Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where the Destroyer of Canadian Worlds reigns

Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters!

It’s always a good morning when the Orioles defeated an A.L. East opponent the night before. After a disappointing start to their road trip in Boston and Tampa Bay, the Orioles went into Toronto and put on an impressive display en route to a 7-3 win. Sure, it would have been nice if Kyle Bradish could have gone deeper into the game, but a win is a win.

Ryan Mountcastle continued his onslaught against Blue Jays pitching last night, walking twice and hitting a two-run home run. The home run prompted MASN broadcaster Kevin Brown to declare him, “Ryan Mountcastle, Destroyer of Canadian Worlds,” which is pretty intense and awesome. It’s so nice to have a guy like this on our favorite team for once, rather than the other way around.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what else the Destroyer can do in the next two games.

Should we do a little a.m. scoreboard watching? It wasn’t pretty aside from the Blue Jays loss.

The O’s victory against the Jays pulls them to within 1.5 games of second place in the East, however the currently terrible New York Yankees couldn’t beat the Rays last night. The Rays nabbed a 4-0 win to pull even with the Blue Jays in the division and in the wild card race.

Over on the west coast, the Mariners continued to enjoy their cushy schedule with a 6-2 win over the Angels. With the win they pull a half-game ahead of Blue Jays and Rays to take over the top wild card spot.

The teams just behind the Orioles in the wild card race, the Twins and the White Sox, both won to keep pace at just ¹⁄₂ game behind the Orioles. The third wild card has made many more teams competitive, that’s for sure. The Orioles need to just keep winning.

The last time the Orioles were competitive, I would sing in my head like Dory from Finding Nemo: “Just keep winning, just keep winning.” Time to get that mantra going again.

Of course, it won’t be easy tonight with Alek Manoah taking the mound for Toronto. He is their best starter and won’t be easy to beat. The Orioles knocked him around for eight hits in five innings last week and scored three runs, which was pretty good. It wasn’t enough to win, but maybe today they can break through.

♫ Just keep winning, just keep winning ♫

Links

Sources say the Angelos family's lawsuit increases the chances of the Orioles selling, but John wants to keep the majority in the Angelos family's hands. - Business News
The Angelos family saga continues. These sources say that John Angelos wants to sell some of his family's share in the Orioles to but still retain the majority.

Will Orioles call up Gunnar Henderson during playoff push? GM says top prospect is 'on the radar screen' - CBSSports.com
I would really like it if they would!

Shorebirds Add 10 Members of Orioles 2022 Draft Class - OurSports Central
The draft picks have arrived! The Shorebirds welcome 10 members of the 2022 draft class including Dylan Beavers, Max Wagner, and Jud Fabian.

Holt has "no doubt" that Hall's stuff will play in the majors - MASN Sports
On one hand, this is good to hear. But on the other hands, imagine Chris Holt said something like "He's terrible. His stuff will never play in the majors."

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have three Orioles birthday buddies. Brett Barberie (55) appeared in 90 games for the 1995 Orioles as a second baseman. It’s also the birthday of Gene Brabender (b. 1941, d. 1996), who spent three years with the Orioles from 1966-68; and Gene Woodling (b. 1922, d. 2001) whose 17-year career saw him with the Orioles in 1955 and 1958-60. He made the All Star game in 1959!

You don’t see a lot of men named Gene these days. That’s my grandfather’s name, he’s in the same generation as Genes Brabender and Woodling.

On this day in 1969, Boog Powell hit an inside-the-park home run! Man, I would have loved to see that. The homer came in the ninth inning in a 15-3 victory over the Seattle Pilots.

In 1996, the Orioles came back from a 3-0 deficit to score 14 runs over the final three innings to beat the A’s 14-3 in game one of a doubleheader. Rafael Palmeiro drove in six runs. They also won the second game.

In 1998, Eric Davis went 0-for-3 against Cleveland to snap his hitting streak at 30 games.

Finally, I leave you with a video from the coach of some other team that also plays in Baltimore: