Leftovers for breakfast

Baseball’s regular season ended on Oct. 5. The World Series finished exactly a month later. The Arizona Fall League wrapped up two weeks ago.

There’s still the annual game of seeing how far the Thanksgiving leftovers can be stretched. And its spinoffs.

Does this smell right? Didn’t that used to be gravy? If that's a mushroom, why is it moving?

The sport has its own leftovers. Delicious nuggets from the Orioles’ public relations staff.

I’ll heat up another batch this morning.

* The Orioles turned 150 double plays, the second-most in the American League and fifth-most in the majors.

Jorge Mateo was involved in 91, tied with the Rangers’ Corey Seager for the most among major league shortstops. It was the most by an Orioles shortstop since J.J. Hardy had 99 in 2014.

Rougned Odor helped to turn 73 double plays, the third-most among American League second basemen and fifth-most among major league second basemen. It was the most by an Orioles second basemen since Jonathan Schoop had 132 in 2017.

Jordan Lyles tied his career high by inducing 18 double plays, which also tied for the fifth-most among AL pitchers. It was the most by an Orioles pitcher since Kevin Gausman (21), Dylan Bundy (18) and Wade Miley (18) in 2017.

Kyle Bradish led AL rookies and ranked second in the majors with 16. He was tied for 10th among all AL pitchers, and it was the most by an Orioles rookie pitcher since Zack Britton (25) in 2011.

* Lyles threw 94 pitches while going the distance Sept. 21 against the Tigers, the fewest by an Orioles pitcher in a nine-inning complete game since Sidney Ponson tossed 88 on May 20, 2004 versus the Rays.

The veteran right-hander led the staff in numerous categories this season, including 13 quality starts that were the most by an Oriole since Bundy and Alex Cobb (15) and Andrew Cashner (13) in 2018. His 32 starts were tied for third in the American League and tied for fifth in the majors, and were the most by an Oriole since Gausman (34) and Miley (32) in 2017.

* Lyles and Bradish were the first pair of Orioles starters to work at least eight innings in back-to-back games since Chris Tillman and Scott Feldman on July 21-22, 2013.

Lyles, Bradish and Dean Kremer were the first trio of Orioles pitchers to toss at least 8 2/3 innings in three consecutive games since Mike Mussina, Scott Erickson and Kevin Brown (not the MASN announcer) from Sept. 26-29, 1995.

* Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann broke camp as the No. 4 starter, giving the Baltimore native the home opener as his first assignment, but he made only 13 starts and had 15 total appearances while posting a 5.99 ERA and 1.480 WHIP in 73 2/3 innings.

Finding the strike zone wasn’t the issue.

Zimmermann walked only 12 batters for a 1.47 average per nine innings, ranking fifth in the American League and seventh in the majors among pitchers with a minimum of 73 innings.

The Loyola-Blakefield graduate’s 3.8 percent walk rate placed him in the 98^th percentile among major league pitchers per Statcast. He didn't issue a walk in five starts and had just one free pass in his last five appearances over 22 innings.

* Austin Hays became the seventh player in Camden Yards history, and the fourth Oriole, to homer into the second deck in left field during a June 7 game against the Cubs. He launched a pitch from Alec Mills 464 feet, 38 more than his previous career high.

It was the longest home run by an Oriole since Keon Broxton’s 474-foot shot on May 24, 2019 in Colorado.

What I didn’t remember was that Hays' ball had a hang time of 6.85 seconds, the longest on an Orioles home run in the Statcast era, surpassing the 6.73-second hang time of Renato Núñez's home run on July 20, 2019 against the Red Sox’s Rick Porcello.

* The Orioles went 45-36 at home for a .556 winning percentage, a .223-point improvement over last year’s winning percentage of .333.

That’s the largest increase in team history.

* The Orioles used 58 players, tied with the 2019 team for the second-most in club history. The record is 62 last season.

Catcher Robinson Chirinos was the oldest player on the opening day roster at 37 years and 307 days, and the only player born in the 1980s.

Thirteen players made their major league debuts, and 10 of them ended the season on the 40-man roster.

* The pitching staff recorded 15 shutouts this season, the fifth-most in the American League and tied for seventh-most in the majors.

The 15 shutouts marked the most since they had 16 in 1992. The single-season club record is 21 in
1961.

The Orioles totaled 11 shutouts in 384 games from 2019-21.