When Orioles prospect Gunnar Henderson plays for the American League team tomorrow night in Los Angeles in the All-Star Futures Game, he’ll be going to a place where some current young O’s stars have already been. Not Los Angeles, but to a Futures Game.

He’ll represent the Orioles and be among the best prospects in the game in a national showcase.

Catcher Adley Rutschman went 0-for-1 with a walk for the American League in its 8-3 loss to the National League last summer in Denver, but Rutschman said the experience was memorable for him and no doubt will be for Henderson, too.

“From the experience of just flying there to, you know, getting settled into the hotel, to meeting all the guys, showing up at a big league ballpark, they did a great job from start to finish. Got to meet Ken Griffey Jr. and a lot of cool people. From start to finish it was just a great experience,” Rutschman said.

And so was the game as well.

On Sunday night, probably not long after 7 p.m., the Orioles will officially be on the clock to make their third overall No. 1 MLB Draft selection in team history. They selected pitcher Ben McDonald 1/1 in 1989 and 30 years later it was catcher Adley Rutschman. Now for the second time in four years, the Orioles will make the first pick in the draft.

And it remains true today and may hold true until we get the actual pick – no one knows which direction the Orioles will go. They are as usual, not tipping their hand in any way and if they have made or even narrowed their decision, there is just no credible information out there on what the Orioles might do.

We know the same five names that have apparently been on their short list for a while now – high school outfielders Druw Jones and Elijah Green and high school infielders Jackson Holliday and Termarr Johnson with college shortstop Brooks Lee.

MLBPipeline.com ranks them this way: Jones, Holliday, Green, Johnson, Lee.

Baseball America ranks them this way: Jones, Lee, Holliday, Johnson, Green.

The Orioles have had a winning streak of 10 or more games in 11 different seasons in club history. The 2022 edition can join the list with a win tonight at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The Orioles beat the Cubs 4-2 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to nine straight games. That is the longest in-season streak since the club won 13 in a row from Sept. 7-22, 1999. Right-hander Jordan Lyles allowed just two runs over seven innings last night and Baltimore got a two-run homer from Ramón Urías and a solo shot from Jorge Mateo in their latest win.

Lyles allowed single runs in the first and second innings and then blanked the Cubs after that, finishing with 101 pitches. Over his past five games he has thrown four quality starts and pitched to a 2.76 ERA. O’s starters have thrown seven innings or more just six times this year, and four times Lyles has done that. Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer have each done it once.

The Orioles reached the .500 mark Tuesday night at 44-44. The last time they were at .500 before this was last April 10 at 4-4. The last time they were .500 or better this deep into a season was in September 2017.

Now they shoot for a 10-game win streak.

ABERDEEN, Md. – He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft and outfielder Heston Kjerstad was playing like it at low Single-A Delmarva, where he went 37-for-80 in 22 games. Yes, that is prolific hitting and makes you wonder if after moving to high Single-A Aberdeen this week whether a move to Double-A later this year is in reach for Kjerstad.

Earlier this week, after his promotion to the IronBirds, I asked O’s director of player development Matt Blood about the 23-year-old outfielder. The Orioles surely are confident that Kjerstad will do well with the IronBirds, but they also know that last summer Gunnar Henderson went 1-for-31 to start his time with Aberdeen.

“He’s definitely going to face challenges. We’ll see,” said Blood. “We’re expecting him to perform well but any player can go through a slump. Great players in the major leagues go through them. We’ll see how it goes for him but we’re expecting him to continue to play well.”

So could the club move him to Double-A later this summer?

“It’s the same answer I would give you on any player,” said Blood. “We keep track of performance and their age and we like to challenge the player. So, if they show us they have bypassed the level, then we start considering them needing a greater challenge. He’s not different than anyone else.”

The red-hot Orioles are back in action tonight, beginning a two-city, five-game road trip that will take them up to the All-Star break. They begin play tonight looking for their longest in-season win streak in 23 years.

The Orioles (43-44) could reach the .500 mark with a win tonight. They have not been at .500 at any point this season. They were last at .500 on April 10, 2021 when they were 4-4. The Orioles have won eight in a row and Sunday beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-5 to complete a four-game sweep.

Baltimore has won eight in a row for the first time since winning 12 straight from Sept. 30, 2015 to April 12, 2016, and the first time in a single season since winning eight in a row from April 22 to May 1, 2005. The last time the Orioles won at least nine games in a row in a single season was when they won 13 straight from Sept. 7-22, 1999.

The O's have won 13 of their last 18 games and 19 of their last 28 games. Their .679 winning percentage since June 11 – over those past 28 games - is tied for the second-best winning percentage in the AL and fourth best in MLB over that time. Only Houston (.741, 20-7) in the AL has a better mark in that time frame.

The Orioles finished their homestand a perfect 7-0 after sweeping three games against the Texas Rangers and four against the Angels. This marked Baltimore's first sweep of a homestand since May 5-9, 2017 when the team took three games from Chicago-AL and two against Washington. The last time the Orioles swept a homestand of seven games was Aug. 3-9, 2004 when the team took three games against Seattle and four against Texas.

ABERDEEN, Md. – He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. But outfielder Heston Kjerstad of the Orioles would not play his first minor league game until this year on June 10 – exactly two years to the day that the Orioles selected him in round one.

He put it this way this afternoon in steamy Aberdeen when discussing dealing with first myocarditis and then in March a hamstring issue that further delayed his pro debut.

“Had a minor setback for a major comeback,” Kjerstad said at Ripken Stadium where he will debut tonight for the high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds after playing 22 games for Low Single-A Delmarva.

The long wait to see Kjerstad get on the field is finally over for him and O’s fans. And that phrase he used today was one that evolved among players working to comeback from injuries at O’s camp in Sarasota, Fla.

“It was kind of we were throwing that around a lot in Sarasota with the rehab group. Kind of the lingo we used to stay more positive. Going through injuries isn’t the most positive experience sometimes.”

It is a hypothetical conversation that could have happened in any number of places in or around Baltimore this week. Or anywhere where O’s fans reside or hang out.

One fan might have asked another if he thought the surprising 2022 Orioles could keep winning and stay in playoff contention deep into this season or maybe even until the very end of it?

“Why not?” the other fan might have said.

That short phrase means something to long-time fans in Birdland.

The 1989 “Why Not” Orioles were a team that came out of nowhere to not only contend, but lead the American League East for much of that summer. They won 33 games more than the 1988 Orioles and ended the year in a showdown series at Toronto for a division championship. They won 87 games and came up short in that final series, but they captured the hearts of O’s fans forever. They have a special place in club history.

Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins admits it would bother him that his arm strength would get criticized. So he has put in the work to improve in that area. And both the eye test and Statcast metrics tell us he has done just that.

He is now throwing better than ever, and when you couple that with his ability to run balls down in the gaps, you have a player becoming an elite defender in center.

“I just feel like my carry (on the ball) is much better this year than it has been in the past,” Mullins told me during the just-concluded homestand. “Been working with the staff and (catch partner Austin) Hays, because he has a cannon, and just kind of picking his brain on what he kind of feels and what his body is feeling preparing for throws. Try to mimic that, and of course we long-toss a good bit to create more arm strength. My arm has been feeling good and I think it’s been showing itself.

“The accuracy, for sure, has been better. I’ve had a fair amount of accuracy in the past, but not the arm strength I would want, and that was a main focus of prepping for the season, the arm strength.”

Statcast tracks miles per hour on outfielders' throws when they have to make a strong throw, and not necessarily on just any throw in from the outfield. But on such plays, the data clearly show Mullins is trending up. He has gained nearly 3 mph per throw this year alone, and his throwing strength has improved the last several seasons.

A great homestand marked by close wins and walk-off wins comes to an end for the Orioles today. They are looking to complete it with back-to-back series sweeps and without a loss. They can do that with a victory this afternoon over the Los Angeles Angels.

The Orioles swept three from Texas to begin the homestand and have beaten the Angels by 4-1 Thursday, by 5-4 with Friday’s ninth-inning rally and by 1-0 on Saturday afternoon. Today they go for their first four-game sweep since July 17-20, 2017 versus Texas.

The Orioles' win Saturday gave the team a seven-game win streak for the first time since Aug. 23-30, 2017. The last time the Orioles won eight games in a row was when the team won 12 in a row from Sept. 30, 2015 to April 12, 2016 and the last time they won eight in a row in a single season was April 22 to May 1, 2005. 

With the win Saturday, the Orioles have clinched this series win, and they've matched last year’s series win total barely past the halfway point of the 2022 season. The club went 12-32-8 in series last year and is 12-11-14 this season.

The Orioles are now 24-17 at home and are 11-3 in the last 14 home games. As they try for a perfect homestand today they have already surpassed last year’s series win total at home. They went 5-15-6 in home series in 2021 and are 8-4-2 this season.

On Friday night as the Orioles faced Los Angeles Angels right-hander Raisel Iglesias in the ninth inning, they were facing an experienced closer who was called on to protect a 4-2 lead. A closer who, since the start of last season, has 49 saves, 0.940 WHIP, a 1.6 walk rate and a 13.1 strikeout rate.

But down to their last out, the Orioles produced four straight hits to beat Iglesias and the Angels 5-4 in a stunning, comeback, walk-off win.

On Saturday, O’s manager Brandon Hyde talked about the quality of the at-bats his hitters took at the end of that game and how in many late-inning situations this year, the O’s at-bats seem to get better. Then he wondered if his team could begin having more of those intense, quality at-bats earlier in games or more consistently through nine innings of games.

“For us to take the next step forward offensively, it’s going to be the focus of the at-bats be in the early and middle part of the game like they are late a lot of nights,” said Hyde. “Those at-bats off Iglesias were unbelievable. They had a pass-the-baton mentality of getting the right guy up. Sometimes with young players, (they) try to do too much at times. Game's not in the balance at that point, you know you are just trying to take the at-bat. But I feel like so far this year the last third of the game our at-bats have improved. And it’s usually off premier, back-end guys too.

“So it’s in there with our guys. And it’s not realistic to do it night after night after night. But, to be a relentless offense and to be able to blow teams out, which we have a hard time doing, or put up a big number, which is hard for us to do, it’s because we don’t take those at-bats we took in the ninth inning for nine innings. And for me, that’s our next step.

The way he was pitching and putting up zeroes made it a fair question to ask: Would Orioles right-hander Dean Kremer leave the game today because the Angels scored off him, or would a high pitch count send him from the mound?

He was putting up zeroes and piling up strikeouts, but his pitch counts were getting elevated, too. Meanwhile, the Orioles were not backing him with much offense as they tried to win their seventh straight game for the first time in nearly five years.

Pitch count won out over runs allowed as Kremer threw scoreless ball for the fourth time in his last five starts as the Orioles pulled out another close game, beating the Los Angeles Angels 1-0 at Camden Yards.

The winning streak continued in front of 32,286 that came to downtown Baltimore to see a hot baseball team and get a Hawaiian shirt.

The Orioles (42-44) have won seven in a row for the first time since Aug. 23-30, 2017. They continue their perfect homestand at 6-0 with one game remaining tomorrow with the Angels. They began today four games out of the final American League playoff spot and then went out and won for the 12^th time in 17 games and 18^th in the last 27. They are 21-14 since June 1.

With their latest victory and walk-off win now a day behind them, the Orioles try to extend their longest win streak in two years this afternoon as they again host the Los Angeles Angels at Camden Yards. The Orioles are 5-0 on this seven-game homestand that ends Sunday.

Baltimore (41-44) has a six-game win streak for the first time since Aug. 7-13, 2020. The six wins have produced three walk-off wins, two in extra innings, four by a single run and six victories by just nine total runs. The team has not won seven in a row since Aug. 23-30, 2017.

The Orioles have put themselves into contention for the sixth and final playoff spot in the American League. That spot is now held by Toronto (45-40), which is two games ahead of Seattle, three up on Cleveland and four ahead of the Orioles for that spot.

The Orioles have won 11 of 16 and 17 of their past 26 games. They are 20-14 since June 1 and 34-30 since May 1. The Orioles improved to 23-17 at home with Friday’s win and they are 10-3 their last 13 home games.

More notes on Friday’s amazing win, which came in the last of the ninth with two outs and none on and Los Angeles leading 4-2 before the Orioles recorded four straight hits and all the batters had two strikes on them:

When last seen in the major leagues, lefty Bruce Zimmermann was really struggling with the Orioles. On June 15 at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the Baltimorean allowed 11 hits and six runs, including three homers, to the Blue Jays. That left his ERA at 5.94 through 13 big league starts and he was optioned to Triple-A the next day.

Zimmermann, who returned to the Orioles active roster today with Beau Sulser optioned out, was recalled to pitch out of the bullpen. He said he was not surprised the team sent him to Norfolk when it did.

After getting off to a fast start this year, his ERA was 9.79 in his last six O’s starts, and in that span he gave up 15 homers over 30 1/3 innings.

“No (not surprised to get sent down then),” he said in the clubhouse today. “My last couple of outings were not what they were compared to the beginning of the year or what I expect of myself or what they expect of a starter in the AL East. It wasn’t a shock.”

So over three games and 18 innings with the Tides, Zimmermann worked on his pitches, his mental outlook, his confidence and tightening up his slider. He returned today feeling better about his pitching and better about getting the feel for his changeup.

It is quite amazing, but for the third time in the last five games the Orioles produced a walk-off win last night, and each time they were down to their last out in the ninth inning and they either tied the game to extend it or, in the case of last night, scored three runs with two outs and none on to win it.

Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that the Orioles lost back-to-back walk-offs in Minnesota and were a team in a mini crisis?

Monday, on the Fourth of July, they were down by a run with one out left in the ninth when Adley Rutschman’s double tied the game and the Orioles won in 10 innings. Next night, same thing in terms of being down to the last out. Then Rougned Odor homered and they won it in 10 against Texas.

Last night there were two outs and none on bottom nine when Odor singled and stole second and third. Rutschman’s double on a 3-2 pitch pulled Baltimore within 4-3. Cedric Mullins’ RBI single on a 1-2 pitch tied it, and he reached second on the throw home. He scored the winning run on Trey Mancini’s single to left on a 3-2 pitch. The Orioles scored three in the ninth and beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4. 

Three straight huge, clutch hits.

Behind improved pitching and the ability to pull out some close games, the Orioles have crafted a five-game winning streak. They try to extend that tonight in the second game of a four-game series versus the Los Angeles Angels.

Jordan Lyles allowed just one run over six innings and Adley Rutschman hit his fourth big league homer and first at Camden Yards in Thursday’s 4-1 win. O’s pitchers held the Angels to six hits, and the O’s five-game win streak has come by eight total runs.

It is their longest win streak since they took six in a row from Aug. 7-13, 2020.

The Orioles have now moved within four games of the .500 mark (40-44) by winning 10 of their last 15 games and 16 of 25. They are 19-14 since June 1 and 33-30 since May 1. They are now 22-17 at home and are 9-3 in their past 12 games at the Yard.

The Angels (38-46) have tied a season low at eight games under the .500 mark after losing the series opener. They have lost five of six and 10 of 15 games. They went 4-2 versus the Orioles last season but are 1-3 this year in the season series.

It was another night, another win and another evening of solid Orioles pitching from beginning to end of the game. They have now won five straight after Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels to get to 40-44. They are 10-5 over the last 15 games and 16-9 over the past 25 games.

Right-hander Jordan Lyles was the latest O’s starter to provide a quality start, something Baltimore's pitchers have now done in six of the last nine games. Lyles allowed just one run in six innings plus one batter as he improved to 5-7 and lowered his ERA to 4.50. He has produced three quality starts over his last four outings, pitching to an ERA of 2.81 in that span.

And O’s starting pitchers are on quite a roll right now. They have allowed one earned run or less in 15 of the last 20 games, pitching to an ERA of 2.46 in that span.

Orioles pitchers have allowed two runs or less 12 times in the last 20 games and the club is 11-1 in those dozen games. So yeah, pretty good.

Overall, Baltimore pitchers have allowed 45 runs the last 15 games and 58 over the past 20. 

After completing their first three-game series sweep of the season on Wednesday night, the Orioles welcome the Los Angeles Angels to town tonight to begin a four-game series to wrap up a seven-game homestand.

The homestand has started quite well for the Orioles, who, after recording 10-inning walk-off wins on Monday and Tuesday, beat Texas 2-1 last night, holding the Rangers to six hits as the O’s completed the sweep, winning each game by one run.

The Orioles' last six games have been decided by seven total runs. They lost the first two of this stretch via walk-off losses in Minnesota, and now have won the last four.

The Orioles (39-44) are playing .470 baseball and on a pace to finish the 2022 season going 76-86. They have won nine of the last 14 and 15 of 24 games. They are 18-14 since June 1 and 32-30 since May 1. They improved to 21-17 at home.

The Orioles recorded a three-game sweep for the first time since July 23-25, 2021 versus Washington, and they have now won eight of their last 11 games at Oriole Park. They have matched a season long with four consecutive wins. The O’s swept the Rangers in a series for the first time since July 17-20, 2017, when the O’s took all four games at Oriole Park.

It was a father and son sitting together in a baseball stadium. But these weren't just any two men. It was the interim manager of the Los Angeles Angels Phil Nevin sitting next to his son Tyler, an Orioles infielder. Tonight as the elder Nevin continues to serve a suspension he will get a rare treat. The ability to watch his son’s big league game.

His 10-game suspension will end Saturday and then he will manage against his son’s Orioles team. Today father and son talked about what figures to be a very, very special next four days for the Nevin family.

The last time the dad saw the son play a pro game Tyler was playing in Hartford, Conn., in 2019 in Double-A and his dad was a Yankees coach and drove two hours to see part of a game. He saw five or six of Tyler's games that year.

“It’s special,” Phil Nevin said sitting next to his son in the O’s dugout earlier. “You really have to ask me some questions after Saturday’s game as I really have no idea what to expect. We were meeting with the staff earlier and going over some things we normally do (to prepare) for the game and I got to his name and I didn’t even know what to call him. I finally said Nevin and the whole room laughed. So, it will be different. Tonight, tomorrow, just being able to watch him play a big league game if he gets in there would be special for any parent, right? Unfortunately, I have to watch it from upstairs, but maybe this is how it is all supposed to be.”

So how will dad try to get son out if he comes up in a key spot?

During a sensational season when he was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A and continued to put up good numbers and then hit for the cycle, O’s prospect Gunnar Henderson added another honor today. He has been selected to play for the American League team in the All-Star Futures Game.

Henderson, the youngest player in the International League, is the only O’s prospect selected for the seven-inning game with the American League prospects facing the young stars from National League affiliates. It takes place Saturday, July 16 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles at 7 p.m. ET.

Henderson, who just turned 21 on June 29, has had a Player of the Year type of season on the O’s farm this year. He got off to a strong start with Double-A Bowie, and on June 6 it was announced that he and teammate Jordan Westburg were being promoted to Triple-A Norfolk. Two days later they played their first game there. Henderson homered in his first Triple-A game.

For the season between the two teams over 72 games, he has batted .298/.429/.548/.977 and scored 66 runs to go with 16 doubles, four triples, 13 homers and 51 RBIs. He has walked 58 times and struck out 68.

He hit the ground running this year and posted an .885 OPS in April with Bowie, and then really turned it up weeks later, posting a 1.079 OPS in May. On June 28 he hit for the cycle for Norfolk, one day before his 21^st birthday. He singled in the first, recorded a two-run triple in the third, hit a solo homer in the fifth and doubled in the sixth. It was the first cycle by a Norfolk player since Timo Pérez on June 9, 2000.

We are now less than two weeks away from the First-Year Player Draft, where for the third time in draft history the Orioles will have the No. 1 overall pick. They selected pitcher Ben McDonald out of LSU No. 1 in 1989 and catcher Adley Rutschman No. 1 out of Oregon State in 2019.

Now for the second time in four drafts, they again pick 1/1.

Here are the latest top five player draft rankings, which includes four high school players at the top, by MLBPipeline.com:

* No. 1 – Georgia high school outfielder Druw Jones. He is the son of five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner Andruw Jones. The 18-year-old Jones gets 70 tool grades for running and fielding, and he could grow into plus power, too.

* No. 2 – Oklahoma high school shortstop Jackson Holliday. Yes, another son of a famous father, his dad is a seven-time All-Star outfielder. The younger Holliday has an impressive advanced hitting approach, and added size and strength this year.