CINCINNATI – One pitcher has been added and left-hander John Means is next. When the veteran O’s lefty starts tonight at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, he will join right-hander Kyle Bradish as another recent addition to the Baltimore rotation.

Grayson Rodriguez went to the injured list, Albert Suárez went to the bullpen and first Bradish and now Means are back.

If it goes as well for Means as it did this week for Bradish, the Orioles will be pretty excited about that.

Means had Tommy John surgery in April of 2022 and finally made it back to the Orioles for the final month last year. His first game last Sept. 12 was the O’s 144^th of the year. But Means went 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA over four starts and helped the club down the stretch.

He would have likely started an American League Division Series game versus Texas but some elbow soreness that week shut him down. The O’s were cautious with him this winter and slowed played his spring where he did not pitch in one game in Florida.

CINCINNATI – The great recent pitching run of O’s lefty Cole Irvin hit the road tonight at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. He baffled the Reds as he had the Royals and Athletics in his two previous starts.

He entered the game with a scoreless streak of 14 1/3 innings and had thrown 13 2/3 scoreless on eight hits in his most recent outings against Kansas City and Oakland.

He was 2-0 with an ERA of 0.98 his last three starts, with the Orioles 3-0 in those games.

A great pitcher’s duel between Irvin and Cincinnati right-hander Hunter Greene was finally broken up in the Baltimore seventh. Adley Rutschman produced an RBI double for the lead and Ryan O’Hearn's home run added to that as the Orioles beat Cincinnati 3-0 in front of 25,861 in the road trip opener.

In a game that started two hours and 41 minutes late due to rain, they won the series opener to stay a game ahead of the Yankees, who also won. The Birds are now 21-11 with wins in four of the last five and nine of their past 13 games.

CINCINNATI – Winners of eight of their last 12 games and four of their past five series, the Orioles begin a weekend series tonight at Cincinnati, playing the next three days at Great American Ball Park as they begin their third road trip of the 2024 season.

The Orioles have won three of their four road series – losing only at Pittsburgh – and are 8-4 in road games and 3-1 in series-opening games on the road.

They begin play tonight at 20-11 (.645) and are tied for the best record in the American League with Cleveland. In the major leagues, only Atlanta (20-9, .690) has a better record. The Orioles lead the AL East by one game over New York, by 2 1/2 over Boston, 5 1/2 over Toronto and 6 1/2 games over Tampa Bay.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish allowed one run over 4 2/3 innings Thursday afternoon as the Orioles won the series finale over the Yankees 7-2 to take three of four in that series and gain the division lead. The Orioles got solo homers from Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna.

The Orioles have a big lead for most homers in the majors with 48, while New York is second with 41 and Philadelphia third at 40.

CINCINNATI – The Orioles won a much anticipated series with the New York Yankees. They took three of four and they moved into first place.

Could they have a letdown as their latest road trip begins in cloudy Cincinnati tonight?

“Not with this group. I think this group comes to play every day," said manager Brandon Hyde this afternoon. "That being said, this a really good Cincinnati Reds team. They gave us everything we could handle and more last year. They are unbelievably athletic and we’re going to face three outstanding arms on the mound.”

Hyde today said there is no update yet on testing done on right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, who recently went on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation.

“Not yet, no. He’s still just kind of letting everything kind of calm down and we’ll hopefully start him back up here pretty soon,” Hyde said.

Just as the Orioles drew it up when this series began Monday night at Camden Yards.

OK, probably not. Even though they lost a starter in Grayson Rodriguez to injury during the Yankees series and now we know that Craig Kimbrel didn’t pitch once in the series, they would still shutdown a Yankees team that had scored 15 runs each on Saturday and Sunday at Milwaukee.

Oh, and Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna would hit big homers off lefty Carlos Rodón in the key series finale game. And Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb would record saves.

Yep, just as planned.

Sometimes it takes a village to win a key series or at least it takes an entire clubhouse. And the O’s got big contributions from many this series as they took three of four from the Yankees to gain the AL East lead by one game.

Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish fired a 96.3 mph two-seam fastball to Yankees leadoff hitter Anthony Volpe for a called strike. And not only was Game 4 of this series underway, but so was Bradish’s first big league outing since last October’s American League Division Series.

He was activated today off the 15-day injured list after dealing with a right UCL sprain that led to him getting a platelet-rich plasma injection in January. After three minor league rehab games, he was back on a big league mound for the first time since he faced the Rangers in Game 1 of the ALDS at Oriole Park on Oct. 7.

Bradish’s return was no doubt a lift today for the Orioles and he gave them a solid outing. They used that, a couple of home runs from unexpected places and Jordan Westburg’s two-run triple to beat the Yankees 7-2 in front of 27,299 sun-splashed fans and take three of four in this series.

The Orioles began this series down a game in the AL East, but they leave it at 20-11 and leading the Yankees (20-13) by a game.

The O’s offense had scored just six runs on 16 hits the first three games of this series, but they broke out today versus Yankees lefty Carlos Rodón, who entered with a 2.48 ERA.

The Orioles and Yankees wrap up their four-game series this afternoon at Oriole Park before the O’s head to Cincinnati to begin their next road trip.

The Orioles won by 2-0 and 4-2 scores the first two games. The Yankees held them to three singles in a 2-0 win last night. The Orioles were shut out for the first time in 2024.

The Orioles (19-11) have a .633 winning percentage and the Yankees (20-12) are at .625. They are tied for first place in the games behind standings, with Boston just 1 1/2 games back now at 18-13. The Red Sox are 8-3 their past 11 games. Toronto is five back and Tampa Bay is six games out.

The O’s offense is 16-for-91 with six runs and one homer this series. The Yankees have gone 16-for-93 with four runs and three home runs. They are 0-for-12 this series with runners in scoring position.

A look at some hitters in this series:

If a team wants to chase a division title and maybe chase 100 wins in the process, it needs to find a lot of different ways to win games through the long season.

While the Orioles have gotten a lot of attention for their power display so far this year, the team is not without speed. And the Orioles run the bases well. They often gain an extra 90 feet on their opponent with a runner going from first to third.

Or a runner stealing second base. They do that well and with a very high percentage success rate.

Through Tuesday’s games, the Orioles ranked sixth in the American League with 24 steals, and they ranked second in the AL and MLB with a 88.9 success rate, stealing 24-of-27. That percentage at one time was up at about 95 percent, but they’ve had a couple of caught stealing's recently.

“It’s more individual. We have guys that can run,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re going to be aggressive when we feel like it’s necessary and we feel like it’s appropriate to run. We ran a little bit on the road trip (to K.C. and Anaheim) just because it was kind of given to us. So, we were able to, you know kind of identify certain guys we were able to run on more than others. The score dictates it, a lot of things dictate that.”

In this matchup, Orioles right-hander Corbin Burnes was the pitcher with the much longer and better resume. But tonight, Yankees 25-year-old right-hander Luis Gil gave his team a chance to split this four-game series in Baltimore.

After losing here Monday and Tuesday, Gil, in his 13^th major league start, shut down the Orioles over 6 1/3 scoreless innings as the Yankees beat the Birds 2-0 at Oriole Park.

Oswaldo Cabrera’s two-run homer in the fifth provided the only scoring of the game as these teams moved back into a first-place tie atop the American League East with the Orioles at 19-11 (.633) and the Yankees at 20-12 (.625).

Burnes’ pitch count was at 53 through three innings, in part due to a lot of early strikeouts, a long at-bat or two, and a couple of 20-pitch innings.

Juan Soto hit a groundball single up the middle at 111 mph with one out in the first. Burnes had fanned Anthony Volpe before the single and struck out Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on sliders after it during a 20-pitch inning.

After two pitching-led wins in this series against the Yankees, the Orioles (19-10) hope for more good work on the mound tonight when they send out ace right-hander Corbin Burnes (3-0, 2.55 ERA) for his seventh start.

The Orioles have posted 2-0 and 4-2 wins to take the first two games from the Yankees, moving from one game behind New York to one game ahead and leading the American League East.

In the games, O’s pitching has allowed two runs and 12 hits with the Yanks going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The O’s bullpen, which had been scored upon in 13 of 16 games as this series began, has thrown 5 1/3 scoreless on three hits versus the Yankees.

And Baltimore pitching did this against a New York team that scored 15 runs Saturday and 15 more Sunday at Milwaukee.

With these two wins, the Orioles are now 8-0 in games decided by two runs.

A lot can change in a span of a few days for bullpen pitchers. It has for the Orioles bullpen.

Heading into the Yankees series, the O’s ‘pen was coming off a weekend with two blown leads in the ninth. And that ‘pen had been scored on in 13 of the previous 16 games, pitching to an ERA of 5.37 in that span.

Then Cionel Pérez, Yennier Cano and Danny Coulombe combined for 3 1/3 scoreless to close out Monday’s 2-0 win over New York. And Keegan Akin and Jacob Webb combined for two scoreless in last night’s 4-2 victory.

Webb got his first save with the Orioles, getting four outs, three via a strikeout, on three different pitches Tuesday night.

He ended the eighth fanning Aaron Judge on a changeup and began the ninth with strikeouts of Giancarlo Stanton on a sweeper and of Anthony Rizzo looking at a 95 mph fastball. He got a groundout to end the game.

The Orioles have gotten plenty of attention for their homer prowess. They began play last night leading the majors in homers and in homers per game. They had hit at least one homer in 21 of their 28 games and went 15-6 in those.

But in this series with the New York Yankees, the Baltimore pitching has led the way to wins by 2-0 and 4-2.

The O’s staff saw a pair of ninth-inning leads get away over the weekend versus Oakland. But the last two nights, lefty Danny Coulombe picked up his third career save and last night right-hander Jacob Webb fanned three in getting the last four outs to record his fifth career save.

Webb’s five career saves have come for three different clubs, with three for Atlanta and one each for the Angels and Orioles. His last before last night was June 15, 2023 for the Angels at Texas.

Against the Yankees Webb got seven whiffs on nine swings. That was big-time swing and miss stuff in that outing and now, over 13 1/3 innings he has a 2.03 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and .191 batting average against.

With Monday’s 2-0 win over the New York Yankees, the Orioles improved to 18-10, achieved a first-place tie atop the division and improved to 7-3 in series-opening games.

Win the first one and the chances to win the series go up, said Captain Obvious. And the Orioles are 6-3 in series play in 2024.

With one win the next three days they would at least split this four-game series. Should they do that or better, they will extend an impressive streak. The Orioles have gone 15 straight AL East series without losing one. That is the longest streak in club history behind a 13-series non-losing streak from 1969. Since early last April, they have won 11 and split four other AL East series.

Gunnar Henderson’s leadoff homer in the last of the first Monday was his third leadoff homer of this year and fifth of his career. With 10 homers, he is tied with the Angels’ Mike Trout for both the AL and MLB lead. Two other players have hit nine homers and three have hit eight.

At his current homer pace, Henderson would hit 58 homers this year. Last night he became the third player in club history to have hit 10 or more before May 1. Brady Anderson hit 11 in 1996 and Frank Robinson hit 10 in 1969. At 22 years, 306 days, Gunnar becomes the youngest player in MLB history with 10 home runs before May 1 (previously: COL’s Trevor Story, 23-167 on 4/30).

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.