The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
Additionally, INF Livan Soto has been claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds.
The Orioles are mashing some home runs to start the 2024 season. Through Wednesday’s games, they ranked as the most homer-happy team in all of Major League Baseball.
They led the majors in homers and homers per game and actually, and yes, it’s very early, they are a record pace for Orioles homers.
The most any O’s team ever hit was the 1996 Birds with 257. At their current pace, if maintained, this team would hit 270.
And sure, maybe that pace won’t be maintained. But last year the O’s scored a lot of runs thanks in large measure to outstanding runners in scoring position hitting stats.
By the way, this O’s group is faring well there too, third in the AL as of yesterday with a team average of .293 with RISP.
It has been an eventful home season for the Orioles. They began it by scoring 11 and 13 runs their first two games this year at the Yard. They had two walk-off wins at Camden Yards heading into yesterday’s game.
Now Oriole Park is home of the mound where 34-year-old right-hander Albert Suárez returned to the big leagues. He was last in the majors in 2017 with San Francisco and yesterday made his first big league appearance in 2,395 days.
Yes, it had been a minute, if over six years is that.
This game was special for Suárez, who spent time the last five seasons pitching in Japan and Korea. The Orioles signed him last Oct. 12 and he would get another shot to once again make a big league roster.
He had some impressive moments for the club in spring training and showed velocity he didn’t show with the Giants in 2016, when his fastball averaged 92.0 mph and a year later when it was at 93.5.
Ryan O’Hearn had to think about it. Frozen for a brief moment while working through the riddle in his head.
The only at-bat this season against a left-hander?
“Did I get an at-bat against a lefty,” he asked.
We weren’t off to a promising start, but it suddenly came to him. One detail at a time until he had the full answer.
“Pittsburgh, sinker guy, in extra innings,” he said, reciting details as if playing Clue and choosing Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick.
With their 11-3 win over the Minnesota Twins last night coupled with Toronto’s 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees, the Orioles (11-6) moved to within ½ game of first place in the American League East.
After winning their first game of the year on March 28, the Orioles were tied for first place. They have not been in the AL East top spot since, but would be later today with a win and a New York loss at Toronto in a game beginning at 3:07 p.m.
The Orioles have one series sweep this year, when they won three in a row at Boston, and could match that today against the Twins. This would be Baltimore's first sweep of Minnesota since a three-game set at Target Field from July 7-9, 2023. The Orioles haven't swept the Twins at Oriole Park since a three-game set from April 4-7, 2016.
The Orioles had a season-high 15 hits last night and have had 11 hits or more in four consecutive games. In those games the team batting average is .342 with an OPS of 1.003 and Baltimore has scored 29 runs.
In the last eight games, the Orioles have scored 53 runs on 87 hits. The Orioles have hit 11 doubles, a triple and 18 homers in that span with a team batting average of .297 and .880 OPS. The O’s, who are 6-2 in this stretch, are scoring 6.6 runs per game during the run.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.
BOWIE. Md. – Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish, who had not pitched in a game since the American League Division Series in October, took the mound beginning his minor league rehab assignment for Double-A Bowie against Altoona last night.
He said he would treat the rehab assignment like his spring training as he comes back from a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that required a platelet-rich plasma injection.
Bradish’s “spring” is off to a great start.
He was dealing from his first pitch at Prince George’s Stadium. Touching 95 and 96 mph on the stadium radar gun, he allowed one line drive single and no runs in three scoreless innings. He walked no one and fanned four. He threw 44 pitches, 26 for strikes. He threw all of his pitches, getting strikeouts with three different offerings and got, by my count, 11 swinging strikes.
He looked in mid-season form.
The thought struck Danny Coulombe like a screaming line drive. At least it didn’t leave any bruises.
“Man, I got to play catch with a Hall of Famer.”
That’s the impact closer Craig Kimbrel makes on his new teammates.
Coulombe and Kimbrel worked out together before Monday night’s game at Camden Yards. Tossing a baseball back and forth no longer felt routine. There was something special about it for Coulombe.
“He’s obviously a Hall of Famer,” Coulombe said yesterday, anticipating the voting that awaits Kimbrel five years after his retirement, “but he is like the most down to earth guy you’ll ever meet.”
BOWIE, Md. – It’s a significant step tonight for Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish, who finished fourth last year for the American League Cy Young Award. He is making his first start in a game in 2024 on a minor league rehab assignment outing for the Double-A Bowie Baysox against Altoona, a Pittsburgh affiliate.
And in this outing, he looked like the 2023 Kyle Bradish, the pitcher we last saw in a game in the American League Division Series in October. He pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, a single, with four strikeouts and no walks and touched 95 and 96 mph on the stadium radar gun.
Maybe even the Orioles could have not have expected much more or for Bradish to look this good, this fast. But he did.
His last start in a game was when he gave up two runs over 4 2/3 innings last Oct. 7 in Baltimore in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers.
Diagnosed in January with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Bradish had a platelet-rich plasma injection to try to get himself back into the O’s rotation.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.
After a 7-4 win over the Minnesota Twins Monday at Oriole Park, in a game in which the Orioles never trailed, they host Minnesota again tonight with a chance to win this series.
The Orioles (10-6) are on a pace to win 101 games, matching their 2023 total, at this early stage of this season. The O’s begin play today 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the American League East lead. They are 6-4 at home and 5-1 in series-opening games.
The Orioles hit three homers last night. They have hit nine in their past three games, 14 in the last five games and 24 on the season. That is a total that leads the AL and is one behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the major league lead. The Birds average 1.5 homers per game, second in the majors to Milwaukee's 1.6
The Orioles hit two or more homers eight times this season and they are 7-1 in those games.
The Baltimore offense is starting to pick up. In winning five of their past seven games, the Orioles have scored 42 runs while hitting 15 homers. In those games the team batting average is .283 with a .343 OBP, a .504 slugging and .847 OPS.
BOWIE, Md. - He is one of the Orioles young international players that has already worked his way among the club’s top 30 prospects. And middle infielder Frederick Bencosme, age 21 from the Dominican Republic, is off to a good start for Double-A Bowie.
Ranked as the club’s No. 27 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 28 via Baseball America, Bencosme spent the entire 2023 season at High-A Aberdeen batting .246 with a .657 OPS.
This is a kid that clearly works hard to better his game and along those lines he spent two months in winter ball in the Dominican Republic with Aquilas Cibaenas. He went 3-for-10 in five games but spent a couple of months around the team, learning and gaining knowledge.
He said players like former big leaguer Melky Cabrera and current Chicago Cub Christopher Morel mentored him.
“I was working like four days a week in the weight room and practicing with them. It was a great experience. Melky was talking to me about pitcher strategies. And I also learned I have to understand what kind of hitter that I am," he said.
Cole Irvin had his back to home plate and a huge smile on his face. Both arms raised. Eyes wide. A combination of pure joy and utter disbelief.
Cedric Mullins saved him from allowing a run in the top of the first inning, and did it in remarkable fashion. Now it was Irvin’s duty to show his appreciation in the proper fashion.
Accept the lead that came quickly to him and don’t lose it. Care for it until handing it over to the bullpen.
Relievers became responsible for it by the fifth, sooner than manager Brandon Hyde desired but a group effort that got the series started on a winning note. And Mullins wasn’t done contributing.
Jordan Westburg delivered a two-run double in the first inning, Ryan O’Hearn led off the third with a homer, Mullins finished with a sacrifice fly and two-run homer, and the Orioles never trailed in a 7-4 victory over the Twins before an announced crowd of 14,611 at Camden Yards.
After facing a hot-hitting Brewers team over the weekend - and losing two of three games - the Orioles welcome the Twins to town tonight to begin a three-game series that will wrap up the current homestand.
The Twins (6-8) are in fourth in the American League Central, four games behind the division-leading Guardians.
Minnesota is batting .185 as a team through 14 games and that ranks 15th and last among all clubs in the American League and 30th and last in the majors. The Twins .281 OBP is 13th in the AL and they are 13th in slugging (.325) and OPS (.606).
The Twins average 3.5 runs per game to rank 12th in the AL and 27th in the majors. They scored 20 runs in splitting four games over the weekend at Detroit. But they have scored three runs or fewer nine times and they have the fourth-highest strikeout total as batters in the AL at 147.
The Twins and Orioles are playing each other for the first of six games in 2024. Minnesota will host the O's for three games to complete the regular season from Sept. 27-29. The Twins went 2-4 vs. Baltimore last season, going 2-1 at Camden Yards and 0-3 at Target Field.
It’s Jackie Robinson Day around Major League Baseball. Today, every player on every team is wearing No. 42.
Today MLB celebrates the 77th anniversary of the day that Robison broke baseball’s color barrier. On this date in 1947 he became the first black man to play in the majors when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, wearing No. 42.
O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins said he has been trying to find a way to hang onto his No. 42 jersey each year but the jerseys usually are auctioned off.
What does today mean to him?
“I think it’s about opportunity. That is what it boils down to” said Mullins. “At the end of the day, it’s about guys and players like myself to have the opportunity to play this game on the highest level.
Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish begins his injury rehab assignment Tuesday night at Double-A Bowie. The Baysox are playing the Altoona Curve, a Pirates affiliate, with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
Bradish was supposed to debut last Thursday at High-A Aberdeen, but he threw live batting practice due to the inclement weather. He had a bullpen session Saturday at Camden Yards and keeps reporting positive progress.
The Bowie start will be Bradish’s first since Game 1 of the Division Series against the Rangers. He was diagnosed in January with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and received a platelet-rich plasma injection.
The Orioles want to get multiple innings out of Bradish.
“I think we’re hoping somewhere between two and three innings, in between 40-50 pitches would be ideal,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “See how he feels after every inning, but that would be best-case scenario.”
The Orioles avoided a sweep in the Brewers series with yesterday’s 6-4 win, running their streak in the regular season to 96. Jackson Holliday collected his first major league hit with a single in the seventh inning, and he’s batting ninth and playing second base tonight against the Twins at Camden Yards.
Holliday was 0-for-13 before his ground ball reached right field.
“Not so much difficult, just a lot, but it’s been fun,” he told the media at his locker. “It’s quite an experience. I don’t think I’d ever take it for granted, the experience that I’ve had and it’s a good learning experience. If you are 0-for three or four games, that’s going to happen in baseball. I’d prefer it not to happen at the beginning of my career, but it’s going to happen and I’m glad to hopefully learn from it.”
Anthony Santander gets a breather tonight, with Colton Cowser in right field and Austin Hays in left.
Cedric Mullins homered yesterday and has a six-game hitting streak.
Has there been a hitter with stats so radically different from one year to the next than Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser?
Maybe there has been, but when your OPS gains over 1.000 points, from .433 last year to 1.444 this year after Sunday’s game, that is a big leap up. And yes, the sample size is small in both seasons – he had 77 plate appearances last year and has 38 this season.
“Very proud of him, very happy with his adjustments. He took what we said into the offseason, worked with his coach back in Texas. Made great adjustments, not just the physical adjustments, but the mental adjustments too. Really confident at the plate and goes in with a great plan of attack,” O’s co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller said before Sunday’s game.
Cowser hit a solo homer in the last of the eighth yesterday to provide a big insurance run as the Orioles beat Milwaukee 6-4. He is the first Oriole with four homers in four games since Ryan Mountcastle from April 10-13, 2023. He is the first Oriole rookie to do that since Mountcastle from June 16-19, 2021.
Through Saturday's games, Cowser’s K rate had dropped year-over-year from 28.6 to 23.5 and his average exit velocity increased from 87.4 to 92.7 mph. His hard-hit rate, which was 42.5 last year is now 58.3.
Orioles pitchers have been roughed up by Milwaukee batters in the first two games of this weekend series as the Brewers have beaten the Orioles by 11-1 and 11-5 scores.
The Orioles (8-6) entered this series with a team ERA of 2.86. In the last two days it has increased to 3.87.
O’s starters Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer have allowed 16 hits and 12 runs in eight innings in the series. O’s pitchers have allowed five homers against Milwaukee.
As they try to avoid being swept today, the Orioles send their ace and former Brewer right-hander Corbin Burnes (2-0, 1.93 ERA) to the mound. The Orioles are 3-0 in his starts this season and 5-6 in all other games.
Through his first three games, Burnes has thrown 18 2/3 innings, allowing 12 hits and four runs with just two walks to 20 strikeouts. His WHIP is 0.750 and he has given up a batting average against of .176 and OPS of .494 to opponent batters.
Well, the Milwaukee Brewers are really swinging it right now. They were playing well before they got to Baltimore and have put up 22 runs over the first two games of this series.
Milwaukee has not lost a series this year and can sweep this one today after wins by 11-1 and 11-5 at Oriole Park.
The Brewers are now 10-3 after going 92-70 last year. They have been in the playoffs five times in the last six seasons, winning division championships in 2018, 2021 and 2023.
They have now scored seven runs or more in six consecutive games, tying a club mark first set in 1982 and matched in 1989. They have scored 58 runs in those six games and are now 7-1 on the road.
Heading into this series, O's pitchers had allowed as many as five runs in one game just twice this year. In this series their team ERA increased from 2.86 to 3.87.
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