On MASN telecast, Elias talks about alternate camp (plus Lowther info)

Break up the alternate site Orioles. They are an unbeaten club.

The group of players that provide insurance for the roster of the big league team as the wait for the minor league season to start May 4 are 4-0 in games where box scores have been provided. They have scored 38 runs in winning four versus the Nationals alternate squad camp roster. The Orioles posted some information on their player development Twitter account.

During the Friday broadcast on MASN, O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias talked about the group that has scored nine, eight, 10 and 11 runs thus far. Their most recent win was by 11-5 on Friday at Prince George's Stadium in Bowie.

"We try not to get too worked up with minor league simulation games, but they have been scoring runs," he said on the telecast. "And it's a talented group. A lot of these guys are on the 40-man roster. They are prospects, so to speak. It's a real young group. It's not, you know, a lot of signed out of the organization older, depth type of guys. These are young, 23-, 24-year-old prospects that have been drafted by the Orioles or brought in via trade. I think it will be a really fun Norfolk team this year.

"I mean, it's a pretty repetitive environment there. They practice or we intrasquad every day, but we have been playing the Washington Nationals alternate site (team) about twice a week. They are based out of Fredericksburg, Va. So we've been able to face off at their place and ours. Some of our guys have swung the bat decently."

In Friday's 11-5 O's win, Stevie Wilkerson went 2-for-2 with a double and triple. Rylan Bannon was 2-for-3 and Ryan Ripken was 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles.

Now the O's are anxious to get their four full-season minor league clubs underway in less than two weeks at Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, high Single-A Aberdeen and low Single-A Delmarva.

"Excited and just very relieved," said Elias. "It's been so difficult for us as an organization trying to build through the minor leagues to not have them for a year. For the players, too - the training, the difficulties, the challenges that the whole thing has provided. But camp is going very well, very smoothly in Florida and at our alternate site at Bowie and in the Dominican Republic. And May 4, we are expecting Minor League Baseball."

And most of the players that are at the alternate site right now are headed for Triple-A.

"When we have to set those rosters, depending on what is going on here at the major league level, some of those players may not have a spot," Elias said. "Some of them may be involved in our plans here in the big leagues. Others of them may be able to go to Double-A. But I think more than 90 percent of the group that we have there is going to break and be part of the Norfolk Tides."

Trying to avoid a sweep: After losses by 3-1 and 7-2 to Oakland the last two nights, the Orioles fall to 8-12 at the 20-game mark. That is a 65-win pace over a full year. Last year, they were 12-8 at the 20-game mark of the 60-game season.

While the Orioles have back-to-back games of double-digit hits for the first time all year - they've had exactly 10 hits each of the last two nights - they've scored just three runs in this series.

In their last seven losses, the O's have scored three, two, one, zero, zero, one and two runs. That is three runs in the last four losses and nine runs in the past seven.

Lefty John Means (1-0, 1.52 ERA) gets the start this afternoon as the O's try to avoid a three-game sweep and snap Oakland's 13-game winning streak at Oriole Park.

Meanwhile, lefty Zac Lowther is headed to join the Orioles today, as reported last night by Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.

Check out this story I wrote on Lowther in early February, right before the start of spring training. Lowther was the O's co-Minor League Pitcher of the Year (with Keegan Akin) in 2018 and was one of the best pitchers in the Double-A Eastern League in 2019. Had there been a 2020 season on the farm, he would have pitched at Triple-A and might be in the Baltimore rotation right now. That result, though, may just be delayed and not denied.

This story ends with a 13-minute video interview I shot with Lowther in February that is well worth your time. You will be watching a cerebral, articulate young man who provides some excellent insight into his career and his pitching.