Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where maybe the Orioles will show up to play today

Hello, friends.

Watching last night's Orioles game was miserable enough. Hopefully you didn't have to watch it. If you haven't read Stacey's recap of the not-so-lovely totals, you can give it a look-see here.

It wasn't very good news elsewhere in the wild card hunt either, as the Blue Jays beat the Mariners, meaning they are once again tied with the O's for the home wild card spot, and holding the tiebreaker over the Orioles. The Astros, a bit more distant in the wild card chase, also won. The Orioles gotta win and that's that. Maybe they'll even find a way to do it tonight.

Believe it or not, the Orioles do actually have a magic number for clinching a spot in the postseason right now. It's eleven, for combined Orioles wins or Tigers losses at the moment. A magic number of eleven with twelve games left to play is a very tenuous magic number indeed, and the Tigers get to play the pathetic Twins for the next three games. If the Orioles fart away this Red Sox series, they're going to be having some problems.

And of course, if they end up as the second wild card team, what do they get? One game on the road in Toronto, where they're terrible.

Around the blogO'sphere

Mookie Betts owns the Orioles – HardballTalk
OK, NBC, rub it in, why don't you.

David Ortiz final series at Baltimore Orioles as Boston Red Sox visit - Stats & Info- ESPN
Don't read this before eating your breakfast if you don't want to lose your appetite. Don't read it after eating your breakfast if you don't want to vomit.

Orioles notes: Top starters inadvertently lined up for series with Red Sox - Baltimore Sun
Not that it did them a whole heck of a lot of good on Monday night, though that had more to do with Sox starter Rick Porcello than anything else.

Orioles' Dylan Bundy doesn't feel fatigued | orioles.com
The sub-headline to go along with this article is, "Right-hander has 6.62 ERA over his past seven starts," so, yeah, it's great that he says he doesn't feel fatigued, but is this whole exercise really helping the Orioles right now?

You've seen it all in 2016: Ubaldo's getting the ball Wednesday in huge series - BaltimoreBaseball.com
In a very peculiar twist on the 2016 season, you might almost be tempted to feel a little confident about Ubaldo Jimenez getting the ball on Wednesday. He's done well since rejoining the rotation, and certainly he seems to be a better choice than Yovani Gallardo.

Chris Davis: "We know how big this series is" - Steve Melewski
It's big, you guys!

Hunter warns against placing more emphasis on series (O's down 5-2) - School of Roch
Do you think this counts as dissension in the clubhouse? Sorry, Tommy, it really is a big series.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer labels beat writer Paul Hoynes a "coward" - Let's Go Tribe
This article has nothing at all to do with the Orioles, but it's totally crazy and I just found myself imagining what would have to happen for an Orioles player to take a public shot at a beat writer. I do kind of remember something back in 2006 where a non-sports writer at The Sun took a random shot about Bruce Chen sucking in a general column and players were said to be upset about it. I, personally, was upset about Chen's 6.92 ERA that season.

Hey, that was a lot of links today.

Birthdays and anniversaries

On this day in 1958, knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm tossed a no-hitter against the Yankees, the first no-hitter in Orioles franchise history. Gus Triandos, a.k.a. Herc's favorite baseball player, hit a home run to score the only run in the 1-0 contest. This was the last time the Yankees were no-hit in the 20th century.

In 1998, Cal Ripken Jr. ended the Streak by taking a day off after 2,632 consecutive games played. And speaking of O's shortstops, in 2002, Mike Bordick set an MLB record with his 102nd game in a row without an error at shortstop.

There are three former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 2014 Team Steve member - and Maryland's own - Steve Lombardozzi, 1990 outfielder Dave Gallagher, and 1972 bullpen guy Roric Harrison, who is turning 70 years old today.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Along with those former Orioles, your birthday buddies for today include: Civil War general and Gettysburg casualty John Reynolds (1820), The Jungle author Upton Sinclair (1878), actress Sophia Loren (1934), noteworthy author and non-author George R. R. Martin (1948), professional wrestling's Arn Anderson (1958), and American Idol Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips (1990), who really was named Phillip Phillips by his parents - and is in fact the Jr. to Phillip Phillips Sr.

On this day in history...

In 1378, Cardinal Robert of Geneva, also known to history as "The Butcher of Cesena," was elected as pope in Avignon despite there already being a pope. Robert took the name Pope Clement VII. This marked the beginning of a 39 year papal schism.

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda in southwestern Spain on an expedition to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan did not survive the journey, but his expedition did eventually return three years after it set out, having gone around the world.

In 1870, Italians took control of Rome, thus completing the unification of Italy and, in the process, ending the temporal powers that had been afforded to the papacy.

In 1962, James Meredith, seeking to become the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi, was temporarily barred from entering the campus. Meredith's enrollment sparked a riot from pro-segregation whites. It took an armed federal presence for Meredith to actually begin attending class over a week later.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on September 20 - or at least, until something happens later. Have a safe Tuesday. Go Orioles!