for ALS.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The most recent Orioles victory on this date was in 2016. Unlike some other dates I’ve done this exercise recently, that’s because the Orioles haven’t played on June 3 since 2017. The 2016 team beat the Yankees, 6-5, after overcoming a 5-2 deficit with a three-run sixth before adding the go-ahead run in the seventh. Mark Trumbo and Hyun-Soo Kim each had three hits as the O’s improved to 31-22 and moved into a tie for first place in the AL East.

One current Oriole has a birthday today. Happy 28th to Ramón Urías! May he celebrate with several dingers. There are also a number of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2021 one-gamer Brandon Waddell, 2003-04 catcher Robert Machado, 2002 one-game catcher Izzy Molina, 1997 infielder Aaron Ledesma, and 1960-63 first baseman Jim Gentile. Today is Gentile’s 88th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you as well! Along with those current and former Orioles, your birthday buddies for today include: Yakety Sax creator Boots Randolph (1927), author Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930), First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden (1951), and tennis star Rafael Nadal (1986).

On this day in history...

In 1098, soldiers from the First Crusade captured the city of Antioch - today, Antakya, Turkey - after a five-month siege.

In 1839, a Qing dynasty official ordered the destruction of 1.2 million kilograms of opium that had been taken from British merchants. This led to the Anglo-Chinese War, or the First Opium War, between Britain and China.

In 1943, the five-day Zoot Suit Riots began in Los Angeles, California, with white Navy and Marine personnel attacking local Latino teenagers.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on June 3. Have a safe Friday. Go O’s!