Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles’ six-game road trip through two AL East cities went…fine, I guess. They broke even at 3-3 on the trip to remain four games under .500, as they were when they started. They’re 1.5 games out of the third wild card, if looking at the wild card standings this early in the season isn’t a fool’s errand.
Of course, a case can be made that the Orioles should have had a winning record on the trip and leapfrogged the Blue Jays in the AL East standings if not for the controversial
way that yesterday’s loss played out. A Jays runner who clearly ran out of the baseline was ruled safe, a potential inning-ending double play was thwarted, and Toronto promptly rallied back from a four-run deficit to knock off the O’s in the rubber game, 6-4. Alex Church recapped the game and the pivotal call that went against the Orioles.
It’s a rough way to lose a game, but of course the Orioles failed to do a lot of things that would have made the blown call not matter. If Gunnar Henderson hadn’t committed an error on the previous play, or if Shane Baz hadn’t unraveled after the blown call, or if the O’s offense hadn’t squandered a promising rally in the next inning, the Birds could have pulled out a win anyway. They didn’t, and it left them with a sour taste in their mouths on the return flight to Baltimore.
No time to dwell on it, I suppose. The Orioles are going to need to be laser-focused for their next few weeks of games as they begin a particularly brutal stretch of their schedule. Their next 13 games are against teams with winning records, starting with a seven-game homestand against the Mariners and Padres followed by their first west coast trip of 2026 that will take them through Seattle and Los Angeles. Other than a series against the Angels, the rest of the Birds’ June slate will come against opponents that are currently .500 or better, which somehow includes both the White Sox and Nationals.
The Orioles have been playing good baseball lately, but they’re about to face their toughest test yet. If they’re serious about getting back into the postseason race, they’ll need to prove they can take down the best teams in the majors. Here goes nothing.
Links
I’m not a rules expert, but the umpires’ explanation of the play doesn’t really seem to clear anything up, and in fact just makes the call more confusing.
Sunday Notes: Baltimore’s Shane Baz Has a Quality Knuckleball in His Back Pocket- FanGraphs
Maybe Baz should’ve whipped out that knuckler in the sixth inning yesterday. He certainly wasn’t fooling most hitters with the stuff he was actually throwing.
I’m a staunch anti-sac-bunt guy, and Blaze Alexander’s rally-killing botched bunt yesterday is just one example of why. But if a guy wants to try to bunt for a hit, especially someone speedy like Leody Taveras, then I’ll allow it.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And a posthumous happy birthday to Orioles Hall of Famer Mark Belanger (b. 1944, d. 1998), the greatest defensive shortstop in O’s history, if not major league history. “The Blade” spent 17 years flashing his wizardry with the leather for some excellent O’s teams, winning eight Gold Glove awards and two World Series championships.
Other former Orioles born on June 8 include infielders Connor Norby (26) and Lenn Sakata (72), left-hander T.J. McFarland (37), and the late lefty George Brunet (b. 1935, d. 1991).
On this date in 1986, the Orioles and Yankees played (at the time) the longest nine-inning game in AL history, clocking in at 4 hours and 16 minutes. (That record is now held by an Aug. 18, 2006 game between the Yanks and Red Sox that lasted 4 hours, 45 minutes.) The O’s won an 18-9 donnybrook at Yankee Stadium in which the two teams combined for 36 hits and 16 walks, including three home runs by Birds right fielder Lee Lacy.
And on this day in 2013, the O’s used their 30th-round draft pick on Creighton infielder Federico Castagnini, making him the first Italy-born-and-raised player ever selected in the MLB draft. Castagnini lasted two years in the O’s organization, topping out at Low-A Delmarva with a career .192 average and .509 OPS.
Random Orioles game of the day
On June 8, 1997, the Orioles defeated the White Sox, 2-1, at Comiskey Park. The O’s trailed 1-0 until the sixth, when Roberto Alomar tied the game with a homer and Tony Tarasco delivered an RBI single to put the Birds ahead. The Orioles’ pitching staff made the slim lead stand up, with starter Jimmy Key holding the White Sox to one run in seven strong innings, followed by 1.1 scoreless frames from Armando Benítez and Randy Myers’ 19th save. The win improved the O’s to 39-17 and put them 7.5 games ahead in the AL East. That was one heck of a team.
