Hello, friends.
It remains tough to know just what to say about these Orioles. Often over the course of this season, this has been bad, because the depth of their struggle almost defies explanation. Very nearly as often, this has been good, because you think you know what they are based on all of the bad games and then they remind you that, actually, despite of all the problems they have had, they can play some good games and beat some good teams. Sometimes, they even do this for multiple games in a row.
The Orioles pulled together another good win last night. Or maybe they didn’t pull together a good win, and in fact they stole a game they should have lost – something that they also could really stand to do more often. Either way, after blowing a one-run lead in the ninth inning, rather than just rolling over and dying in the tenth inning, they scored their zombie runner in the very first at-bat to re-take the lead and then out-of-nowhere Oriole Cam Sanders collected another save to finish off a 4-3 win over the Rays. Sure, why not? Check out Stacey’s recap of the game for more of the lovely totals.
For a short time on Saturday night, after some games had finished but not others, there was a five-way tie for the third wild card spot in the American League. The Orioles were right there as one of those five teams. By the time I sat down to write up this article, this was down to a four-way tie because the Twins lost. These wild card contenders just keep losing! That’s why the Orioles are still in the race, no matter how bad some people think they are and no matter how bad they prove themselves to be at times.
Depending on what happened as Texas finished its game out in Sacramento after I was doing this writing, it’s either going to be a half-game deficit for the Orioles (Texas wins) or the Orioles now in a three-way tie (Texas loses) with the Blue Jays and Tigers. These teams are all three games below .500.
I know, it’s absurd to have a playoff team below .500 at this point. There are 39 games left and this condition persists. Ridiculous. Yet, that’s what it is. The whiners are going to have to get it through their heads that this Orioles team, for all of its faults, has a chance. Rejecting this reality is going to lead to a person saying stupid things. The O’s just have to play good baseball for a while! Like, another month and a half. They’re not incapable of doing this. The only thing about it is they haven’t really done it this season, for a variety of reasons.
The series continues on Sunday afternoon, with the Orioles looking to make it three straight wins over the Rays. Take note that this game will be on Peacock or NBC Sports, so if you don’t have that streamer or that channel, you’ll just have to listen on the radio instead. There will be no MASN feed at all and it won’t be on MLB.tv. Trevor Rogers and Freddy Peralta are the scheduled starting pitchers for the 12:15 game. Peralta had a bad season with the Mets before getting traded; he was lit up in his first Rays start in Coors Field but then pitched a decent game. It’ll be annoying if Rays magic fixes this guy.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Samuel Basallo to begin rehab assignment today, with MLB return nearing (The Baltimore Banner)
Not only is Basallo near the end of the path to a return, Blaze Alexander is said to be not far behind. There’s even a note in here about Félix Bautista continuing his bullpen session progression.
Pete Alonso addresses hobbling in win over Rays: ‘No concern’ (The Baltimore Sun)
The Polar Bear dealt with some calf cramping yesterday. Nobody involved with the team seems to be too worried about it.
There’s a new No. 1 on the Orioles Top 30 list (Orioles.com)
Jake Rill with a little update on MLB Pipeline’s new best Orioles prospect – this year’s first round pick, Eric Booth Jr.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1969, Boog Powell hit an inside-the-park home run in the ninth inning of a 15-3 win over the then-Seattle Pilots in Seattle. I would like to have seen that. The homer was hit off former Oriole Steve Barber. Powell’s reward was getting the bottom of the ninth off: He was replaced in the field for the last half-inning by Elrod Hendricks.
In 1998, Eric Davis’s franchise-leading hitting streak of 30 straight games came to an end as Davis went hitless during a 5-3 loss to the then-Guardians. In the last 20 years, the best an Oriole has done is a 20-game streak by Cedric Mullins in 2021.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1995 infielder Bret Barberie, 1966-68 pitcher Gene Brabender, and 1955/58-60 outfielder Gene Woodling.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: diplomat and later movie subject T. E. Lawrence (1888), author Diana Wynne Jones (1934), singer-songwriter Madonna (1958), and actor Steve Carell (1962).
On this day in history…
In 1858, a new transatlantic telegraph cable was symbolically introduced by having President James Buchanan and UK’s Queen Victoria send greetings to one another. The cable was abandoned within weeks because it didn’t work; it took eight years for a permanent connection to be made.
In 1896, three men including one named Skookum Jim Mason, discovered gold in the area of the Klondike River in Canada, sparking a gold rush once news of this discovery reached American west coast towns like Seattle and San Francisco.
In 1920, Ray Chapman of the then-Cleveland Indians was hit in the head by a pitch. He died the next day. This was the second time a player was killed from an injury suffered during an MLB game.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 16. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!
