Good take that has me basically deleting what I failed to finish and send by this morning bc it's mostly in here.

Good stuff

This time last week, the Orioles dropped to 3-6 and were swept badly by the Pirates. A week later, they are 8-7, tied for 1st in the AL East, and have won 5 of their last 6 games. They have also won 3 of their first 5 series in 2026. They had won ZERO of their first 5 series in 2025.

Ban cars except for this one

Correct

Pretty good tbh

that oughta do it

Don’t be surprised to see Povich optioned for Kremer tomorrow

Jorge Mateo’s OPS is WHAT

This is … really good? Who knows whether he’ll sustain the command but everyone who said he didn’t have a viable fastball is wrong. That debate is over.

The Orioles end the week in a 3-way tie for 1st place in the East with the Yankees, who have lost 5 in a row, and the Rays, who have a -10 run differential.

Everyone’s mad at me but they did it

If the Orioles can win this without allowing more than one run in the 9th they’ll end up with a positive run differential.

Good lord Anthony Nunez

Big Pete, love to see it

Dang, Cade

Brandon Young is cruising through 6 scoreless with 1 hit, 5 Ks and 1 BB (of course Norfolk is getting no-hit)

BASALLO BOMB

Cade Povich's velocity was up a little bit across the arsenal and his fastball had great life (20 inches IVB). Great to see.

Ward (LF), Taveras (CF) and Cowser (RF) is probably the best defensive alignment for the Orioles.

Every weekend from April to September, dads from all over Brooklyn and Queens participate in the time-honored tradition of riding their kids to the McGolrick Park farmers market on their electric cargo bikes, nodding at other dads and saying things like “nice bike,” and “what kind of bike is that?”

Nice to have two guys on here.

Today more than ever.

The Orioles are now 5th in MLB (2nd in the AL) in wRC+ at 110 and 7th in MLB (2nd in the AL) in wOBA at .324. But it looks like their pendulum has swung toward getting a bit lucky. They’re 20th in MLB in xwOBA at .310 and have the 6th highest BABIP (.316).

Rico Garcia now has a 2.63 ERA over his 41 IP as an Oriole, with an xERA under 3 as well.

Hmm, things should get interesting if they’re both out for a stretch. Basallo will get a lot of time behind the plate and Alonso might be at 1B every day. Maybe Blaze and JJ get most of the 3B/2B starts and Mayo gets time at DH/1B.

System sweep - when was the last time we could say that?

JT Quinn went 4.2 scoreless for Frederick with 10 (!) strikeouts and no walks. That makes 9 innings with 1 ER, 16 strikeouts and 2 walks in his first two professional starts. Keep an eye on him.

That’s 9 strikeouts to 1 walk and 5 hits through Anthony Nunez’s first 7.1 MLB innings. 1.23 ERA, 2.87 FIP, 1.97 xFIP

I’ll take a 40-20 season from Gunnar

Apologies to Jeremiah Jackson. Good game, Jeremiah Jackson.

Rico mi Boricua

Cano-Rico-Núñez-Helsley?

Nice AB for Cowser there. Spat on a 1-2 changeup down and then turned on a sinker on the inside corner.

Late on back to back 92 MPH sinkers on 3-1 and 3-2 counts. Don’t love it.

Levi Wells with command is intriguing

I am performing the Wolfram Clench

Another Creed Willems bomb. He heard about Adley’s ankle.

Gunnar Henderson is already more than 1/3 of the way to his 2025 home run total in about 10% of the plate appearances.

Ready to get mad part 2

Since I may have contributed to some early Pete Alonso panic, I’ll just point out that even in his excellent season last year he hit .141/.242/.306 with a 51 wRC+ over the entire month of July (99 PA). He was also sub-.700 OPS in May (117 PA). Even very good hitters go through bad 2-week stretches.

Who’s the backup C tonight if Basallo gets hurt?

This is plausible enough in that in tracks directionally: slower swings but typically strong EVs, increased top% and sharply reduced pull in air% It’s not a *good* thing. It needs to be fixed. But I’d feel better about it being an approach issue vs. a physical issue.

Ready to get mad part 1

Not ideal tbh

Through his first 3 starts, Shane Baz has a 4.50 ERA with ERA estimators that range from 3.15 to 4.35. Results a little disappointing but otherwise about as expected. Hopefully the command improves. But

ah

“Big money star struggles” seems like weird framing for a 26-year-old making $5M on the first year of a pre-FA extension who went 5 innings and allowed 3 runs.

You don’t actually have to acquire and roster arms like Nick Raquet. Nothing against the guy, he’s shown a lot of resolve in his career, but he throws 90% sweepers and sliders because he has a 40-grade sinker and nothing else.

No walks for Cano through his first four appearances. Had a 123 Location+ coming into today. Command was really the secret to his success in 2023, with a 1.61 BB/9 and 109 Location+. Those numbers were 3.72 and 100 last year, respectively.