Hello, friends.
The Orioles have managed to creep closer to a wild card spot yet again. Thanks to losses by the Guardians and Rangers yesterday and the O’s holding on to take down the Athletics, the team is now just a game back of the third wild card, with only Cleveland standing between the Orioles and a postseason position. The head-to-head tiebreaker will belong to the Guardians unless the Orioles sweep them next week. There are 26 games left to play this season.
Check out Andrea’s recap of the
Saturday night game for more of the lovely totals. This link will probably appear after this article has posted due to the game ending late on the east coast.
Separate from the outcome of last night’s game, I’m feeling bad about Samuel Basallo after watching what he did in the game. In the middle of going hitless, he reacted to one of his at-bats by doing this in the dugout afterwards:
It’s rough to watch a guy showing that much negative emotion in the dugout. For all that there have been struggles from the team this year, we haven’t seen a ton of this. Gunnar Henderson has had some after at-bat reactions, of course, but nothing like this slamming and punching.
Seeing this is something that makes me down on manager Craig Albernaz more than any tactical choices he makes. It’s the skipper’s job to keep everybody on an even keel as much as possible so that they aren’t spiraling into negativity in a way that hurts their performance. The staff should be on top of how Basallo is feeling well enough that somebody can cut things off before it gets to that point, and once he started in on this, I think somebody should have intervened rather than view it as useful blowing off steam.
More concerning about something that might carry over into today is that Basallo ended up inadvertently blocking a pitch with his bare hand in last night’s game. Trainers checked him out and he stayed in the game afterwards, but after grounding out in the following inning, Basallo was removed in favor of Yohel Pozo. On MASN, Ben McDonald speculated that it could have been a benching after Basallo didn’t run out the ground ball. I’m not in a position to know as I write these words. I hope there’s not a broken finger.
Basallo would probably not be catching a day game after a night game anyway, so we might be waiting until Monday to get a clear idea of what’s really going on.
This three-game set in Sacramento is set to conclude starting at 4:05 Eastern today. Chris Bassitt is scheduled to pitch for the Orioles. As of this writing, the Athletics do not have a starting pitcher listed.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Six players the Orioles could call up when rosters expand (The Baltimore Sun)
Yesterday’s Bird Droppings featured a different outlet considering the list of possible callups. The Sun takes a turn today.
Encarnacion-Strand goes from under-the-radar acquisition to unsung hero (School of Roch)
CES has already driven in more runs than more than one player who’s been around a lot longer than he has this season.
Possible Arizona Fall League prospects (Orioles On The Verge)
This week, MLB announced that Orioles prospects will be on the Peoria Javelinas alongside of prospects with the Cardinals, Padres, Mariners, and Reds. The Arizona Fall League begins on October 3. Rosters will be announced later; On The Verge guesses who the O’s might send.
Fully healthy in 2026, Caden Hunter’s velo ticks up and the strikeouts are coming (Steve Melewski)
On pretty much nobody’s radar going into the season, Hunter has raced through three levels this season and he’s gotten some decent results so far in Double-A too.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2013, the Orioles traded Xavier Avery for Mike Morse, who had -1.0 bWAR in 76 games with the Mariners before this trade. He put another -0.5 on the board in just 12 games with the O’s.
One lone former Oriole was born on this day. Happy 52nd birthday to 2001 reliever Kris Foster.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: author Mary Shelley (1797), nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871), baseball Hall of Famers Kiki Cuyler (1898) and Ted Williams (1918), Maryland-born comedian Lewis Black (1948), and tennis player Andy Roddick (1982).
On this day in history…
In 1535, the pope of the time, Paul III, excommunicated England’s king Henry VIII, though since this was held in suspension, Henry had to be re-excommunicated several years later.
In 1836, the city of Houston was founded.
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Justice on the Supreme Court after being confirmed by the Senate. The vote was 69-11. Many Southern senators voted against him; many others abstained.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 30. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!
