Wednesday Bird Droppings: All four O’s reps appear in All-Star Game

Good morning, Birdland!

All four of the Orioles representatives go into last night’s All-Star Game. The results were mixed.

Yennier Cano and Austin Hays had nice nights! Cano struck out two and was an errant Vladimir Guerrero Jr. toss from a perfect inning. Hays started in center field and recorded a single.

Things were less enjoyable for Adley Rutschman and Félix Bautista. Rutschman got just one at-bat and lined out to right field. Bautista was saddled with the loss as he had one of those outings where he lacked a consistent release point and hung a splitter in the middle of the plate to Rockies catcher Elias Díaz.

That’s baseball! Some good, some bad, but a lot of fun regardless. Hopefully all four of them get back to another Midsummer Classic later in their careers and improve on what they did at the 2023 edition.

There’s two more days left of the All-Star break. Today and Thursday are notoriously slow days in the world of sports with baseball going silent. There are the ESPYs if you’re into that, as well as some NBA Summer League, MLS, WNBA, and Wimbledon. I’m sure you will find something to do, but there’s no Orioles baseball until Friday, when they open a homestand against the surging Marlins.

Links

AL loss does little to damper Orioles’ first All-Star experience: ‘We get to share it together’ | The Baltimore Sun
It was neat to see so many O’s in this game together. This should become an annual occurrence for the next few years, at least, although the names invited could change from season to season.

Because You Asked - The Marsupials | Roch Kubatko
Q&A Time with the O’s beat reporter. He addresses the question of Heston Kjerstad making an MLB debut this season. It’s wild how quickly he has ascended, and it would be a great story. But if the Orioles are going to make a trade, they have to send someone out. Not saying it has to be Kjerstad, but also not NOT saying that.

The Road to The Show™: Orioles’ Kjerstad | MiLB.com
Kjerstad has played a bunch of first base this year. Perhaps that is the avenue by which he makes it to Baltimore if Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan Mountcastle fade down the stretch. But man, that is going to be a lot of rookies on a competitive team.

The Orioles sent a large contingent to the All-Star Game. When might it come to them? | The Baltimore Sun
It does feel like 2025 could be a prime year for the O’s to slide in, just need that new stadium agreement in place with the state. It would be awesome to host in the middle of what should be a golden era of baseball for the franchise.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

• Jack Harshman (b. 1927, d. 2013) is the only former Oriole born on this day. Although he played some first base in his career, the southpaw was predominantly a pitcher. He had a 3.55 ERA over 283.2 innings with the Orioles in 1958 and ‘59.

This day in O’s history

1969 - O’s pitcher Mike Cuellar throws a complete game three-hit shutout to beat the Red Sox 4-0. Tony Conigliaro is responsible for all three hits, two singles and a double.

1970 - The Tigers lay down a record-tying three sacrifice bunts in the second inning of a 7-3 win over the Orioles.

2022 - The upstart O’s win their ninth straight game to move tho .500 on the season. Now all five AL East teams are at .500 or above.