When Gunnar Henderson drove a Clarke Schmidt curveball to the flag court in right – a ball he smoked at 112.3 mph, his hardest-hit homer this year – the Orioles series with the Yankees was off and running.

They got off to a good start and had a strong finish.

No leads got away on this night as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 2-0 to improve to 18-10 and tie for first place. Technically, via a win percentage of .643 to New York’s .633, the O’s have the AL East lead.

It was another O’s win that had Henderson’s fingerprints all over it. Another game where he showed off his massive baseball tools. Another game where his impact was vast and the plays he made big.

He helped beat the Yankees with his bat, his glove and his speed.

After two blown leads and losing a series over the weekend with Oakland, the Orioles' homestand continues tonight as they host the New York Yankees in a first-place showdown.

The O’s 7-6 loss Sunday handed them their third series loss against six wins this season. Overall the Orioles (17-10) have won five of the last eight, 10 of 13 and 12 of their past 18 games.

The Yankees (19-10) played great baseball to start this season and were 12-3 after 15 games. They have gone 7-7 since. Their past three series they went 2-1 against Tampa Bay, 2-2 versus Oakland and 2-1 at Milwaukee.

They lost to the Brewers 7-6 in 11 innings Friday night but won by a 15-3 score Saturday and by 15-5 yesterday. So that is 30 runs on 37 hits in the past two days, with five doubles and seven home runs.

Yankees batters scored 36 runs in their three games at Milwaukee, marking just the second time in the last seven seasons the Yankees have scored as many runs in a three-game series. They put up 43 runs in three games versus Toronto from Sept. 15-17, 2020. The series also marked the second time in the last four seasons they have hit at least 10 homers in a three-game series (they hit 11 in 3G vs. Chicago-NL from 6/10-12/22).

Coming off a series loss to Oakland and preparing to face a Yankees team at Camden Yards that scored 15 runs each the last two days, the Orioles have to quickly move on from their tough weekend with the Athletics.

“Yeah, absolutely,” outfielder Colton Cowser said this afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “You have to have a short memory in this league. Got the Yankees coming to town, so it’s good to have a short memory and get on to the next one.”

Added Ryan Mountcastle: “It’s a new series and new day. We’re excited to get this series going and, hopefully, get some wins.”

It’s a battle for first over the next four days in Baltimore with New York (19-10) on top of the division by one game over the Orioles (17-10).

The Orioles are 3-0 in American League East games with a series sweep at Boston. New York has gone 5-4 in two series versus Toronto and one with Tampa Bay.

The Orioles have played nine series thus far, but just one versus an American League East opponent. They swept Boston at Fenway Park April 9-11 by 7-1, 7-5 and 9-4 scores.

That changes tonight when the top two teams in the AL East meet for four games over four days in a first-place showdown. After scoring a combined 30 runs the last two games at Milwaukee, the New York Yankees are 19-10 and lead the division by one game over the Orioles at 17-10.

Baltimore went 32-20 (.615) against the AL East last year, the second-best winning percentage against the division by the O's since 1981 behind the .618 (47-29) mark in 2014. The Birds won the season series against Toronto (10-3), and Tampa Bay (8-5), and went 7-6 each against Boston and New York. It was the first time since 2014 that the Orioles won the season series against each of their division opponents.

And beginning play tonight, the Orioles have a 15-series unbeaten streak riding against AL East opponents. They have won 11 and tied four series within their division since losing their first two of last season. This is the longest such streak in team history, topping 13 straight in 1969.

How important is a four-game series with the Yankees in April? It will be important for the Orioles to show they can hold their own with a New York team that a lot of outlets favored to win this division. They are the Yankees, and they always get attention, usually way too much. The Orioles won the division last year and they hold the current title of AL East champs.

The Orioles have won six of their eight series in the 2024 season – losing series only to Pittsburgh and Milwaukee – and they can add another series win today. They host Oakland in the finale of a three-game set in which the A’s won Friday and the Orioles won yesterday.

At 17-9 with 12 wins their last 17 games, the Orioles are tied for first with the Yankees atop the American League East. But they lead the division by percentage points, playing .654 ball to .643 for New York. Those two clubs begin a four-game series at Oriole Park on Monday night. 

Baltimore’s 7-0 win on Saturday produced the Orioles' second shutout of the year, both in the last six games and both started by lefty Cole Irvin.

He pitched seven scoreless innings on four hits and is now 2-1 with a 3.49 ERA. That makes 13 2/3 scoreless on eight hits for Irvin in his past two starts. And over his last three, he has allowed just two runs in 18 1/3 innings for an ERA of 0.98 with a 0.87 WHIP in that span.

Irvin beat his former team and now has won two consecutive starts for the first time in his career. He extended his scoreless streak to 14 1/3 innings, the longest scoreless‐innings streak of his career, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

Catcher James McCann could see that lefty Cole Irvin had good stuff and strong location early on Saturday versus Oakland. Irvin rolled through three perfect innings on 33 pitches.

But McCann was not thinking scoreless start at that point. He was trying to set up and work the hitters for later in that game.

“No, not trying to think that far ahead,” he said after the Orioles’ 7-0 win. “What you try to do is get certain pitches involved at certain times. And then make adjustments as to how that pitcher is landing the pitches.”

Irvin kept getting outs and pitched seven scoreless innings and joined Corbin Burnes and Dean Kremer as O’s pitchers to go seven this year. He allowed just four hits and is now 2-1 with a 3.49 ERA.

“He had a really good mix. He’s using both sides of the plate. Able to use his off-speed early, his fastball early and locate it all. Had four pitches to both sides of the plate,” said McCann.

After letting a one-run lead in the ninth get away in last night’s 3-2 loss in 10 innings to Oakland, the Orioles (16-9) host the Athletics (11-16) today in the second of a three-game series.

Oakland has scored three runs or less in eight straight games, scoring 21 in that span. They have also homered in each of the eight games and this is now the longest such streak in MLB history.

Overall, the A’s have homered in 11 consecutive games (15 home runs total), which is the longest such streak by an A’s team over the last three seasons. The last longer streak was a 13-game streak from Aug. 1-16, 2021.

After Friday’s win, the Athletics are 6-5 in one-run games. The 11 one-run decisions are tied with the Yankees for the most in the majors. However, four of their losses have been by eight or more runs so Oakland has a run differential of -37, which is the fourth lowest in the majors.

Going into Friday’s series opener, the Orioles had scored at least seven runs in four straight games against the A’s. Baltimore has never scored 7+ runs in five consecutive games against Oakland and won’t in this run after being held to two runs Friday. The Orioles are 0-5 when scoring two runs or less.

Before Friday’s game, the Orioles made a tough decision. They decided to send 20-year-old Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 ranked prospect in the sport, back to the minor leagues.

After he showed the club a hot bat in spring training and also at the start of the Triple-A season for Norfolk, he struggled in his first shot at the big leagues.

Just a couple of days before the Orioles would have guaranteed he would stay with the club at least for seven big league seasons, they called him up, showing this was not about service time. But the kid struggled. He played solid defense and showed plenty of capabilities at second base. But he failed to hit big-league pitching. At least this time, going 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts.  

"Again, ultimately, do I like the way that this has gone in April totally? No, and I feel responsible for that,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said before the game. “But it’s possible, just like it was for Grayson (Rodriguez) or Colton Cowser or any of these guys, that this was sort of a necessary development episode to be exposed to this before you’re fully ready for it. And now the work that you put in, you kind of know exactly what you need to do when you get back up there, and that’s valuable.

“It comes at a cost to get that negative feedback, but it’s valuable, and I guarantee you Jackson’s going to channel that well.”

After winning two of three in each stop of their road trip (Kansas City and Anaheim, Calif.), the Orioles host Oakland tonight to begin a seven-game homestand.

When Oakland beat the Yankees yesterday 3-1 to split that four-game series, the Orioles and Yankees moved into a tie for first in the American League East with the O’s technically leading the division by percentage points, .667 to .654.

The Orioles, who have won four of five, eight of 10 and 11 of their past 15 games, have the second-best record in the AL behind Cleveland (18-7, .720).

The Orioles’ plus-29 run differential ranks third in the AL behind Cleveland (plus 49) and Kansas City (plus 39).

The Orioles are 8-4 at home and have won three straight series.

Gunnar Henderson is having a remarkable start to his season for the Orioles and is second in the American League with an OPS of 1.022. One of his teammates is fifth and it's not Adley Rutschman or Anthony Santander, Ryan O'Hearn or Ryan Mountcastle. It's not Colton Cowser, who has an OPS of 1.139 but not enough plate appearances to qualify for league leaders.

It is Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg, who like his friend and teammate Cowser, has sure taken his game to a higher level this season. And with an OPS of .941, it is Westburg that ranks fifth-best right now in the AL. He is keeping company with some great hitters as the Yankees Juan Soto is one spot ahead of him while Mike Trout and Bobby Witt Jr. are behind Westburg.

After waiting his chance to get to the bigs – he had 714 plate appearances combined in 2022 and 2023 at Triple-A Norfolk – he finally got his first big league opportunity late last June.

He’s been running with it ever since.

And this is a high draft pick, but not a 1/1 like Rutschman or Jackson Holliday or the No. 2 pick in the draft like Heston Kjerstad or No. 5 like Cowser. He was taken No. 30 overall out of Mississippi State in the 2020 MLB Draft.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Through the first part of this 2024 season, the Orioles offense has been very productive. Going into Wednesday’s MLB games, the Orioles ranked first in the majors in homers and homers per game. They ranked No. 2 in slugging and OPS and extra-base hits. 

They ranked third in the majors scoring 5.65 runs per game. That is a big number.

Only once in O’s history have the Orioles scored 900 runs for the season and it was in 1996 during the Steroid era when the team scored 949, the club record. The current team is on pace to score 915 runs.

The team record for homers, also set in 1996, is 257 and their current pace would see them approach that with 254 longballs.

They are doing a lot right on offense. So why is this team not drawing more walks and should we really care if they are scoring so well?

ANAHEIM, Calif. – As this game got into the middle innings today, it seemed Gunnar Henderson and Dean Kremer were battling for the O's top starring roles.

Henderson kept getting hits and driving in runs off lefty pitchers and Kremer kept getting whiffs and putting up zeros with his four-seamer and cutter.

It all added up to an Orioles 6-5 victory as they took a 6-0 lead and then held off the Angels. The Orioles win this series and complete a 4-2 road trip. They head home 16-8 and get ready to host the Athletics on Friday night.

The Orioles are now 3-1 in rubber match games and have won six of their eight series.

After Los Angeles cut a six-run deficit to 6-4 on Zach Neto's homer of Yennier Cano in the eighth and 6-5 in the ninth, closer Craig Kimbrel got the final outs as they held on to win.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – This series began Monday night when the Orioles held off the Angels 4-2 as Craig Kimbrel fanned Mike Trout with the bases loaded and two outs to close out the win.

But with that momentum heading into last night, the Orioles fell behind 7-0 in the fourth inning and lost 7-4 to the Angels.

The Orioles began play Tuesday in first place by a half-game atop the American League East and ended back in second place by a half-game after their loss and a Yankees win over the Athletics.

These two teams have been jockeying for first and second place for several days now and will meet each other in a series that begins Monday night.

But first the Orioles wrap up this series today with the winner taking this series. The Orioles are 15-8 and Tuesday’s loss was just their second in the last nine games and fourth in the past 14. They saw a three-game win streak ended as the Angels snapped their five-game losing streak.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Lefty John Means made a fifth rehab appearance on the farm last night, pitching for Triple-A Norfolk. His next turn is likely to come Sunday and it’s possible that could be in Baltimore versus the Athletics.

While Corbin Burnes, Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez have been listed to go Friday through Sunday in that series, that is subject to change pending Means’ status.

“We’re talking about that right now,” manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon. “He feels really good after that start. He gave up seven singles, they were not very well hit, the stuff is much improved. He’s really encouraged about how he felt during the outing and today.”

Means’ results have not been great in those five games with an ERA of 13.85 in 11 2/3 innings. But it's more about how he is feeling and his pitch quality and pitch count, which reached 79 last night. He could make another rehab start if the Orioles decide he needs that, or they could call him to Baltimore for the next one.

“It’s possibly Sunday, one more with Norfolk or with us. We’re discussing that now,” Hyde said.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Maybe Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was due for a poor outing. He had ended last year pitching to an ERA of 2.26 his last 12 regular-season starts and then started the 2024 season going 3-0 with a 2.63 ERA over four starts.

That run ended big time Tuesday night at Angel Stadium when the home team took a 7-0 lead in the fourth and then the Los Angeles Angels held off a Baltimore rally to win 7-4.

The Orioles began the day in first place by a ½ game but ended it in second by a ½ game as they lost and the New York Yankees won.

With the Orioles down big early, Rodriguez came out for the fifth inning with his pitch count at 71 but was removed for Dillon Tate with one out and one on. Manager Brandon Hyde explained to a reporter who asked if he kept Rodriguez in to try and build his confidence, that it wasn’t about that at all.

“Not really worried about his confidence," he said. "That was more about we had a long way to go in the game and our bullpen has been pretty taxed, so tried to get through that fifth inning.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Maybe this was a reverse-lock game. A night after the Orioles moved into first place, they put their 15-7 record and three-game win streak on the line with right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and his 2.63 ERA on the mound. He had not allowed more than two runs in any start this year.

The Angels had scored just nine runs during a five-game losing streak, were 2-5 at home and their pitcher, right-hander Griffin Canning, began his night with an ERA of 8.05.

What could go wrong? O's would have this one, right?

Well, the Angels got a Mike Trout leadoff homer and kept swinging it with loud contact in the early innings off Rodriguez as they beat the Orioles 7-4 at Angel Stadium.

Down 7-0 in the fifth, the O’s pulled within three runs but took the loss. They are now 15-8 for the year and 7-4 on the road, and return Wednesday to the ballpark looking for a series win in the rubber match game.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Orioles are 4-0 this year in games started by right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (3-0, 2.63 ERA). If they can run that tonight to 5-0, the Orioles will have another series win secured.

The Orioles beat the Angels 4-2 last night to improve to 15-7 with three straight wins, seven wins in their last eight games and 10 in the past 13. They are now 7-3 in road games and 6-2 in series-opening games. Baltimore last night improved to 7-2 in games decided by two runs or less.

Beginning play today, the Orioles lead the only division in the majors with five teams playing .500 or better ball. With their win and a Yankees loss to the Athletics on Monday, they moved to a half-game ahead of New York atop the American League East. Boston and Toronto are both 13-10 and 2 1/2 games back, and Tampa Bay is 12-12 and four games out beginning play this Tuesday.

The Orioles continue to lead the majors in homers with 35 and in homers per game at 1.59. They lead the major leagues averaging a home run every 22.09 at-bats. There are 23 teams who are at 30 or more at-bats between home runs.

The Orioles have hit 25 homers their past 11 games. They have hit two or more 12 times already and are 11-1 in those games.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Outfielder Heston Kjerstad, officially activated earlier today, is in tonight’s starting lineup for the Orioles batting eighth in right field. 

Ryan Mountcastle, who missed last night’s game with a sore left knee, could be back in that lineup very soon.

“Ryan is way better today,” manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon in the visiting dugout. “He will definitely be available if we need him.”

As for Kjerstad, who is ranked as the No. 29 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 42 via Baseball America, he was tearing it up in 21 games with Triple-A Norfolk. He was batting .349/.431/.744/1.175 with four doubles, 10 homers and 30 RBIs. He went 8-for-16 his last four Tides games with three homers.

“Off to an unbelievable start in Triple-A. Huge power numbers,” said Hyde. “Hitting the ball hard to all fields. Just want him to come up here and try and contribute. We have a good lineup, but Heston has big-time power, so hopefully he can impact us offensively."

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Even after right-hander Albert Suárez provided the Orioles with another scoreless outing and after they got homers from James McCann and Colton Cowser and after Adley Rutschman drove in two and after the bullpen bent but didn’t break in the seventh and eighth, there was still heavy lifting to do.

Real heavy, as in right-handed closer Craig Kimbrel needing to get three-time MVP Mike Trout out with two outs, bases loaded and the O’s clinging to a 4-2 lead.

Trout was all that stood in the way of the Orioles winning Game No. 15, moving into first place and Kimbrel recording his 423^rd career save to pass former teammate Billy Wagner for seventh all-time.

Just get out the guy that had already hit eight homers this season and has a .992 career OPS.

As Trout moved to the plate, he was 1-for-3 with two career walks and a single versus Kimbrel. If he produced another single, he would likely tie this game. If he did bigger damage, the Angels could have a walk-off win and the Orioles a devastating loss.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – After going 2,395 days between major league outings coming into this season, this time right-hander Albert Suárez had only a four-day wait.

He held Minnesota scoreless over 5 2/3 innings Wednesday in Baltimore – his first game in the majors since Sept. 26, 2017 – and was back out tonight for the O’s in their series opener in Los Angeles.

And he had another outstanding outing.

He also had another scoreless outing, again over 5 2/3 innings, as the Orioles beat the Angels 4-2 in front of 26,081 to start a three-game series.

The Orioles, who moved into first place in the American League East by a half-game over the Yankees, improved to 15-7 and to 6-2 in series-opening games. They are 7-1 their past eight games and 10-3 the last 13.