TORONTO - I don't know what will happen in the final two games of this series. But in the first two we have seen more of what we've seen for most of this 2023 season - the Orioles are pretty great in division games and Toronto is pretty lousy.

With Tuesday's 13-3 blowout - a rare laugher for the Orioles - they are now 23-13 (.639) in AL East games and Toronto is 7-22 (.241).

A team playing at that O's win percentage over a full year would win 103 games and at Toronto's percentage just 39.

But there is more.

The Orioles lost their first two AL East series of the year and Toronto won its first two. So, the Orioles are 21-9 in the division in the last 10 series counting this one and they have not lost a single series in that run.

TORONTO – On the night the Orioles acquired another starter for the stretch drive – getting right-hander Jack Flaherty from St. Louis – current starter Kyle Bradish could not hold an early 3-0 lead.

But for the 2023 Orioles, that was not a problem. Not at all.

Gunnar Henderson hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth, hot-hitting Ryan Mountcastle drove in two more runs and Anthony Santander hit his second career grand slam as the Orioles whipped Toronto 13-3 to improve to 66-41 on the year. They are now 5-0 this season at Rogers Centre and are a season-high 25 games over the .500 mark.

The Orioles have now gone 10 straight American League East series without losing one, their longest streak since 11 in a row from Aug. 1-Sept. 30, 2012. The Orioles are 21-9 (.700) in their past 30 division games in this run of winning.

The 3-3 tie was erased when they scored one in the sixth, three in the seventh and four runs in the eighth. They added two in the ninth for 10 unanswered runs after the 3-3 tie. 

TORONTO – As the Orioles look for another American League East win tonight, they will face Toronto left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, who is making his season debut and pitching in the majors for the first time since June 1, 2022.

In that game he gave up three runs over four innings versus the Chicago White Sox, and later that month needed Tommy John surgery. He pitched just 27 innings last year, going 2-0 with a 5.67 ERA in six games before his surgery.

He makes his return tonight and the Blue Jays say they will temporarily go with a six-man rotation to give their other starters an extra day's rest.

Ryu pitched in four minor league rehab games, two at Triple-A, and allowed an ERA of 2.00. In 18 innings he allowed 13 hits with one walk, 16 strikeouts and 0.778 WHIP.

Over the weekend he pitched a final bullpen session as a tune-up for tonight.

TORONTO – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said the immediate plan for right-hander Tyler Wells, who was optioned to Double-A Bowie after Saturday night’s game, is still being formulated. But Wells will spend some time at the team's pitching lab in Bel Air in Harford County.

"It's still being mapped out," said Hyde. "He's going to go to our lab. The main thing is a little bit of rest. Get him backed off and allow the body a chance to recuperate. Give him a breather and not throw as much. Go to the lab, maybe work on some mechanical things. And then kind of slowly get him back to where we want him to be. But it's mainly about giving him more of a reset, and hopefully he can be a big part of our pitching the staff the last month, month and a half of the season."

As we got to the All-Star break Wells had an ERA of 3.18, and it was 2.83 in his last eight starts leading up to the break.

But over his past three starts his ERA is 11.00 over nine innings and he's allowed 2.11 WHIP. He has given up four homers and nine walks while getting eight strikeouts. Opponents have hit .278 with a 1.069 OPS.

Ryan Mountcastle drove in three runs last night with a two-run double and a sac fly. Mountcastle is a career .313/.371/.625/.996 hitter in 46 games versus Toronto, with 15 homers and 39 RBIs.

TORONTO - After he threw yet another quality start for the Orioles last night - as they beat Toronto in the series opener - right-hander Kyle Gibson discussed today's trade deadline.

He told reporters if nothing big happens today, he is fine with it. He loves the current group in the Orioles' clubhouse and sees enough talent there right now to keep winning.

“In 2018 we (the Twins) traded away eight players at the deadline," he said. "Never seen that many traded away. And at the time, we might have been three games out of the wild card. There are teams that absolutely need to play well around the deadline, but I don’t think this is one of those teams. I think we just want to play well to keep going in the right direction.”

He said it's important that players have been able to block out any deadline distractions this year.

“Very important. It’s easy to look around and see moves and get anxious, get antsy. Wait to see where the dominoes will fall for us. Do we have needs? Sure. Are there players that could make our team better? Sure. But I think we have a really darn good team and if we don’t make this massive splash, I think this team is really good. I think the Fuji trade (adding Shintaro Fujinami) is really big for us. The flexibility he adds in the bullpen is huge.

TORONTO – When the Orioles played in Toronto in May, they swept a three-game series at Rogers Centre. It was their first sweep at the place since April 22-24, 2005. They returned tonight to find out if they could win again at a ballpark where O’s wins over many years were scarce.

The Orioles were also looking to build on their series win over the weekend against the Yankees and see if they could take another American League East series. Since mid-April, they are 7-0-2 in nine series within the division.

And they got a nice headstart on winning another tonight with early offense and a Gunnar Henderson longball to lead 4-0. They beat Toronto 4-2 to improve to 65-51 with their eighth win in 12 games and 16^th in the past 22 contests.

The Orioles remain leading the AL East by 1 1/2 games over the Rays, who won against the Yankees. 

The Orioles are 24-11 in series-opening games and 14-4 in road series openers.

TORONTO – The Rogers Centre used to be a place where the Orioles came to often lose. But the 2023 Orioles are different. They came here in May and swept three from the Blue Jays by scores of 6-2, 6-5 in 10 innings and 8-3 in 11 innings. 

It was a stunning result when you consider the O’s had not swept three at Toronto since April 22-24, 2005. They had not swept an American League East series since taking three from the Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 2-4, 2021.

In the 2018 season, the Orioles went 0-10 in Toronto.

As the teams begin a new four-game series tonight in Toronto, it’s a big series with the Blue Jays playing better baseball and hoping to still make a run for the top spot in the division. This is their chance to gain on the Orioles.

The Blue Jays (59-47) lost in 10 innings 3-2 to the Angels on Sunday, but they are 5-2 their past seven games and 14-7 over the last 21 games. In their past 55 games, Toronto is 33-22 and playing .600 ball.

TORONTO – Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami entered in the sixth inning last night and pitched two scoreless in the Orioles' win over the Yankees. His fastball again touched 100 mph and his splitter got swings and misses at 93 mph.

That is three straight scoreless with the Orioles for Fujinami, who will continue to get action in high-leverage spots.

“The way he is throwing the ball the last few times, it’s going to be in big spots,” manager Brandon Hyde said today in advance of the series opener at Toronto. “He’s got incredible stuff. A fantastic arm. He showed it again last night with two really good innings. If he can be kind of that bridge guy to Félix (Bautista) it would be fantastic. But his last few appearances, he’s shown great stuff and we’re excited about him.”

The 29-year-old Fujinami was scored on in his first two Baltimore appearances. But his last three have produced 4 1/3 scoreless innings on one hit with seven strikeouts and a .330 OPS against. Last night he got four whiffs on six swings against his splitter.

Would Hyde consider extending him to three innings in some games?

It does confound some analysts. The Orioles, while ranking 10^th in MLB in run differential, are second in the sport in winning percentage.

Just how are they doing that?

Winning a lot of close games is how.

Ironically, when the Orioles returned to the playoffs in 2012 after a 14-year drought, they won a lot of close games. That team had a plus seven run differential for the year but won 93 games. Yep, 93 while barely outscoring the opponents for the year.

O’s second baseman Adam Frazier isn’t too worried about the run differential totals as much as the win total.

The Orioles and New York Yankees will play tonight to wrap up this series and their 2023 season series. The clubs will not meet again this year after tonight.

The Orioles blanked New York 1-0 Friday night on Anthony Santander’s walk-off home run in the last of the ninth. New York won 8-3 last night as right-hander Tyler Wells allowed three runs over 2 2/3 innings in his third straight ineffective outing. Ryan Mountcastle hit a solo homer Saturday night, his 13^th.

The Orioles (63-41) have lost three of four games and are 6-6 over their past 12 games. They are 31-21 at home and 15-9 in July. They are about to close out their fourth straight winning month of the season, fifth if you count going 1-0 in March.

The Orioles need a win tonight to keep an impressive streak going. They have not lost an American League East series since April 9, when they started 0-2 in division series. Since then they are 6-0-2, with the winner of this series to be determined by tonight’s game.

The last time the Orioles had a streak longer than eight consecutive non-losing division series was 11 in a row from Aug. 1-Sept. 30, 2012. This run has seen the Orioles winning series versus Boston, Tampa Bay, Toronto, New York and Toronto. They then split series at Tampa Bay and New York before going 3-1 against the Rays last weekend.

The trade deadline is fast approaching. It is Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET and we are getting real close now.

The deadline has seemed to not be a big topic in the O’s clubhouse this year, and one reason may be the team’s desire to be buyers this time and not sellers.

O’s executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said Friday he is not looking to trade from the current 26-man roster, but he could not rule it out. Still, an O’s deal or deals, barring a surprise, would be one where the club deals a prospect or more for current major league talent.

Asked again Saturday about the deadline and whether it impacts his club, manager Brandon Hyde indicated it really does not and has not.

“The trade deadline is there and everyone knows that date," he said. "But we are focused on the Yankees and their good pitching staff, and they’ve always been a tough team. … I don’t think any of our guys are thinking about the trade deadline right now. Think they are worrying about winning this series."

Heading into the All-Star break, right-hander Tyler Wells was an O’s pitcher on a roll. His ERA for the year was 3.18 and it was 2.83 in his most recent eight starts. He had pitched 18 times for the Orioles, going five innings or more every time and going six or more 10 times.

But he has been a different pitcher coming out of the break with three outings now and none over 4 1/3 innings.

He had another poor one tonight as the New York Yankees took an early lead and later added on to beat the Orioles 8-3. The crowd was 42,829 and the second sellout of the year in addition to the April 7 home opener.

The best news of the night for the Birds was Tampa Bay's 17-4 loss at Houston. That means the O's AL East lead remains 1.5 games. 

The second batter of the game against Wells tonight, Aaron Judge bashed a fly ball deep to center field. He hit that ball 108.2 mph and it went 367 feet but it stayed in the park. But three pitches later Giancarlo Stanton lined one to left that didn’t stay in the yard and it didn’t get much better after that for the right-hander.

After recording their fifth walk-off win of the year last night and their second 1-0 victory of the 2023 season, the Orioles (63-40) host the New York Yankees (54-49) again tonight at Oriole Park. One more win in this series will give the O’s their 20^th series win of the season.

Anthony Santander’s solo homer in the last of the ninth with one out ended the game early this morning. A game that started two hours and 32 minutes late due to rain. It was Santander’s third career walk-off plate appearance and second homer to end and win a game. He hit his first also versus the Yankees, a three-run shot on May 19, 2022.

Last night he blasted a Tommy Kahnle 2-0 changeup for the game winner. He hit the ball 108 mph off the bat and it went 425 feet to break the scoreless tie.

The Orioles went 3-1 in one-run games on their recent road trip and are now 20-10 on the year in those games.

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez pitched a career high 6 1/3 innings allowing three hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He threw 97 pitches and gave the Orioles their 41^st quality start. They are 31-10 in those games.

He is in the top five of the American League in walks and ranks top 10 in on-base percentage. And those are two big reasons O’s catcher Adley Rutschman will bat leadoff for the first time in his career tonight.

In 98 games this season he is batting .268/.368/.426/.794 and he ranks tied for third in the AL with 60 walks and is tied for eighth in OBP.

“Something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while,” manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon. “It’s just because he is such a high on-base guy and just have him hit in front of Gunnar (Henderson) and (Anthony) Santander and (Ryan) O’Hearn. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and playing with it a little bit. Just give it a try.”

Could it become more permanent?

“Maybe. Not really sure. Against righties right now, but I could switch it in a couple of days too. We’ll see when Ced (Cedric Mullins) gets back also, what I’m going to do there. But we’re just giving it a try right now. Feel like with Adley’s on base numbers, he’s on base all the time. I like the idea of him hitting in front of Gunnar,” said Hyde.

The Orioles' Ryan Mountcastle played on a team that lost 110 games in 2021 and finished 48 games out of first place with just 52 wins. As the series with the New York Yankees began last night, this 2023 O's club already had 62 wins, the second most in the majors.

The turnaround from last place team to winning club happened pretty fast and 2022 Orioles won 31 more games than that 2021 club.

Now the Orioles sit atop the AL East, a division they trailed by 6.5 games on July 1 and by six games on July Fourth.

“It’s crazy. I mean, you look back and just two years ago, we were nowhere close to where we are at today. The turnaround is pretty crazy and we’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” Mountcastle said Friday before the series opener in the Baltimore clubhouse.

“I think all the teams in this division are really good teams. Day in and day out when we face each other it is a big battle. This weekend is a good test for us,” he said.

It was a matchup of two right-handers who can bring 100 mph heat. One with a big career resume and one with big hopes for a brilliant MLB career.

On this night, the Orioles’ Grayson Rodriguez, once ranked the top pitching prospect in baseball, was matching Gerrit Cole, a six-time All-Star and six-time top 10 finisher in the Cy Young vote.

This classic old school pitchers' duel was turned over late to the bullpens and both kept the zeroes going well into the night and early Saturday morning. 

Then suddenly with one swing of Anthony Santander's bat, it was over.

He drilled a Tommy Kahnle 2-0 changeup over the right field wall with one out in the ninth for a 1-0 walk-off win over New York. It was Santander's second career walk-off homer and the 425-foot blast was his 18th on the year.

The Orioles are back at Camden Yards tonight after going 4-3 on the road trip to Tampa and Philadelphia. They host the New York Yankees for three games before they head to Toronto for a four-game set.

The Orioles (62-40) head into the weekend leading Tampa Bay by 1.5 games for first place. The Yankees (54-48) are in last place in the AL East and are eight games behind the Orioles.

The Birds have lost back-to-back games losing by 4-3 on Tuesday and by 6-4 on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park.

The Orioles have gone 6-0-2 in their past eight AL East series, not losing one since the second division series of the year in early April. They are 19-12 in division games, going 5-5 against New York. And they are 17-8 in those last eight series within the AL East.

The last time before this the Orioles went eight straight AL East series without losing one was from April 14 to June 22, 2014 (8), per the Elias Sports Bureau. The last longer such streak was from Aug.1 to Sept. 30, 2012 as they went without losing one for 11 consecutive division series.

It is only 11 at-bats, but in that small sample, the Orioles’ Ramón Urías is batting .455 with a slugging percentage of .909 against Yankees’ right-hander Gerrit Cole.

Cole (9-2, 2.78 ERA) will face the Orioles tonight for the second time this year and for the 12^th time in his career. On May 23 of this season he had one of his worst starts of the year against the Orioles, allowing five runs and six hits over five innings. Cedric Mullins and Gunnar Henderson hit solo homers that night.

But over 11 career games, Cole is 5-3 with a 2.80 ERA, a .600 OPS and a WHIP of 0.991 against the Orioles.

Urías is 5-for-11 against the six-time All-Star, who has twice finished second for the Cy Young Award. He has two doubles and a homer against Cole.

“I think for me it is about looking for something up in the zone,” he said this afternoon. “I know he is good at throwing his slider down in the zone and he can get chases with that. For me, looking up in the zone is important and look for mistakes. Every time I see the ball down, you try to lay off. And that is how I have had some success against him.”

With the trade deadline set for next Tuesday, the Orioles are no doubt checking in on the pitching market. For what it is worth, the pitching staff may be in better shape than some think and yet as they say, you can never have enough pitching.

But for a team that plays .750 ball this year when it gets a quality start, it has been happening with much greater frequency since early June for the Orioles.

In the team’s first 62 games this year, the Orioles got a quality start just 29.0 percent of the time, going 18-for-62 with a rotation ERA of 4.86 in the 62 games.

In the last 40 games, even after Kyle Bradish allowed five runs Wednesday, the Orioles have gotten a QS 55.0 percent, going 22-for-40 with a rotation ERA of 4.02.

It is a nice trend up and again the Orioles are 30-10 this year in their 40 quality starts. Where once the O’s were in the bottom third of the AL in quality starts, now just five teams have more.

During a road trip where six of the seven games were decided by one or two runs, the Orioles went 4-2 in those six games, which is quite respectable. But they lost the last two, which stings a bit. 

They come home with a series loss at Philadelphia (went 1-2) after their big series win (went 3-1) against Tampa Bay. 

But we should also keep in mind they were tied for first with Tampa Bay when that series began and now, they lead the AL East by 1.5 games. They are 5.5 games ahead of Toronto which currently holds the third AL wild card spot.

But the Orioles have had some problems this year against National League teams. While they have played .644 ball (47-26) against American League teams they have played just .517 ball (15-14) versus the NL.

They have gone 1-2 in series against Atlanta. the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philaelphia.