CHICAGO – Hello from The Friendly Confines, where it’s unseasonably warm for this time of year. The temperature reached the high 80s this afternoon, which is not the way it’s supposed to be in late September in Chicago. The wind will be blowing out to left field, though, so perhaps the Nationals can take advantage and actually hit the ball in the a

Manager Brandon Hyde isn’t ready or willing to contribute to the publication of his team’s obit. Not with more games to play, possession of the first wild card and champagne to chill. He’ll keep trying to clear the air of any negativity. Hyde isn’t blind to the season’s downward turn, but he retains full confidence in the Orioles' ability to get ho

With three straight losses and their last win coming Saturday at Detroit, the Orioles host the San Francisco Giants this afternoon in the finale of this series. With wins Tuesday by 10-0 and last night by 5-3, the Giants can sweep this series this afternoon. The Orioles (84-68) are 16 games over the .500 mark, the fewest over they have been since M

The Orioles’ penultimate home series concludes this afternoon with Heston Kjerstad in right field and Jackson Holliday getting back-to-back starts at second base. Coby Mayo is on the bench. Zach Eflin is making his eighth start with the Orioles. He’s posted a 2.22 ERA and 1.030 WHIP in 44 2/3 innings. Eflin has faced the Giants eight times (six sta

35,000 FEET OVER AMERICA – I always get a kick out of using this dateline. As you read this, I am (I hope) en route from New York to Chicago for the final road series of the season. The Nationals just got swept in ugly fashion by the Mets. Now they've got a four-game weekend series at Wrigley Field against a Cubs team that's technically still in th

It wasn't the most productive inning as the Orioles, after scoring once in the last of the third inning to tie San Francisco 1-1, had runners on second and third and no outs. They scored another run there, but just one more, letting yet another chance for a bigger inning pass by. The Orioles took a brief lead last night, 2-1 after the third, but by

Blame the injuries, inexperience and faulty execution. Blame the weather, traffic, sound system, advertising signs or astrological signs. Whatever suits the narrative. Whatever the imagination allows. Just be sure to include how the Orioles raised the bar too high and too quickly. They went from 83 wins in 2022 to 101 and a division title. They set

NEW YORK – If the Mets make the postseason – and it’s increasingly looking like they will – the Nationals will have played a significant supporting role in making it happen. Teams may not play as many intradivision games as they used to, but they still face each other 13 times a year. And the outcomes of those games can go a long way toward determi

Dean Kremer’s first pitch of tonight’s game sailed 397 feet to right field for a leadoff home run. Gunnar Henderson began the bottom of the first inning by flying out and slamming his bat to the ground in anger. Immediate signs of an Orioles’ turnaround weren’t detected. They’d flicker over the course of the night and burn out. A lead in the third

Having fallen four games out in the American League East race with 11 games left, the Orioles host San Francisco tonight in Game 2 of a three-game series at Oriole Park. The Orioles (84-67) were held to five hits and blanked 10-0 last night. They have been shut out twice in the last four games, three times in the last eight and eight times on the s