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Saturday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Blue Jays, 3:07pm ET.

Despite losing in game 1, the Orioles still have chance Saturday to make up ground in the AL Wild Card race.

By John Beers
/ new
MLB: Baltimore Orioles at Houston Astros
Bradish will look to dominate the Jays the same way he’s been dominating every other team lately,
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

There was plenty of bad news that came out of Friday’s loss to the Blue Jays. The offense struggled again, and the Orioles continued to falter at opportunities to claw their way back into the Wild Card race. The good news, however, was that the Tampa Bay Rays—the O’s new competitor for the last AL Wild Card slot—also lost on Friday. This means the Orioles are no worse off heading into Saturday than they were when this series against Toronto started.

Right now, the Rays are on a 90-win pace, meaning Baltimore will have to go 15-4 over their remaining 19 games to stand a decent chance of chasing down the Rays—or the Mariners, or the Blue Jays. While that doesn't seem exceedingly likely, getting a win over Toronto today would certainly help.

The chances today are buoyed by the fact that Kyle Bradish gets the ball for the O’s. Bradish has been the hot hand in the Orioles' starting rotation over the last three weeks, as Baltimore is 3-1 in Bradish’s fourth start with the rookie posting a 1.44 ERA. Yes, that one loss came against the Jays and Bradish didn’t make it to the fourth inning in that game. Hopefully, the memory of that loss provides Bradish with plenty of motivation to come out hot against Toronto today.

Offensively, the Orioles will likely need big performances from their three rookies if they are to get out ahead of Jose Berrios and the Jays. While the righty from Puerto Rico has struggled for most of the 2022 season, Berrios has put up much better numbers against Baltimore. However, rookies Adley Rutschman, Kyle Stowers and GUNNAR HENDERSON are a combined 7-15 off Berrios. With all three in the lineup today, they could provide a spark for an Orioles offense that, otherwise, has only hit Berrios at a .174 clip.

Orioles Lineup

  1. Cedric Mullins (L) CF
  2. Adley Rutschman (S) C
  3. Anthony Santander (S) RF
  4. Ryan Mountcastle (R) 1B
  5. GUNNAR HENDERSON (L) SS
  6. Terrin Vavra (L) 2B
  7. Rougned Odor (L) DH
  8. Ramon Urias (R) 3B
  9. Kyle Stowers (L) LF

Blue Jays Lineup

  1. George Springer (R) CF
  2. Vlad Guerrero Jr. (R) 1B
  3. Bo Bichette (R) SS
  4. Matt Chapman (R) 3B
  5. Teoscar Hernandez (R) RF
  6. Raimel Tapia (L) LF
  7. Danny Jansen (R) C
  8. Cavan Biggio (L) 1B
  9. Santiago Espinal (R) 2B

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