Zach Wilt: Some good news for the Orioles

Throughout the summer, there are days when I can't wait to sit down at the keyboard to share my thoughts on the Orioles and days in which I wish I had a bit more time to wait until the story turned positive. There's nothing more fun than blogging about your favorite baseball team when they're hitting extra-inning game-winning grand slams on the road, like I did this time last week. It's a bit more difficult after they've been no-hit and have just concluded an important road trip with just four wins in nine games. I'm not looking for any pity though, so don't feel bad for this blogger.

I'm sure it was a long plane ride back to Baltimore on Wednesday evening for the Birds. I have to assume that they're spending the off-day focusing on the next 10 consecutive home games against the A's, Mets and Twins rather than dwelling on how the road trip ended. The good news is the Orioles are 32-20 at home this season with 29 games remaining at Camden Yards. Nine of those come against American League East opponents, with 22 of their total remaining games against teams in their division. They've got some ground to make up, but the schedule will allow them to do so.

While the Blue Jays have surged as the hottest team in baseball following their tenth straight victory on Wednesday night, the Yankees have been sinking fast. New York was six games ahead of Toronto on August 1, and today they're half a game behind. This is the first time since 1993 that the Jays have led the division this late into the season.

Entering last night's games, the Jays rotation had posted the lowest ERA in baseball (2.07) this month after ranking 20th in July (4.06). The Yankees, meanwhile, have scored the sixth fewest runs in August and have hit just .198 as a team. These two clubs have 10 games remaining against each other, and the way they're both trending, Toronto could end up helping the Orioles grab a wild card spot by beating up on New York. Right now, the Birds are still just two games back of a playoff berth.

Tuesday night, Chris Tillman returned to the mound for the first time since injuring his ankle on July 29 during his best start of 2015. Tillman was on a roll leading up to the injury, posting a 0.38 ERA and holding opponents to a .092 batting average over three starts against the Tigers, Rays and Braves. His return was less than stellar, just 2 1/3 innings and five earned runs in the O's 6-5 loss to the Mariners. On the bright side, Kevin Gausman continued to show development as a starter with his third quality start in four outings. Despite the Birds' offensive performance, Gausman allowed just three earned runs over seven frames and set a new career high with eight strikeouts. He also retired nine consecutive Mariners hitters.

Alright you need some more good news? Here let me help.

Manny Machado is slashing .333/.360/.500 in 11 games this month. He's third in the American League in FanGraphs WAR (5.4) behind Mike Trout and Josh Donaldson. The 23-year-old O's third baseman is going to get some MVP votes. Chris Davis is absolutely locked in at the plate, as he's now on pace for 44 homers and 119 RBIs this season. Davis has homered in six of his last nine games.

Perhaps the most amazing news about this ballclub is that six of the 25 players on the Orioles opening day roster are no longer on the team at all (Tommy Hunter, Bud Norris, Ryan Webb, Everth Cabrera, Delmon Young and Travis Snider). Despite that roster turnover, Buck Showalter has managed this team to be within striking distance of a playoff spot halfway through August. It's certainly been an uphill battle that a lesser manager could have allowed to bury a team weeks ago.

Call me "Captain Sunshine" if you like, I know I just spent 650 words being overly positive about a team that just got no-hit, but it was a nice exercise for a fan that admittedly was feeling blue on this off-day following a no-hitter. I could have focused on the fact that the Rays moved ahead of the Orioles in the standings or highlighted the O's 15-19 record in one-run games and 25-36 record on the road, but there's still plenty of good news in Birdland.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.