It was a first in Orioles history. Never had a player driven in nine runs in one home game until Ryan Mountcastle did it last night at Camden Yards as the Orioles beat Oakland 12-8.

What a night for Mountcastle who joins Eddie Murray and Jim Gentile as the only Orioles in team history – which dates to 1954 of course – to have a nine-RBI game. Gentile hit two grand slams when he drove in nine on May 9, 1961 at Minnesota. Murray hit one slam when he did it Aug. 26, 1985 at the California Angels.

Mountcastle’s night began with a sac fly in the first inning. He added an RBI single in the third, three-run homer in the fifth and grand slam in the seventh. He went 3-for-4 and his slam went 456 feet. He produced his seventh career multi-homer game and second career grand slam.

The first three batters in the Baltimore order – Austin Hays, Adley Rutschman and Mountcastle – went a combined 9-for-12 with two doubles, three homers, eight runs and 11 RBIs.

Through 11 games, Mountcastle is batting .289/.320/.711/1.031 with four doubles, five homers and 18 RBIs. No other player on the team has more than three homers and no one has more than eight RBIs except for him.

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (0-0, 3.60 ERA) tonight makes his Oriole Park debut and his second career start as the Orioles' four-game series with the Oakland Athletics continues.

The Orioles (5-5) beat Oakland (2-8) by 5-1 on Monday to start this series as Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run homer in the first inning before Adley Rutschman and Austin Hays added solo shots. It was Rutschman's first time in the majors homering in back-to-back games.

The Orioles have been at .500 five times at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and now 5-5. Oakland has lost five in a row and been outscored 42-10 in those games. In the last three games, opponents have outscored the A’s 27-1.

The Orioles offense has scored 50 runs through the first 10 games and posted a team batting line of .236/.325/.432/.757. They have produced six multi-home run games thus far, and scored five runs or more six times.

Rodriguez made his anticipated big league debut last Wednesday afternoon at Texas at Globe Life Field. He allowed two runs in the first inning, but nothing the rest of his outing. He went five innings and gave up four hits and two runs with one walk and five strikeouts, throwing 83 pitches, 53 for strikes.

Gunnar Henderson, off to a .148 batting start in his first eight games of this season, has been making some small adjustments in his batting stance that he feels soon could produce the solid results he and the team expect from him.

In his 34 games after his call-up last year he batted .259 with a .788 OPS, producing an OPS+ of 123. Those numbers made him among the favorites and maybe the favorite to win the 2023 American League Rookie of the Year Award. 

“I feel like it’s still early for me because I was a little bit behind in spring (dealing with a minor wrist issue early in camp), not getting all the live at-bats I needed,” he said today. “I’m taking my walks and having really good pitch selection right now. Just some of them haven’t gone my way. Been working on some body posture in the cage. Past few games had some really good swings on the ball, reminding me of past swings I’ve had. Feeling the way I am right now, I feel it will come around.”

Henderson is 4-for-27 but has drawn a team-leading eight walks to go along with 14 strikeouts. He has one double, one homer and two RBIs. Only four players in the entire AL have drawn more than eight walks.

Believe it or not, Henderson is now drawing on the experience of another slow start, this one when he was promoted from Single-A Delmarva to High-A Aberdeen in June 2021. Back then he was just 1-for-31 (.032) in his first 11 games after moving up to Aberdeen. What he learned then: Don’t panic over that start and don’t try to constantly make changes to get his bat going.

After losing two of three over the weekend to the New York Yankees, the Orioles' (4-5) homestand continues tonight at Oriole Park. They begin a four-game series against the Oakland Athletics (2-7), who have lost four in a row and got swept three straight by the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Oakland lost 9-5 Friday and by identical 11-0 scores the last two days. The A’s were outscored 31-5 in that series and have been outscored 37-9 the past four games. A’s pitching has already allowed 11 runs or more four times this season.

And that pitching staff has been the worst of all 30 teams in the majors with a team ERA of 7.54. Oakland starting pitchers to this point are 0-5 with a 10.04 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, and a .320 batting average against. They have allowed 12 homers in 40 1/3 innings. That is easily the worst rotation ERA in the major leagues, with Detroit the next worst at 7.49.

In the Tampa Bay series, the A’s starters covered a combined 12 innings, allowing 18 hits and 20 runs. On Saturday they needed their backup catcher to pitch the eighth inning of that loss.

The Oakland offense has had its share of issues as well. As a team, they are batting .192/.265/.320/.585 and scoring just 27 runs so far. They rank between 13^th and 15^th in the American League in each of those four categories.

For Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins, after a solid start to his year batting against left-handed pitching, he sees it as actually a good thing that the Orioles face three left-handers to start their series against Oakland.

Mullins got his season off to a great start, going 5-for-13 with two homers and seven RBIs in the first series at Boston. But he is 2-for-24 in the six games since that series. However, he is also 4-for-11 with a homer and six RBIs versus lefties this year after struggling against southpaws in 2022.

So bring on the lefties as the Oakland series begins.

“Yeah, I’d say so (nice to see lefties),” he said this afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “You know, I feel like I’ve had pretty strong at-bats and just a matter of putting them altogether. I know it’s still early in that aspect, but feel confident where I am.

“Kind of in the middle (right now). I had a really strong start out in Boston. In terms of strikeouts, I feel like those have been manageable. Had a few walks as well, so feel like I am controlling the zone really well. Just a mater of finding the grass and keep focusing on hitting the ball hard.”

The Orioles, now 2-0 on Opening Days in the 2023 season and 3-0 in series-opening games, will host the New York Yankees tonight. It’s the first night game of the year in Baltimore and the second game of a three-game series.

The Orioles improved to 46-24 all-time in home openers and 22-10 in Oriole Park openers with Friday’s 7-6 win in front of a sellout crowd of 45,017. Six different Orioles drove in runs as they had 10 hits. Through seven games the team is batting .259/.350/.469/.819, and they’ve hit 17 doubles and 11 home runs and scored 41 runs. The Orioles have scored five or more in five of their seven games and scored seven runs or more four times.

Shortstop Jorge Mateo, being rested tonight with a sore ankle, tallied his team-high third multi-hit performance of the season on Friday, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a run scored. In 2022, he didn’t record his first multi-hit game until the team’s ninth game and didn’t register his third multi-hit performance until his 25th game of the season.

Ramón Urías picked up his second multi-hit game (he also had multiple hits on March 30 at Boston). He produced his fifth career game with two doubles, and his first since July 16, 2022 at Tampa Bay.

First sacker Ryan Mountcastle swiped his first bag of the season in the seventh inning. That marked his first stolen base since July 8, 2022 against the Los Angeles Angels. Mountcastle, who is batting .276/.333/.586/.920, has hit safely in six of the first seven games to start the new year.

Oftentimes judging a reliever’s performance off his ERA, especially in a small sample, is not a solid path to take in evaluating that pitcher. Take O’s right-hander Bryan Baker.

His ERA is 5.79 in four games to start the new season. But his batting average against is .200 and opponent batters have an OPS of just .544 versus Baker. 

On Opening Day in Boston he gave up three runs over two-thirds of an inning. In three games since then, he has thrown four scoreless innings on one hit with no walks and four strikeouts.

Thanks to the help of third sacker Ramón Urías, who turned a nifty 5-3 double play, and his own strikeout of Isiah Kiner-Falefa on a 96 mph heater in the eighth inning here yesterday, he got three huge outs in the O’s 7-6 win over the New York Yankees.

The Orioles improved to 4-3 on the year, and to 46-24 all-time in home openers.

When it comes to facing left-handed pitchers, O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins, no longer a switch-hitter, has had success in the past batting left-on-left.

But the hits were not coming to him very often against lefty pitchers last year, when he hit .209/.265/.313/.578 against left-handers. That was very different from his solid numbers of 2021, when he produced a .277 batting average and .788 OPS left-on-left.

So Mullins’ winter focus was on getting back to stats like those in this 2023 season.

“Just really kind of dug deep into how some of my at-bats went last year,” he said this week at Globe Life Field. “Kind of getting a sense of what guys were trying to do to me and kind of make adjustments from there. Tried to simulate as much as I possibly could (this winter).”

The deep dive included a closer look at how those southpaws were getting him out.

ARLINGTON, Texas – During a series when they lost a pitcher to injury, the Orioles added a rookie flamethrower from the farm and restored some order on the mound.

It was a nice step forward for a pitching staff that had given up 27 runs at Fenway Park and had a staff ERA of 8.42 after the season’s first three games. The O’s staff ERA was just 2.42 in the Texas series. There, against a Rangers team that had scored 29 runs with a club OPS of .966 in sweeping the Phillies, the O’s allowed just seven runs, 17 hits and just three walks to 24 strikeouts.

They threw a one-hitter on just 108 pitches here Monday night. That win was big for the Orioles as the bullpen stepped up, especially Tyler Wells, after Kyle Bradish got hurt. They shut down the Rangers and put back-to-back losses in Boston in the rear-view mirror. Kyle Gibson followed that with an outstanding outing, and then Grayson Rodriguez had a solid big league debut yesterday at Globe Life Field.

Even after the Bradish injury, suddenly the pitching is showing more promise. And Bradish, who manager Brandon Hyde said had great stuff before he took a liner off his foot Monday night, could be returning as soon as his stint on the injured list is up.

The bullpen was much better here, even if Austin Voth did allow three runs yesterday after inheriting a 2-2 tie in the Rangers' 5-2 win.

ARLINGTON, Texas – With a large rooting section from his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas, in the stands today, Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez made a strong big league debut in his home state. But it didn’t start out great for him. 

After allowing two runs and giving up some loud contact in the Rangers' first inning, he settled in nicely and at times looked very much like what he is: one of baseball’s best pitching prospects. And the pitcher who has gone 25-9 with a 2.49 ERA in 70 games on the Baltimore farm. The pitcher ranked No. 6 in the Baseball America top 100 and No. 7 by MLBPipeline.com.

He struggled as games got deeper in spring training, but not today.

Texas went 2-for-5 against him in its two-run first inning, then just 2-for-14 from the second through the fifth inning.

Right-hander Austin Voth replaced him to start the sixth in a 2-2 tie. But Texas third baseman Josh Jung took him to the opposite field for a two-run shot to right. That blast was enough for the Rangers to go on to win this one 5-2 as the Orioles failed to sweep the series.

ARLINGTON, Texas – O’s rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the sport by Baseball America and No. 7 via MLBPipeline.com, today makes his long-anticipated major league debut. Rodriguez will face two-time National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom as the Orioles and Texas Rangers conclude a three-game series at Globe Life Field.

After wins of 2-0 and 7-2, the O’s can sweep this series today and beat Texas for the ninth straight time, going back to last year. Baltimore pitching has thrown 18 innings this series, allowing just eight hits and two runs with two walks and 15 strikeouts.

The Orioles (3-2) begin play today tied with the New York Yankees for second in the American League East, two games behind unbeaten and division-leading Tampa Bay at 5-0. Boston and Toronto are 2-3.

Rodriguez had some struggles in spring training and posted a 7.04 ERA over 15 1/3 innings. It looked like he would break north with the team in the Opening Day rotation to start the year, but instead he was optioned to the minors and made one start for Triple-A Norfolk. But due to the injury to Kyle Bradish, who was placed on the injured list today, here he is already, ready to debut, and in his home state of Texas.

He made his Triple-A season debut in Norfolk’s season opener at Durham last Friday night, allowing three runs (two earned) over four innings. He was scheduled to pitch tomorrow for the Tides at home, but now that plan has changed. Rodriguez will be pitching on normal rest today.

ARLINGTON, Tex. – Before we get to today's game, the Orioles annouced before game time today that their scheduled home opener tomorrow with the New York Yankees has been postponed until Friday at 3:05 p.m.

An Orioles tweet said: "After consultation with MLB, tomorrow's home opener at Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been postponed due to the forecast of severe inclement weather."

Meanwhile, there is, no doubt, a buzz around the Orioles today on the occasion of Grayson Rodriguez’s major league debut. As some of the gates opened earlier at Globe Life Field, some friends from his high school days in Nagodoches, Texas were already in the stands. Several O’s players discussed how excited they are to see one of baseball’s top prospects take the mound.

Manager Brandon Hyde said today he is confident that Kyle Bradish will be back when his stint on the injured list is up. So is this a potential one-off for Rodriguez today, or does he stay in the rotation?

“That’s the one thing we are excited about, is that we have depth and we have talent,” said Hyde. “The one thing that wins in this league is depth. We’re going to see how it goes. You’re not going to break with five starters and have those five starters pitch all year. Things happen. We didn’t expect Kyle Bradish to get hit on the foot. He had great stuff the other night. We’re just going to kind of watch a little bit. See how the next week and a half, two weeks go and go from there.

ARLINGTON, Tex. – Sometimes in baseball it is said that momentum can be hard for a team to build because it is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. Meaning someone can shut you down and beat you. In the case of the Orioles the next day’s starter built on what happened the previous day in a twist on the phrase.

When asked about his strong seven-inning start last night as the Orioles beat Texas 7-2, right-hander Kyle Gibson first spent quite some time talking about the job Tyler Wells did the night before when Kyle Bradish got hurt. The Orioles were still marveling yesterday at Wells’ performance to bolster the pitching staff Monday night in the series-opening 2-0 win.

“I don’t think we can say enough about what Tyler Wells did for this team (Monday) night,” said Gibson. “That set us up for me not needing to go seven innings tonight. I was thankful I was able to do it, but what a job by him. When I found out he was going in, they asked me if I could throw (yesterday) and that’s a no brainer. If Wellsy can step up and do that I can take my turn the next day. Anytime a starter can get to the seventh, I think it’s big for the bullpen. I told Hyder I could go another one and try to save one more inning, but he said they were fresh enough down there and handed the ball off.”

The Orioles realized what Wells did Monday was pretty special in how he stepped up and Gibson said good teams need such things.

“It’s necessary, right,” he said. “There is something on the line behind the scenes like every time a guy is on the mound. That put him in a tough spot - he is not staying on routine, mentally he is not locked in when Hyder asked him that. But it shows a lot about his routine and how he stays prepared. He had done a really good job of staying prepared and ready. I think that is what this team is all about – we’ve got a lot of young guys that have really good heads on their shoulders and understand that if they start the game on the bench, they are one play away from being out there. Hats off to him. That gave us a lot of momentum going into today.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – As news surfaced before first pitch tonight that rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was expected to make his major league debut on Wednesday afternoon for the Orioles, the club prepared to take the field against Texas. They were looking for a series win and to follow up last night’s uplifting shutout victory over the Rangers.

And they got the win and made it look rather easy, beating Texas 7-2 for their first 2023 win that did not come by either one or two runs. The Orioles improved to 3-2 tonight and Texas falls to 3-2. After sweeping defending National League champion Philadelphia to start their year, the Rangers could get swept in this series by the Orioles.

Just before the game started, multiple outlets reported that the Orioles would call up Rodriguez to make his big league debut in tomorrow afternoon’s series finale.

Rodriguez, 23, the No. 6 prospect in the sport per Baseball America, would be facing Texas right-hander Jacob deGrom, a pitcher with a career 2.55 ERA and two Cy Young Awards. He would also be pitching in his home state for his debut. The O’s drafted him in Round 1 (No. 11 overall) in the 2018 draft out of a high school in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Rodriguez was considered likely to break north with the Orioles in the Opening Day starting rotation, but late in camp was sent back to the minors after pitching to a spring ERA of 7.04 over 15 1/3 innings. He made his Triple-A season debut in Norfolk’s season opener at Durham last Friday night, allowing three runs (two earned) over four innings. He was scheduled to pitch this Thursday for the Tides at home, but now that plan has changed. Rodriguez would be pitching on normal rest tomorrow.

ARLINGTON, Texas – After their four-pitcher one-hitter in the series opener here Monday night, the Orioles look for a series-clinching win tonight at Globe Life Field versus the Texas Rangers.

The Orioles (2-2) got solo homers from Gunnar Henderson and Jorge Mateo in Monday’s 2-0 win, in which four hurlers combined to need just 108 pitches in the first Baltimore one-hitter since a 4-1 win at the Chicago White Sox on June 24, 2022.

Right-hander Tyler Wells threw five no-hit innings on 47 pitches as the Orioles won their seventh straight game versus Texas, going back to last season. Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish took a liner off his right foot, suffered a contusion, and had to leave the game in last of the second inning after pitching 1 2/3.

Then the Baltimore bullpen, featuring Danny Coulombe, Wells and Félix Bautista went 7 1/3 scoreless without allowing a hit and Texas, which was 1-for-29 batting on the night, was 0-for-23 against the O’s bullpen, which had an ERA of 5.93 in the Boston series.

Last night marked the first time in Orioles history that the bullpen worked at least seven no-hit innings in a game. The previous record was six hitless innings, done twice: Sept. 8, 2011 against the Yankees and June 24, 2022 at the White Sox.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Orioles got through a tough spot last night because right-hander Tyler Wells and two of his teammates saved the day in the 2-0 win over the Texas Rangers. When right-hander Kyle Bradish left last night’s game early, the Orioles put the wheels in motion in thinking about piecing together last night’s nine innings and about tonight’s outing. During the Monday game, they were already leaning toward having Opening Day starter Kyle Gibson pitch tonight.

But now comes the decision about the starter here tomorrow afternoon in the series finale at Texas. The O’s still have not made a decision on what they will do. They could use Austin Voth if he doesn’t pitch tonight. They could call someone up from the minor leagues to make the start.

“We’re still in discussions about tomorrow,” manager Brandon Hyde said today in the Baltimore dugout. “We’re going to get through tonight and then go from there.”

At Triple-A, DL Hall is scheduled to pitch Norfolk’s home opener tonight. Drew Rom is listed for Wednesday, Grayson Rodriguez for Thursday and Bruce Zimmermann on Saturday.

Hyde was asked if it’s too soon to call up Rodriguez after the organization decided to option him to the minors to begin the season. Rodriguez pitched to a 7.04 ERA in 15 1/3 spring innings. He went four innings, allowing three runs (two earned) in the Tides' season opener last Friday. He would be on regular rest for a start tomorrow.

How do the Orioles bounce back after such a brutal loss? I don’t have that answer, but what choice do they have? A good thing about baseball sometimes is that it's everyday nature. They have another game today and need to win it to win this series.

I’ve been in their clubhouse over the years a day after a tough, tough loss and am always surprised at how well the players can move on. They just know they have to. There isn’t much to learn from their loss on Saturday when Ryan McKenna’s dropped popup should have been the third out of a win. Instead, it gave Boston another swing. And a player having a huge day, Adam Duvall, hit a two-run homer off Félix Bautista for a 9-8 win.

The Orioles should be 2-0. They are 1-1.

How do they respond? We begin to find out this afternoon.

The start of the year has produced some record-setting performances. According to STATS, the Orioles are the first team with two players having five hits in the first two games of a season since 1901. Adley Rutschman did it on Opening Day, and yesterday, Austin Hays went 5-for-5 with two doubles and a solo homer.

The Orioles' Triple-A Norfolk affiliate began its new season last night. But the seasons do not begin for Double-A Bowie, High-A Aberdeen or Single-A Delmarva until next Thursday.

But today we have the break-camp rosters for those three clubs as they were announced this afternoon. There still could be tweaks and changes to these rosters between now and first pitches next week.

There are six O's prospects MLBPipeline.com ranks in the organization's top 30 at Bowie, four with Aberdeen right now and three at Delmarva.

As written here earlier today, the expectation was that shortstop Jackson Holliday would begin with Delmarva, and indeed he is with Delmarva. Also as expected, Heston Kjerstad is at Bowie.

BOWIE

A player who has dealt with enormous expectations for a long time, O’s catcher Adley Rutschman delivered an enormous performance on his first major league Opening Day as the Orioles held off Boston 10-9 at Fenway Park. 

Rutschman hit a solo homer in the first, delivered a two-run single in the fifth and singled in a run in the seventh. It was a 5-for-5 game and he walked once to reach base six times while driving in four runs.

Rutschman is the first player to go 5-for-5 or better with at least four RBIs on Opening Day, and he's only the third to go 5-for-5 with multiple RBIs in an opener since 1920, joining Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Billy Herman. Rutschman is the first Orioles catcher to homer on Opening Day since Matt Wieters in 2013. He is also the youngest Oriole to homer on Opening Day since Adam Jones in 2010, and the youngest to do it in his first at-bat since Cal Ripken Jr. in 1984.

Pretty historic day for the player that was the unanimous winner of the Most Valuable Oriole award in 2022 and who finished second to Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez for the American League Rookie of the Year honor.

"Not a bad way to have your first one," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "Swung the bat great, caught outstanding, gives us an early boost homer there right away in the first inning."

The Orioles begin their 70^th major league season today, playing their season opener at Boston’s Fenway Park for the third time in the last four years. The Orioles open with six games on the road – three in Boston and three at Texas – before their home opener a week from today versus the New York Yankees.

The Opening Day pitching matchup features two veteran right-handers making debuts with their new clubs. Between them, the Orioles' Kyle Gibson (10-8, 5.05 ERA for Philadelphia in 2022) and Boston’s Corey Kluber (10-10, 4.34 ERA for Tampa Bay) have combined for 512 career starts and a combined 3,090 2/3 innings.

Kluber has made 251 starts, throwing 1,586 2/3 innings, with Gibson at 261 starts and 1,504 innings.

The Orioles, who lost 2-1 in Florida versus Tampa Bay in the 2022 opener, are opening away from home for the fifth season in a row. They are 44-25 all-time in openers and 12-12 when they open on the road. The Orioles won on Opening Day eight straight seasons from 2011-2018, but are 1-3 in the last four opening games. At Fenway Park they lost 13-2 in the 2020 opener and won 3-0 on Opening Day 2021. Overall they are 9-3 in their last 12 season openers.

Baltimore and Boston have squared off on Opening Day 10 times, with the Orioles holding a 7-3 advantage (5-1 in Baltimore and 2-2 at Boston).