Tuesday Bird Droppings: Grayson Rodriguez makes his Camden Yards debut tonight

Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters. We have a lot to talk about.

First, the Orioles won last night! That’s always fun. The Oakland A’s are in town for a four-game series and the Orioles got the win in a game that featured home runs from Ryan Mountcastle, Adley Rutschman, and Austin Hays. Kyle Gibson made it through 6.1 innings despite a shaky start, the bullpen was solid, and the Orioles won 5-1. Check out Paul Folkemer’s recap for the details, and don’t forget to vote in the MBP poll.

Now, speaking of home runs. The Orioles became internet sensations after the Mountcastle home run when they debuted their new celebration. The broadcast crew was diplomatically calling it a home run funnel on air, but on Twitter it was quickly labeled a dong bong. After the game, Gibson called it a homer hose and “not a dong bong.” Call if you what you want, if you went to parties in college you probably saw one at least once.

The reactions from fans were mixed on if it is a fun new celebration or if it is just trying a little too hard. Some folks wondered if MLB would deem it inappropriate. Some people, like myself and broadcaster Kevin Brown, couldn’t help but speculate on how clean that hose really is with all those brO’s sucking on it. Let’s hope they value sanitization.

In his postgame interview, Austin Hays informed us that the homer hose was the brainchild of Cole Irvin and Keegan Akin, who Hays referred to as the team plumbers. They are apparently quite handy around the clubhouse! They made the funnel and had it ready for their teammates to use when the homers started flowing.

As long as the Orioles keep winning and keep hitting home runs, I suspect the dong bong will grow on us.

And finally, tonight is Grayson night! Grayson Rodriguez will be making his Camden Yards debut tonight at 6:35. After his solid start in Texas last week I can’t wait to see what he can do. Is anyone going to the game? You’ll get a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. In an earlier draft of this story, I wrote, “Don’t forget your gas cans!” But then the Orioles poured cold water on that tradition.

The shirt is the same style as the Welcome to the Show shirts that were distributed last year after Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson made their debuts, but it’s pretty cool that Grayson’s will be given out at his actual home debut.

Links

Sending Kyle Stowers down means the Orioles may now have a problem - The Baltimore Banner
Jon Meoli wonders what happens when the prospects are all too good for Triple-A but not able to break through in the majors. The Tides are loaded and there are more players on their way from lower levels.

Orioles pitcher Cionel Pérez opted for a unique seat on flight home: The cockpit. - The Baltimore Banner
Cionel is the little kid who gets to visit the cockpit and get plastic pilot wings.

Mullins trying to find rhythm; Bradish nearing rehab start; Orioles stealing away - BaltimoreBaseball.com
It seems like the Kyle Bradish injury isn't as bad as I expected. I thought as much when he ran down the orange carpet on Friday. What's gonna happen to the rotation? If it were me I'd send someone (Kremer? Irvin?) to the bullpen and say bye bye Austin Voth.

New Oriole Danny Coulombe settles in nicely in 'pen, plus other O's notes - Blog
I'm glad that Coulombe is pitching well so far but the fact that he's been one of the most successful guys out of the bullpen really just gives me heartburn.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies who I have mostly never heard of. The youngest of these is Alejandro De Aza, who is 39 years old today. De Aza was traded for down the stretch in 2014 and was pretty good! 2015 was less kind and he was traded to the Red Sox for Joe “The Gunk” Gunkel.

Also born on this day are Steve Scarsone (57), who appeared in 11 games for the 1992 Orioles; Willie Royster (b. 1954, d. 2015), whose entire major league career took place over four games in 1981; and Art Quirk (b. 1937, d. 2014), who saw action with Orioles in seven games in 1962.

On this day in 1961, the Los Angeles Angels played in their first game ever, and they beat the Orioles 7-2. They changed their name to the California Angels in 1965, the first of four different city changes in their name over the years.

In 2002, the Orioles defeated the Devil Rays by a score of 15-6. They scored 12 times in the 16-batter sixth inning.