It sounds a little strange to say this about an Orioles team that won just 52 games last year, but they have avoided any letdown this weekend against an Oakland team with the worst record in the American League at 49-85.

The Orioles beat the Athletics 5-2 Friday and 8-1 last night behind five home runs. 

This series followed the strong road trip where Baltimore went 4-2 at Houston and Cleveland against two first-place teams, and precedes a huge series against Toronto that starts tomorrow afternoon. It was positioned where if the O's had taken their foot off the gas pedal, we may have seen different results. 

O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins said his team has taken care of business so far this weekend.

“At the end of the day they are still a major league team to be taken seriously,” said Mullins, who hit his 13^th homer last night. “No matter what their record shows or how they are playing recently. If I’m not mistaken, they gave the Yankees a hard time not too long ago (they did, splitting a four-game series). That shows that. So, to come out and take the series and have a chance to get a sweep, that just shows where our mentality is to come out and play so hard every game.”

Saturday was a special day for Orioles catcher Robinson Chirinos. He reached 10 years of Major League service time, something that fewer than 10 percent of all MLB players have ever achieved.

He's a player that's worked hard for everything he's ever gotten. He played 10 seasons in the minors before his first call to the big leagues. Once he got there for the first time in 2011, he stuck around for a while and is still going at it.

He admitted yesterday there is a chance this will be his final season, but that decision has not been made yet. For now, he said he is enjoying baseball as much as ever. He’s loved being an Oriole, and manager Brandon Hyde said Saturday his impact on this team this year has been vast.

“That is an awesome, awesome accomplishment for a major league player," he said before the game. "Congratulations to Robbie. That is a huge deal to players to get that milestone. We’re going to celebrate that with him today.

“I had talked to people about what kind of teammate and person he was. But he has exceeded those lofty expectations in how much he has impacted our team, our clubhouse, our dugout. He makes players around him better. He’s made our whole clubhouse better. He’s helped change the culture of our team. And I can’t thank him enough for that,” said Hyde. 

After a series-opening 5-2 win Friday night behind that three-run rally in the last of the eighth, the Orioles host Oakland again tonight in the second of a three-game series. A win tonight would give Baltimore another series win with a chance for a Sunday sweep.

The Orioles (70-61) are nine games over .500 for the first time since May 20, 2017. They have won three in a row, five of seven, seven of 10, 10 of 15 and 22 of their last 35 games.

The Orioles are now 38-24 at home (.613) and 1-0 on this 10-game homestand. They will play 16 of the next 21 games at Oriole Park, where they are 21-7 in the last 28 home games.

Best home records in the AL:

.692 - New York Yankees (45-20)
.683 - Houston (43-20)
.652 - Tampa Bay (43-23)
.613 - Orioles (38-24)

This is kind of a special night for the Orioles’ No. 1 rated farm system. For the first time ever, the top three Baltimore draft picks from the 2019 draft – Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Stowers – will all be in the starting lineup together for the parent club.

The trio were the first three picks by Mike Elias after he took over as the Orioles' executive vice president and general manager in the fall of 2018. The club took Rutschman with the overall No. 1 pick in June 2019, with Henderson at No. 42 and Stowers at No. 71.

At the end of last season, Rutschman and Stowers shared the Brooks Robinson Award as the Orioles' Minor League co-Players of the Year, and Henderson seems highly likely to win the honor this year.

“It’s really special,” Stowers said this afternoon in the O’s clubhouse. “Coming in together, we were the first three picks of the new front office. The coolest part to see is not only how we have grown so much as baseball players, but we all have become so close. It’s like rooting for your best friends. The fact we get to share the field together, be on a team together and chase after something so special as a playoff race, can’t beat it.”

In a clubhouse where the Orioles seem to be such a close-knit team, these three are the same way, but their friendship had origins in Sarasota, Bowie and Norfolk.

As the Orioles look to cut into their deficit in the American League wild-card race, they now get to do so for a long stretch at home. Baltimore beat Oakland 5-2 last night and that was just night one of a 10-game homestand.

It started a stretch where the Orioles will play 17 of their next 22 games at home  and they will be home for 20 of their last 32 games starting Friday.

This should be good news throughout Birdland as the team is 38-24 (.613) with one of the best home records in the league. They are 21-7 in their last 28 home games since June 22.

Tied 2-2 in the eighth last night, the O's pulled out a win on Adley Rutschman's pinch-hit bases loaded walk and a Jorge Mateo two-run single.

The Orioles (70-61) improved to nine games over the .500 mark for the first time since May 20, 2017. After starting April this year going 7-14, the Orioles are 63-47 since May 1.

After completing a 4-2 road trip with series wins at Houston and Cleveland against first-place teams, tonight the Orioles begin a home series with the club with the worst record in the American League. They host Oakland (49-83) for the first of a three-game series and 10-game homestand that later includes four games with Toronto and three with Boston.

The Orioles are 37-24 (.607) at Oriole Park, where they now play the next 10 and 17 of the next 22 games. They have 20 of their remaining 32 games at home. They have the fourth-best home winning percentage in the American League. 

The Orioles (69-61) begin tonight 1 1/2 games behind Toronto for the third and final AL wild card spot. They are 3 1/2 games back of the second wild card and four games behind the first wild card berth in the league. The Orioles have won seven of 10, 10 of 15, 22 of 35 and 39 of the last 61 games.

In winning four of six games on the road trip, O’s pitching allowed just nine runs and O’s batters scored just 14. The club has pitched back-to-back shutouts, had three in six games on the trip and has 13 on the year. The Orioles take a 21-inning scoreless streak into this Oakland series. The O’s team ERA on the road trip was 1.56. O’s pitching has allowed just 27 runs the last 11 games, yielding three or fewer in eight of those 11. The Baltimore bullpen threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings the past three days.

O’s starting pitchers have seven quality starts the past eight games, with an ERA of 1.70 in that span. They have allowed two earned runs or fewer nine times the last 10 games, pitching to a 1.83 ERA of in that span. Last night, Kyle Bradish became the first Oriole ever to record consecutive scoreless starts while throwing seven innings or more and allowing two hits or fewer.

To say the least, it’s been a strong first two big league games for baseball’s No. 1 prospect, per Baseball America, Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson.

He’s made solid plays at third base and shortstop as O’s pitching posted back-to-back shutouts at Cleveland. At the plate he is 3-for-8 and hit his first big league homer in his first game and second at-bat.

The Orioles have gone 2-0 with Henderson in their lineup. What’s been the best part for the kid during his first two days in the majors?

“Just going out there to accomplish a dream that has been one of mine for a long time," said Henderson, who is batting eighth tonight against Oakland lefty JP Sears and playing at second base. "And especially to have my family there to experience it as well was really awesome. Couldn’t ask for a better day.”

Tonight he plays his first home game at Camden Yards and gets to hear another Baltimore edition of the national anthem.

ABERDEEN, Md. – For right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles and MLB's top pitching prospect, it was a big first step in his return from injury. He was back on a mound for the first time in three months last night and pitched into the second inning for high Single-A Aberdeen against Hickory at Ripken Stadium.

Rodriguez allowed one single and no runs in 1 1/3 innings, throwing 31 pitches, 17 for strikes with six swings and misses. His fastball topped at 98 mph on the stadium gun and he was pleased with his outing. He gave up some loud contact in the first and left his outing after one out back-to-back walks in the second.

But he was healthy and he was back.

“I felt great. It was a lot of fun to go back out there. My heart hadn’t pumped like that in a while, so good to get back out there,” said Rodriguez, who left a start on June 1 with Triple-A Norfolk with a Grade 2 right lat strain.

“It was tremendous. Being able to warm up, walk on the mound before the game. Smell the ballpark and see the lights and everything, it was fantastic,” he said.

Coming off Wednesday’s 4-0 win at Cleveland, the Orioles now have a chance to win this series and end their road trip to Houston and Cleveland with a pair of series wins. They will have a 4-2 road trip if they win the series finale tonight.

The Orioles (68-61) were eight games over .500 once this year, after the second game at Houston, and would be eight over with a victory tonight.

They have won four of six, six of nine and nine of the last 15 games. Over longer stretches, they have won 17 of 27, 21 of 34, 33 of 50 and are 44-26 (.620) since June 11. The Orioles are 47-31 (.603) since June 1 and are 61-47 (.565) since May 1.

They are two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays (70-59) for third place in the American League East. More importantly, they're also two games in back of the Jays for the third AL wild card spot. Toronto is off today and begins a series at Pittsburgh on Friday. On Monday the Orioles and Toronto play a doubleheader at Camden Yards to begin a three-day, four-game series.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish (2-5, 5.63 ERA) will be making his 17^th start in tonight's series finale. On Friday at Houston he pitched what manager Brandon Hyde said was the best game by any O’s starter this year. Over eight innings he blanked the Astros on just two hits with two walks, throwing six strikeouts on 96 pitches.

There can’t be many instances over the years where one organization has called up two prospects during a season and, at the time of the call, both were ranked as Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect. But after Adley Rutschman moved up earlier this season, Gunnar Henderson officially joined the Orioles roster on Wednesday in Cleveland.

That meant that the first three Mike Elias' Orioles draft picks from 2019 - Rutschman (taken No. 1 overall), Henderson (taken No. 42) and Kyle Stowers (No. 71) - were now all on the Baltimore roster.

And what a debut for Henderson in Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Guardians. He hit a 429-foot solo homer to right in the fourth inning and singled in the ninth. He went 2-for-4, driving the homer 107 mph off the bat and the single 101 mph. He even had two loud outs at 91 and 98 mph. So on the night, he produced four of the top 24 exit velocities in that game last night.

When this season began, Henderson told us in Double-A Bowie that he worked hard this spring to improve his plate discipline and swing decisions. He wanted to decrease his swings and misses and make more consistent and better contact on balls at the top of the strike zone. He improved on both counts and had a stunning start with the Baysox, walking more than he struck out. And while those massive numbers he put up at Bowie (1.025 OPS) were harder to produce at Triple-A, he still left the Tides with an .894 OPS.

During an interview in July, with Henderson headed to the All-Star Futures Game, O’s director of player development Matt Blood was asked if Gunnar’s plate discipline gains represented his biggest improvement this year.

It is hard to win when you score just one run and the Orioles have not won the last two games, falling Sunday at Houston 3-1 and by a 5-1 score last night to start a three-game series at Cleveland. Tonight they face the Guardians in the second game of this series.

The Orioles (67-61) begin the night tied with the Twins, three games back of the Blue Jays for the third American League wild card spot. They are 3 1/2 games back of Seattle for the second spot and four behind Tampa Bay for the first one.

So some ground to make up in Game 5 of a road trip where they are 2-2 thanks to the great pitching they got in Houston.

The O’s have scored just seven runs in four games of this trip, batting .172 (21-for-122) and they are 3-for-24 with runners in scoring position. In the last nine games, the team has scored 27 runs with a team batting line of .194/.272/.306 with a .579 OPS in that span.

But even with the recent slumping, the Orioles still rank fourth in the AL in team OPS for August at .718 and they are seventh in the AL in runs this month. Since the All-Star Game, the Orioles' OPS of .704 ranks sixth in the AL and they are sixth in runs scored at 4.25 per game.

ABERDEEN, Md. – Grayson Rodriguez was in good spirits as usual and was his usual friendly and articulate self. Now if he pitches on Thursday as he usually does, he might end his season as it began. Pitching in dominant fashion on a minor league mound.

And that could lead him to end his year on a major league mound.

When he pitches for high Single-A Aberdeen tomorrow, it will mark three months exactly to when we last saw him. He was dominating for Triple-A Norfolk then and closing in on a major league callup.

At the time of his Grade 2 right lat strain June 1, he was 5-1 with a 2.09 ERA and 0.84 WHIP for Norfolk.

“I would say going back and watching tape and reflecting on outings in Norfolk the first two months, I mean that’s, hands down the best I’ve ever thrown a baseball in my life,” Rodriguez told reporters Tuesday at Ripken Stadium. “So really just kind of taking into account what I was doing, how I was pitching to hitters, how I was utilizing certain pitches in certain counts, really just kind of being able to sit there, sit on it (during rehab) and game plan for about two or three months about how to attack hitters coming up.”

Coming off an impressive series win at Houston, the Orioles have moved on to Cleveland, where they will look to keep their momentum going tonight. The Orioles and Guardians will play the opener of a three-game series.

The Orioles are 30-36 on the road this year. But that record looks better when we are reminded that they were 3-10 on the road in April and were 5-14 in early May. Now the Orioles have won two straight road series and three of five, and two of those series were at Toronto and Houston.

The Birds have won four of their past six road games, are 13-9 in the last 22 and are 24-20 on the road since late May. They are 6-6-2 in road series for the year.

The Orioles (67-60) had a three-game win streak snapped Sunday at Minute Maid Park. They have won five of seven, eight of 13, 16 of 25, 20 of 32 and 32 of 48 games. Since June 11, the Orioles are 43-25.

Baltimore got great starting pitching in Houston, where Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and Austin Voth combined to allow two runs and seven hits over 21 2/3 innings, with five walks to 13 strikeouts. The Astros batted just .104 (7-for-67) against that trio over the weekend. Their combined ERA was 0.83.

ABERDEEN, Md. – The Orioles' top pitching prospect, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, headed north this week to continue his rehab. In two days Rodriguez will pitch in a game for the first time since his appearance June 1 for Triple-A Norfolk.

Rodriguez, ranked as the No. 4 prospect in baseball by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com, will take the mound Thursday for high Single-A Aberdeen at Ripken Stadium against Hickory.

It will be three months to the day that Rodriguez walked off the mound after throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings for Norfolk against Jacksonville. Rodriguez had suffered a Grade 2 right lat strain and has been in rehab mode since. Just recently, that escalated when he added live bullpen sessions and a simulated game. The next step comes Thursday.

“I feel good,” he said today at Ripken Stadium. “Obviously, it’s great to just be back here in Maryland, where full-season ball is. So getting out of Florida was pretty nice.

“It really happened the inning before I came out," Rodriguez said, recalling his injury. "I just thought it was a cramp or a muscle spasm. Went back out and, obviously, the velo was down. So being precautionary, took myself out of the game. Then them saying I could miss the rest of the season, thought it was pretty crazy. But been able to rehab in Florida and everything went pretty smoothly.”

During a year where the Orioles have made dramatic improvement as a team, so have several individuals, especially on the pitching staff. And as those players got better, so did the team. One led to two.

As it relates to Orioles pitchers, pitching coaches Chris Holt and Darren Holmes have worked with guys to tweak pitches, add pitches, work on their deliveries and learn what their real strengths are and go to them often. Anything they can do to help one pitcher helps the team.

And an underrated part of this, said manager Brandon Hyde, is finding willing pupils. Coaches can suggest all they want but if the pitchers are not willing to make needed changes and then able to perfect them enough to get outs at seven o’clock, this process won’t work.

“To be able to get player buy in, one of those things not talked about enough, is what makes good coaches,” said Hyde in Houston. “Trust. And after trust becomes buy in. And you get buy in from players from sometimes having tough conversations. By being able to prove things. That the player knows you have their best interest.

“That’s one thing I feel like we’ve done a good job here the last few years of being able to get players to make adjustments or talk about adjustments. And you’ve seen that with the pitchers this year. Our guys have gotten better.”

HOUSTON – After a weekend in Houston where O’s pitching gave up just four runs, leading the team to a series win over the club with the best record in the American League, the O’s take some momentum to Cleveland where they open a big series Tuesday night.

They’re all big now, when the club is 1.5 games out of a playoff berth with 35 games remaining.

The Orioles continue to surprise some people around MLB and who could have expected them to head into Houston, win the series with a chance to sweep Sunday? Houston began this weekend with the best AL record at 81-45 which included a seven-game home win streak and home record for the year of 42-18.

But terrific starting pitching led the Orioles to wins by 2-0 Friday and 3-1 Saturday before they lost 3-1 Sunday to end a five-game win streak at Minute Maid Park.

The Orioles continue to show they can play with the AL big boys – both in the AL East and beyond – and outfielder Austin Hays likes their positioning for the stretch run.

HOUSTON – It seemed improbable that the Orioles' run of great starting pitching could last against one of the best hitting teams in the majors on the road.

But it did.

The Orioles were not scoring runs on their end, however, and the game went into the late innings with a 0-0 score at Houston's Minute Maid Park. This after the Orioles had beaten Houston by 2-0 and 3-1 to take the series' first two games. But the Houston bullpen was doing the job after a surprise early exit by Justin Verlander due to injury.

And then the Astros finally broke through and got the big hit they had been waiting for.

Against a drawn-in infield with runners on second and third and one out in the seventh, first baseman Yuli Gurriel poked a two-run single to right field. That put Houston ahead, and they went on to a 3-1 win to avoid getting swept in the three-game series.

HOUSTON – After allowing just one run on eight hits, and despite scoring just five runs themselves, the Orioles can complete a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros today at Minute Maid Park.

This would be quite the achievement for the improved Orioles. Consider this:

* Houston began the series with the best record in the American League at 81-45.

* Houston is still the top team in the AL.

* The Astros had a seven-game home win streak and four-game overall win streak snapped Friday.

HOUSTON – The Orioles' pitching has carried them to two wins at Minute Maid Park. As they go for the three-game sweep today they’d like to generate more offense.

First baseman Ryan Mountcastle, struggling in the second half, showed some signs of breaking out last night, when he hit one ball 102 mph and another 105 mph on line outs. It was a good sign for the Orioles, said manager Brandon Hyde.

“You know the way the three guys ahead of him in the lineup are getting on base, the at-bats they’re taking, you know with Ryan, I was happy with his at-bats last night,” Hyde said. “Had better at-bats, was a little more under control, stayed on the ball better. Hit a couple of balls pretty hard. When he stays with himself, good things happen. Being able to lay off sliders out of the zone and elevated fastballs, you know when he puts swings on strikes, good things happen. So we’re getting on base ahead of him and hopefully he can turn it around here pretty soon.”

In the second half, Mountcastle, who is 0-for-8 this series, is batting .177/.282/.298/.550 after he posted a .786 OPS in the first half.

“Yesterday felt a little better. Hit two balls hard,” Mountcastle said. “Thought I got the second one, but I guess it didn’t want to go out. It is what it is. I’m trying and working hard at it.”

HOUSTON – Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias is with the team, at least to start, on this road trip. He's back in Houston, where he helped turn the Astros into big winners before he got hired by the Orioles.

He’s been very visible on the field the last two days pregame, catching up with old friends from here and he remains, of course, proud of his time here and what was built here, producing lasting success.

“There was just so much good work going on in the Astros organization for the last 10 years, and it’s still rolling with no end in sight. And I’m very proud and fortunate to have been a part of it,” he said during an interview Friday that was well attended by the Houston media.

Now’s he proud of what his staff and players are getting done in Baltimore, contending for a playoff spot a year after losing 110 games.

And he noted that even after the trades of Trey Mancini and Jorge López, the Orioles kept winning and have had a strong month in August.